Euphorbia characias - no bloom

Gardener_Joan

Planted a Euphorbia characias from a 5 lt pot and it has grown quite a bit  over the last year or so .
It  doesn't though get any of the dense bit clumps of lime flowers and it almost looks like it needs something extra to bloom and then gives up .

It does get a bit of  the afternoon sun but perhaps not as much as some of the other plants . Would they need a lot of depth ,sun or gravel ? and are they OK being moved to another location ?..

GardenerSuze

I think this can happen with Euphorbias. The stems without flowers will flower next year.

Arthur1

I think you would struggle to move it successfully.
Prune out the flowered stems down to ground level after flowering. It is a short lived perennial. If you leave one or two flowered stems un pruned it may self seed.

Plantminded

The flowering stems of Euphorbia characias are biennial - the ones that haven't flowered this year will do next year.  As @Kate 7 says, you'll need to prune this year's flowered stems down to ground level.  These will then give rise to more stems which will flower the year after next. 

There are several varieties of E. characias - yours is unlike the one I have, E.characias wulfenii which has the bright lime green flowers you mentioned.  Your plant seems to have a variegated margin - it could be E. characias "Silver Swan" which has predominantly white flowers.

They do grow better in full sun, but are happy on fairly shallow, dry and impoverished soil.  It would be better to move your plant in early autumn before it starts to develop its Spring flowers.  Keep it well watered if you move it, until the wet weather takes over!

Gardener_Joan

Plantminded said:

The flowering stems of Euphorbia characias are biennial - the ones that haven't flowered this year will do next year.  As @Kate 7 says, you'll need to prune this year's flowered stems down to ground level.  These will then give rise to more stems which will flower the year after next. 

There are several varieties of E. characias - yours is unlike the one I have, E.characias wulfenii which has the bright lime green flowers you mentioned.  Your plant seems to have a variegated margin - it could be E. characias "Silver Swan" which has predominantly white flowers.

They do grow better in full sun, but are happy on fairly shallow, dry and impoverished soil.  It would be better to move your plant in early autumn before it starts to develop its Spring flowers.  Keep it well watered if you move it, until the wet weather takes over!

Thanks @Plantminded
It does indeed look like E. characias "Silver Swan" in which case I was mistaken about the colour and shape of flowers. They flowers less lime green and different compared wulfenii which also means that the plant actually may be doing alright .
I will prune the old flowers later  and retain the current position for now .