Re: Teucrium fruticans

At 02:41 PM 1/26/1999 PST, you wrote:
>I bought two, 2-gallon teucrium fruticans last winter, in full bloom, and
planted them in 
>front of my porch.  The white stems glow nicely at night time when 
>you come up the front walkway.
>
>Both shrubs have grown nicely over the year and look healthy.  
>However, one has just a few flowers and the other has none whereas 
>they were both covered with flowers already at this time last year.
>
>Am I being impatient?  Perhaps  they were in bloom early last year 
>because they were trucked in from a wholesale supplier in a warmer 
>area?  Or, is there something they may be lacking that is inhibiting 
>bloom?  
>
>I would very much appreciate anyone's advice.
>
>By the way, what part of the world do these teucrium come from?  
>
>Thanks,
>
>Rachel Baker
>Berkeley, CA

Rachel:

If bloom period is as tricky with Teucrium as it is with Salvia, there can
be a multitude of causes:  fertilization (including soil type), watering,
maturity (how large is the plant, and is it potbound), growing temperature,
sunlight, and photoperiod (season).

I get strange results with my plants, based on these factors.  A lot has to
do with temperatures during the 3 - 4 months prior to bloom.  This year I
got my first blooms on Salvia divinorum, and extended bloom on S.
wagneriana, both unusual.  Both John Sorenson (Sacramento) and I got
unusually large amounts of bloom on S. canariensis late spring (I can rarely
get mine to bloom at all).

The best conditions for flowering difficult-to-bloom plants are a good
mid-season growth, then a slowdown going into the bloom period with the
plant about to get potbound in a medium to large pot (relative to its normal
size).  If you can get the plant to synchronize with the seasonal weather
pattern, it will bloom.  The trick is to figure out this variable, and the
fun of having a collection is observing which plants choose to bloom under
what seasonal weather patterns.

T. fruticans comes from the Western Mediterranean, and is hardy in zone 8 USDA.

Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, NC  27406
336-674-3105
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