Hi Hester - Sorry I can help with your problem. I'm just a beginner with COT. My lone Thai is in well draining mix in a clay pot. The pot is in full sun and has been getting LOTS of water from the rain lately. It's been blooming well.

Since you have so many, I have a question. On most plants, if I wanted to encourage branching I would pinch out the growing tip. However, I'm afraid to just cut off the end of a COT branch. How do you promote branching? - June

My COT had a lot of die back from the winter, so I cut it back to green stems. It came back really nice now and is very full. All the ones I have are in full sun and well draining. Most are in the ground. They get water 2 x a week at least from the sprinklers.

Katkin- Thanks for responding - I still don't know what is wrong with mine as I'm caring for them just the way you care for yours! However, I bought them this spring and haven't cut them at all so maybe I need to do that. I might experiment with one.
June - In the past, when my COT got tall and blooming at the top, I cut off the stem. Rooted it after letting it dry out and happily got new a new plant. It branched out on it's own. sometimes they will just send up new stems on their own too. My friend up north who grows them inside never cuts them and they start new stems on their own for her and are nice and full.
So, like you, I'm still learning about this thai variety.
Hester

Hester, I would love to see some pictures. I'm addicted to COT. I keep taking cuttings and sticking them in the ground so I have quite a few going now. Mostly I have the pink ones (since this is my favorite color), which bloom continuously. I did notice that the flowers got as small as the red ones when we didn't have any rain for awhile and my sprinkler wasn't working. Now with the rains they are back to normal size. I also have the taller ones with the much larger flowers in peach, peachy-pink, yellow, etc and I have noticed that those do not bloom as much--maybe 2 - 3 times a year.

As asked for!....
O

salmon milli in the garden

thai that I've had for awhile - different shades of red and pink

larger milli - red and blooming well

I have a few others but this is enough pics for today!
I just hope the big ones start blooming soon.
Hester

Hi Hester,

Thank you! I have your number 1 & 2...those are the ones that only bloom 2 - 3 times a year for me. I was going to try and take some pictures of mine but this evening, when it was finally not so hot, it started pouring!

Our COT never stop blooming but in summers their bloom fade quickly.. I can observe that your COTs are well fed and watered ...they will form beautiful foliage with this treatment.. some points for good COT blooming:

1) Root bound them
2) Least Nitrogen fertilizers
3) 3-4 days dry period between waterings
4) Well drained mix like that for succulents
5) Full sun

My father loves them, they are so easy plants here, even old dry cuttings left in the open sun for a month roots easily... thank God they dont form seeds here otherwise they would have become invasive..

Thank you, Izhar...By following your 5 points in the past, I have had good luck with COTs. But I wanted them to do well in the ground, but I can see from your advice and my past experience, that they won't do as well there.
So today's plan is to dig some of them up and put back in pots where I can control the water, root bound, etc.
I appreciate your thoughts!
Hester

Looking back at this old thread because my interest in COTs is growing!

Hester, how are yours doing now? Did you put them all back in pots? Did you get more blooms?

Katkin, how about yours? Still doing well?

Has anyone had more luck rooting cuttings?

Izhar or Anyone, what fertilizer would you use that is low/no nitrogen? I'm thinking some type of cacti fertilizer. But probably not a bloom booster(?). I wonder if Espoma "Epsom Plus" 0-0-22 that I got on clearance a few years ago would be good choice? Izhar said low nitrogen but I'm not sure if it is more phosphorus, more potassium, or a balance of both that is needed.

Anyone who is interested in getting some Thai hybrid crown of thorns, take a look at the ones being offered in this co-op linked below.

Carol in Jacksonville

Here is a link that might be useful: CROWN OF THORNS, Adeniums, Thailand plants co-op

Hi Carol,
Sorry to be late to this party, but I had cataract surgery and haven't been able to read, etc.
OK now and WOW, the colors I'm seeing are indescribable.(Still can't spell)
Anyhow, my COT stayed in pots and bloomed all winter. I'll see what happens this summer.
I've taken cuttings and have about 50% success rate. These are still one of my favorite plants.
BTW, where is Izhar? I miss his photos.
Hope you are well

A year later and I am still in love with COT. I have learned a little more about them. I read that the botanical name for the giant Thai hybrid Crown of Thorns is Euphorbia x lomi. It is a hybrid between the two Madagascar parent species Euphorbia lophogona and Euphorbia milii. The "Lomi" name comes from the first two letters of each parent.

The large Lomi are still hard to find except online. But last month, one of our local nurseries got them in. They didn't come with names - in fact they were marked "milii" - but one was in bloom and I liked the flower so it came home with me. I'm so excited to finally have one like Hester's and I will follow Izhar's recommendations above. The plant came in a crazy 3-gallon pot - waaaaaaay overpotted - so the first thing I did was reduce it to something more appropriate. The soil was very heavy, too, so I changed that out. It has leafed out and has more flower buds so I think it is happy. I will post some photos when I get time.

But here's another interesting thing. The Lomi are starting to creep into the big box stores - yes, all the way up here in Jacksonville. One of the local Home Depots just got in large, fancy succulent dish gardens and guess what? Smack in the center of each dish is a Lomi! The dish gardens are pretty, but they run around $24.98 I think, and I don't want any of the plants except the one in the middle! So I finally got to see lots of them in person but I didn't bring any of those home.

Does anyone have plants to get a COT this year?

Carol

Crown of thorn in full bloom

That's strange, because I found both of my Thais in big box stores. The pink/red one grew way too fast and got way too big, but it was gorgeous. The yellow one isn't quite as big, but still pretty. I just got a dark red one from a friend. I miss the pink/red one, but don't want to replace it because I have no room for it. I actually like the little ones better, especially the yellows. I used to collect different Euphorbias and many of the COT relatives were very strange and beautiful.

Just in general, over fertilization of any plant species grown for its blooms will tend to cause the plant to grow vegetatively-leaves and stems. Nor would I believe the overused analogy that phosphorus is a "bloom booster". If anything, too much P will cause plants to stretch, to lengthen the distance between their nodes. If this is wanted, that factoid can be useful, but usually this is not what folks are after. I know in my own doings, I've had to watch the P just as surely as the N if I didn't want to stretch everything out and boost green growth at the expense of flowers, this across a broad array of species. Don't know nuttin' about C of T, except that like all Euphorbias, they are tough customers, drought-tolerant and built to last.

+oM

This thread is relevant for me, so I gotta bump it. I yanked off a rather tallish (4'ft) COT from a friend's yard. It was dried off and barely had leaves. I placed it in a nice potting soil, and now it has been making a lot of leaves, and JUST leaves. 4 months later, still no blooms, and that was all summer (now we're hitting autumn). It gets afternoon sun. I don't know what's its problem.

Someone here said taller ones don't bloom much. Maybe that is the case? It's so unfortunate btw, cos my one is nicely tall.

E. Groeg, in my experience, the big ones bloom constantly if they are in the right place. I have a Thai red and yellow and the yellow used to bloom continuously until I moved here, where I have no full sun. The red one bloomed all spring/summer also until I moved. they like full sun. But they both put on a show in the spring that lasts well into the summer, so I'm not complaining.