Ceanothus not flowering

bapw163

Hello, when our garden centre came round and supplied plants for our new patio, one of the plants was a beautiful Ceanothus with loads of lovely blue flowers.
The blue flowers dropped off in the summer but the plant continued to grow and be healthy.
However, no buds came through this spring. I wondered if it was because I didn't take the time to prune, so I pruned the plant right back to what you see in the attached picture. Still, no sign of the lovely blue flowers. 
I have fed the plant, kept it well waterred. It lives in a bright garden mostly i the shade, and like I said, has looked very healthy indeed but alas not with any flowers.
Any help gratefully received.

Jellyfire

It might be too early for flowering for depending where you are and which variety it is, no sign of buds on mine yet, but also they do not really need or respond well to pruning, so Im afraid you may have set it back and not get any this year, especially if you pruned it hard

bapw163

Jellyfire said:

I think it is early for flowering for most Ceanothus depending where you are, no sign of buds on mine yet, but also they do not really need or respond well to pruning, so Im afraid you may have set it back and not get any this year, especially if you pruned it hard

Agh. yes I've cut it back completely. Thing is, everyone else in the area has this abundance of blue right now but there were no signs of flowers at all on mine when I chopped it back last month. Oh dear. Live and learn.

Jellyfire

It looks as if it is coping fairly well so far so might be ok, but I speak from experience of once having pruned one, which never really recovered and eventually gave up the ghost

punkdoc

By pruning in Spring, you will probably have removed all this years potential flowers.

TheGreenMan

I've just been out to look at mine.  Also new to me last summer.  I chopped it a little before I knew you really shouldn't. I took one long stem off it as it was poking into another plant.

South facing with a bit of wall shade. North East England.

If it's because you pruned it too much then probably it will flower next year.  It looks healthy enough.

AnniD

If it is mostly in the shade, even in a bright garden, that may also have an effect on flowering. Ceanothus prefer full sun  

punkdoc

Agree, must have sun.

robairdmacraignil

I have about six of them in the garden here and I think they are different varieties with some having obvious differences in the way the grow and all seeming to prefer different times to flower. I think its a nice feature that they are all not flowering at the same time. If you set back the flowering a bit by pruning then I would not be surprised if it just flowered a bit later than it would have done otherwise.

Happy gardening.

Busy-Lizzie

Mine isn't flowering yet, but it has tight buds, can't see the blue yet though. I think you've cut off all the future buds for this year.

bapw163

TheGreenMan said:

I've just been out to look at mine.  Also new to me last summer.  I chopped it a little before I knew you really shouldn't. I took one long stem off it as it was poking into another plant.

South facing with a bit of wall shade. North East England.

If it's because you pruned it too much then probably it will flower next year.  It looks healthy enough.

Yes that's the thing, it's been really helpful but no flowers at all beyond last spring.