purple smoke tree not flowering

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jpolk34 Hattiesburg, MS(Zone 8a) May 30, 2007

I planted a purple smoke tree I bought from Whitman Farms sometime in late January when it was still a stick. Around mid-March it started filling out with leaves and the color was beautiful. Then it started to form the seed heads that the pink plumes come from and I was anticipating the beautiful blooms that followed, but nothing happened. The seeds just formed and got a little wispy looking and fell off after a couple of weeks, no beautiful pink plumes! My question is: What happened? Does it take a season or two to produce the big pink plumes? This is not a small shrub either, its about a 5' tall field grown small tree. Its planted in basically a topsoil & sand mix with some Osmocote incorporated in with it. I know the plant files say this blooms in late spring to early summer but with the seedheads gone I see no indication that its going to bloom again. Anybody have any thoughts as to why this happened? Thanks
Jeff

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jpolk34 Hattiesburg, MS(Zone 8a) May 30, 2007

Oh, and its in full sun as well and its turned mostly green now, but I heard it does that when the temp. gets hot and we're already having days in the upper 90's.

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Resin Northumberland, United Kingdom(Zone 9a) May 30, 2007

Probably root damage when it was dug and moved meant that it wasn't able to support the water/nutrient needs of the flower buds, so it aborted them. Once the roots have re-grown, it'll start storing energy for flowering; that could take anything from one to a few years, depending on how bad the root damage was.

Resin

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masgard Caseyville, IL(Zone 6a) May 30, 2007

jpolk&Resin, I just got a small smoke tree with multiple stems for Mother's Day and was going to place it in the center of a large perenniel bed. What are you talking about when you say it turns green ?Do all of them turn green in summer, or just some cultivars?Does the amount of sun make a difference in the color? I just ran out to see which one I got and there is no tag , now I remember that this one wasn't marked, but it was the healthiest looking tree in the bunch.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) May 30, 2007

Mine always stay purple all summer regardless of heat (even through our nice 115F heat wave last year). I think humidity can sometimes be a factor too (we don't have any). I know that there are other purple/burgundy shrubs such as Sambucus 'Black Beauty' that won't keep their nice color in a hot humid climate but will keep the color out here where it's hot but not humid, so maybe the smoke tree is like that too. Different cultivars may behave differently too, there are several purple/burgundy leaved cultivars out there. Sun can also make a difference, I think these need to be in full sun to have the best color

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