My dracaena fragrans is blooming for the first time after about 7 years! I didn't even know they bloomed! It's VERY fragrant......almost too much.
I didn't know a corn plant bloomed
Hello BDunn, this is facinating, I didn't know they flowered either! Thanks for the picture.
Mine bloomed once several years ago and hasn't since...it was almost sickly sweet. The thing is now about 7 feet tall, Do you know if you can cut it back and have it regrow from the stalk/stump/whatever. When should this be done???wait till spring or do it now? Thanks, Steve
Steve, I did some research and you can cut it back, but I found out that if you leave the flowers alone they will turn to red berries so I'm going to let mine go for now. But you can cut it back now or let it go till after the berries. The research I found suggested just cutting back (or off) the flowering part then the plant will start sprouting new leaves and keep on going.
I do know you can cut a corn plant wa-a-ay back (meaning cutting the stalk) if you want and it will start sprouting new news, but they do grow slowly.
Thanks, the thing is touching the ceiling in my plantroom so before long it's gonna get nicknamed "shorty". Steve
I have a dracaena fragrans here in Vieques that I've "cloned" dozens of times, with 100% success and very little effort. I have lopped off pieces of the plant ranging from 2' all the way up to 10'. I strip off the bottom leaves (6" to 12" up the stalk), powder wth Root-tone F, and stick them into a hole with a few of those water-absorbing crystals and some Pro-mix. The worst I've done (on really tall pieces) is to lose most or all existing leaves and have to wait for the stalk to re-sprout (top and several places on the side. The best (even on some very tall pieces) is to lose few or none of the existing leaves --this takes steady irrigation. Typical is a strongly rooted plant within a matter of weeks, excellent growth within a month or two.
Here's the plant when I bought the house in Feb '03.
You can see the same plant here (different angle) after being trimmed back to almost nothing (multiple stalks each time) on several different occasions. Every single trimming (especially the first, where I took the thing right down to 2', and had about ten stalks to re-plant) has helped me fill in some other part of the landscaping, AND has in a very short time ended up improving the appearance of the parent plant.
Of course, we have the benefit of constant warmth , lots of sun and consistent rain or irrigation. But it's been so easy, I'd guess you could replicate my results indoors with enough sunlight.
All that said, I have not yet seen the thing flower, had no idea they did that --hats off to you for showcasing yours.
Now you know why the species name is "fragrans". Once I found a blooming one in a store by following my nose. Sickly sweet, almost cloying up close, but I found the fragrance pleasing at a distance (similar to how the fragrance of daturas strikes me -- great in small, wafting doses.)
I've read before that the best way to get many tropicals to bloom is to stress them. Trick their biologies into survival stress and they go into reproduction mode.
-Joe
So if I stand in front of mine waving a machette and yelling, do you think it'll burst into bloom? Steve
Lucky you! That is a Beautiful plant! You should upload your picture to Plant Files for this plant: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54287/
Dracaena's can be cut back and you can root the top for another plant!
BDunn mine just finished flowering recently in my plant room, but didn't get any berries, just dried up after it was done. If yours is indoors like mine you might try pollenating some of the flowers by hand.
- Tom
LOL Steve! Sit a bottle of Roundup next to it and make evil laughing noises every time you're near it for a few weeks.
-Joe
Hummm, Yeah I like that idea too Joe. But, how do you stress the thing? I've been real slack on watering it at times but that didn't produce any blooms. Its been so long since it did bloom I don't remember what treatment it got prior to blooming. Other than not watering it what can ya do to stress a plant. I thought about letting it hear the daily news broadcast but I only want to stress it, not drive it nuts. Thanks Joe, Steve
I remember having a similar reaction back in school, and was gently chided by a botany professor who reminded me just what 'angiosperm' means!
Michael
Letting it get rootbound, depriving it of light (easy enough to do up north), keeping it in a cold room, not feeding it enough. My stepmom has a bamboo palm, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57767/ , that is in bloom right now d/t the coolness of its winter home, an unheated bedroom.
A consistant 50-55 degrees in cave-like lighting seems to have wierded it out. :)
-Joe
OK, that makes sense, certainly a better suggestion than my sons remark of hanging my picture from the leaves.
LOL! I have a night blooming cereus , epiphyllum oxypetalum , that has so far refused to bloom. On the advice of folks in here I am letting it starve and get rootbound, and my own twist is verbally threatening to bring it out into the house with my herbivorous cats if it doesn't cough up a flower soon. :)
In a mock-German accent (with apologies in advance to our fine German gardener brothers and sisters here at DG):
vee haff vays off making you bloom!
-Joe
I like you Joe, you understand who's boss with these Plant things...my next plan is hanging my kids Ipod in the branchs and letting it play Rap and Hip Hop, if that don't stress it, I give up. Good luck and don't let those slacker plants get to ya. Steve
Joe the KGB tactics are of course an old stand-by to get any plant to bloom, but with your epi's, you can also trick even young plants that aren't root bound into blooming. Change it to a distinctly cooler place and withold water for a while. You want it to start looking gaunt so the center rib is very prominent but of course not all the way to full leaf shrivel.
After it's covered in buds you can start watering again. Two more things that help: 1) More sun during the growing season, not full sun midday, but maybe some direct sun early or very late in the day so the leaves get a very slight reddish tinge to them. 2) Fertilizing in the growing season before you start to withold water.
I trick mine into blooming twice a year this way. :^)
- Tom
Tom,
Thanks for the tips about the night blooming cereus.
Also, I'm afraid I'm not diligent enough to hand pollinate the corn plant, but I will wait and see if berries develop. Mine is indoors.
Thank you Tom!!! :) I shall begin molesting my epi this spring! :)
-Joe
Joe here's the way I do it in spring: First, our last guaranteed frost date is May 1st, usually it's more like April 15th, and the crazy-guy-pushing-too-hard date is April 1st. The epi is strored warm over winter, then it's put out under the cover of a high deck in the first week in April, where it can get maybe some light frosts but no problem if it's under cover where the dew can't settle on it. I stopped watering a couple weeks or so before I put it out. Make sure it gets no rain water for a month to 6 weeks, depending on what it can take in your conditions. You should see buds just starting at the end of that time. You can also fertilize indoors in spring while it's actively growing, although I usually don't bother.
Oh, and don't forget the KGB treatment!
- Tom
It's pretty common for plants under stress to bloom. After all, if they think they are going to die they want little chiluns out there to advance the species.
It's common in nature, too, and although it's a reliable way to get flowers, the flowers tend to be weak, and they are built with energy stolen from an already-stressed plant. In the end, not a happy combination.
Works, though. Probably better to give it ideal conditions and get better blooms. Now, where is that plant that loves a drafty basement??
–ms
Some years back I had what I considered a beautiful specimen of a corn plant in our sun room. For days I would smell soothing rather stinky and could not locate it. Finally the bloom was large enough to locate the stink and it went out the door. Never wanted one since. Guess "fragrant" is in the nose of the smeller. heheheh
MS there is a difference between death stress and normal seasonal indicator "stress". With epi's, if you don't let them get cooler and extra dry then you could go forever with "ideal" conditions and never get one single bloom, no matter how root-bound or how much bloom-booster you use. It's a normal part of the plant's life cycle and that is why this one is a succulent: to store the water neccessary to survive the normal yearly dry period that also indicates it's time to bloom. :^)
J, cool picture!
- Tom
This message was edited Jan 5, 2008 10:49 AM