My portulaca bonsai is growing like a weed, but no blooms. How do I trim it back and should I do that?
Portulaca
Here is today's picture. Still no blooms this year! Will it perhaps bloom next spring?
It has been a year, the tree is getting stronger and healthier all the time, but still no blooms?
Do you think it ever will?
That is a Portulacaria afra. http://plantsdatabase.com/go/350/index.html
I have two of them for many, many years already. One in filtered light on the patio, and the other in hot sun. Neither has ever bloomed.
And yours looks much more mature than mine. Mine is big but the trunk is not nearly as thick. Guess we'll just have to wait. Do you do much pruning on yours?
Mine are so slow-growing I rarely have to do any snipping. Some years none at all.
Portulacaria afra rarely bloom in "captivity". I have seen plants over 8 feet high in the ground that have never bloomed. When you consider that they are native to southern Africa, it seems natural that they require a great deal of heat and light to induce flowering. I suspect they are most likely to flower only when they have been subjected to a serious dry season, something which most of us are not prepared to do to our plants! Here is a quote I found on the subject:
" In South Africa P. afra bears these star-shaped flowers in late spring and summer after the rains, but seldom blooms in the western U.S., Hawaii, or Florida. The flowers are rare in cultivation, but if kept very dry the older [and presumably unpruned] plants may flower after rain.
In 1947 it was "reported that in the vicinity of San Diego, flowering frequently occurs in October and November, following the first rains, and is especially likely in old plants that have been completely dry for several months." A couple who had plants in Solana Beach were said to "water their plants about twice a month, and the plants flower regularly every summer." "
The website this info came from is: http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Portulacaria.html#Flowers
which also has a lot of other information about this fascinating plant.
If you truly want flowers, I suggest trying one of the large trunked Crassula species - Crassula ovata, obliqua etc. Again though, the process of pruning will tend to remove the parts of the plant that flower, since flowers are produced at the tips of shoots between the terminal leaves of each branchlet. Best of luck, Kaelkitty.