Trumpet Vines Aren’t Blooming, How to Solve
Sue in Canton says, “Hi, I have a question about the trumpet vines. Years ago, and I don’t even remember because they’ve been in so long, we bought three and I don’t know at the time when we got them if they had bloomed or not, but we have two large Trellises so we planted them very strategically so that you know one on one side one on the other and that the other one would grow up the middle and cover them. They’ve done beautifully, except they have never bloomed.”
That’s got enough sun, so it may be lacking one of the ingredients it needs. You can use a triple super phosphate, it’s a really high middle numbered fertilizer. It’s a granular that it will slowly release into the soil every time it gets a little bit of moisture.
You can do it now, and then do it again in the spring. Just work the granular into the soil, down through the mulch, water it really well. It’ll take some of that Phosphorus this time of year and help develop the root system, and then do it again in the spring and when there’s an abundance of that nutrient in the soil, it encourages it to bloom.
The other thing you can do, especially to older vines, and you don’t want to do this too close to where the vine goes into the ground, you can stick a shovel on the ground a few feet away from where the vine is in a couple spots. What that does is it stresses the tree or vine and that stress will actually encourage the blooms to set. You don’t want to do it right now. You’ll do it next spring.
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