How to grow Cerbera and make it flower

Q: I purchased Cerbera manghas - Enchanted Incense a year ago. As you see from the photo, it's doing great however, no blooms. I fertilize properly and very often and use worm castings for micronutrients. Yes it's not "your" fertilizer, but my plumerias, that are also in pots they are over 5 feet tall and blooming like crazy. I don't see any inflows coming on the Cerbera at all and it is hot and humid here in North Carolina, so it's happy but no sign of blooming. What is your advice?

A: Top Tropicals first brought Cerbera manghas into the US plant market a few years ago, it was recommended to us by our friend, plant taxonomist John Mood who visited Thailand, and among other exotic plants noted this fragrant beauty. Since then we've been successfully growing this plant, it has become one of everybody's favorites.

Generally speaking, Cerbera culture is very similar to Plumerias. These plants are closely related. So if you know how to grow Plumeria, you sure will succeed with Cerbera. Hot and sunny location, well-drained mix, moderate water and bloom boom fertilizer will do the trick. However, we have noticed a few distinctive features that make this plant somewhat challenging at times.

1) Flowers

For past years, we've been studying what triggers its flowering. Sometimes these plants start flowering in 1 gal pot, 1 ft tall. Other times a large developed tree 5-6 ft tall, in 5-7 gal pot, grows beautiful foliage with no signs of flowers. Eventually all of them bloom, no matter how stubborn they are, it's just some individual plants start flowering sooner than others, all grown in the same conditions.
One of our plants in the ground, a well-branched tree, was covered with flowers for a few months, but only on the 3d year after planting. Before that, it only produced a few random blooms. Others bloomed in pots at very young age.
The following factors benefit to Cerbera flowering:
- full sun at least 10 hours a day
- hot temperatures above 85F
- regular water but not heavy rains
- regular fertilizer - Bloom Booster type
- very good drainage and drying out before waterings. If root ball stays moist, the plant may look healthy but won't set flower buds. Keeping on a dry side will encourage flowering. Very similar to Jasmines: they bloom like crazy in April while it's hot and dry in Florida, but once our summer rainy season starts, they reduce blooming.

We highly recommend using Sunshine Megaflor bloom booster or SUNSHINE Pikake in combination with micro-element supplements Sunshine Honey (B-Mo) and Sunshine Superfood (complex micro) that induce flowering. Dry and granulated fertilizers may not supply exactly what a plant needs: certain elements that trigger flowering may be missing. Sunshine Boosters formulas are scientifically balanced, they contain precise amounts of nutrients needed for setting flowers. Besides, excessive salts from regular dry fertilizers create nutrient lock up that may retard plant metabolism; with liquid amino-acid based Sunshine boosters, plants consume the whole menu of elements without building them up in the soil.

2) Fruit

Fruit of Cerbera are very pretty and cover the tree after profuse flowering. To inexperienced eye they may look very much like small mango or avocado fruit - so make sure kids or visitors don't try to eat them! Cerbera seeds are extremely poisonous.

3) Leaves

If you ever grew Passiflora or Milkweed, you know how leaves can be eaten by caterpillars overnight. This may happen to Cerbera too, as we discovered. In Florida environment this exotic plant doesn't have natural predators for protection from certain insect species that may feed on it. So watch out and if noticed first signs of leaves damage - its time for insect control.
Other than that, Cerbera foliage is usually beautiful and colorful, here in Florida it looks much healthier than that of Plumerias often affected with rusty residue during high humidity months.

Hope this helps. The Cerbera fragrance is enchanting, it is worth the efforts and waiting!

Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster

Fertilizing in Winter

Q: I have many tropical plants in my garden, both in the ground and in pots. I realize it is wintertime and some of them, the Hydrangea, Hibiscuses, and roses are in bloom but the rest of them seem wilty and droopy. Is it alright to fertilize them now, or should I wait for a few days? I have an all purpose tropical fertilizer and a 20-20-20 also. Please advise what to do.

A: During wintertime, tropicals may suffer from low temperatures and lack of sunshine which causes droopy leaves, and leaf loss.
Regardless of the cause and plant condition, you should NEVER apply traditional dry fertilizers during cool months. When cold, dry fertilizers (EDTA-chelated) may create nutrient lock up in soil and damage the roots. Dry fertilizers (both granulated and water-soluble) can be used only during hot season - when min temperatures stay above 65F for at least a week in a row, and daytime temperatures are over 75-80F. During hot, active growth season plant metabolism increases. This provides less chance for a chemical root burn, as the nutrients are used up quickly.

However, liquid fertilizers, as long as they are amino-acid based, can be used year round. From our own experience last winter, we discovered that fertilizing sickly looking plants (with signs of cold damage and root issues) with Sunshine Boosters actually revived those plants. Sunshine Boosters even brought back to life some hopeless specimens. Take a look at this gardenia that grows in our garden (picture above). See full article.
In your case, it would be beneficial to use a mild formula of liquid boosters in combination with Sunshine Epi -a natural plant hormone that boost their growth and helps to cope with cold-, temperature- and low-light-related stress.

These are the products we recommend:
- Sunshine Bombino - add to every watering
- Sunshine Epi - twice a month as foliage spray

Since you grow plants in pots, feeding program is especially essential, because plants are limited with a container size where roots can't reach out to more food in the outer soil. In professional nursery set up with injector irrigation systems, container plants are fed daily (depending on season, more than once a day) with every watering. This is why greenhouse plants are so healthy looking.
So feel free to give your plants Sunshine boosters with every watering, dozing according to the label. During cold period, plants need less frequent watering, so fertilizer input will be balanced accordingly, it will depend on temperature and plant metabolism.