There are several things that can cause a lack of flowers.

• pruning at the wrong time - iochroma blooms on new growth, so it should be pruned in October

• environmental factors - iochroma prefers afternoon shade in hot summer areas, and the heat and humidity could be a problem, but even shade plants bloom better with some sun.

• nutrient imbalance - too much nitrogen (perhaps seeping from the lawn) can produce leaves at the expense of flowers, but too little phosphorus in the soil can also result in lack of blooms

Thanks - I agree with those in principle. I don't haircut-prune, so there's always new growth around. I'm not one to fertilize much, but decomposing organic matter should provide sufficient P (supplemented with an occasional sprinkling of milorganite) to bloom - all of the neighboring plants bloom up a storm :-)

That leaves the sun/shade question. I don't think I've ever encountered a shade-loving plant that wouldn't bloom in the sun. Usually they just keel over from exhaustion or sunburn, neither of which seems to be afflicting my iochroma.

I'll apply some balanced fertilizer when circumstances allow, and see if that does anything. If not, I may try to propagate from cuttings and see if a shadier place suits it better (I don't have many shady places that can take on a tall plant, but I'll see what I can do).

I wish I could have found some info about iochroma. It's a tropical plant that grows in the Andes mountains, so can have problems with temperatures above 90ºF. There are lots of sites talking about it, but no one mentions problems with it. The info I gave was from a site about why plants, in general, don't flower.

I have never grown Iochroma. However, I wonder if it is a fertilizer hogger like other blooming tropical plants that I grow like bougainvilleas, hibiscuses and brugmansias. Those suckers will not bloom if you do not provide their high water and fertilizer requirements.

Omar