Very often, you'll find that clerks don't know roots from shoots & often dispense fragments of advice they overheard in the store or that just sound good. If you want to know if they really know their stuff, challenge them a little with another question or two, point out an inconsistency in the advice, or just simply ask them how they came to the conclusion they offered. Their reply will tell you much more than their advice about their qualifications. There is nothing wrong with fertilizing in winter, or maintaining a certain level of fertilizer in the soil. If your soil allows you to water freely, you can fertilize at low dosages EVERY time you water, even in the winter. Going back upthread a little .... If I had asked the question about why my plants aren't blooming during the winter, the advice to fertilize or give them more light would be entirely inappropriate, because they GET good light & they get fertilized @ every watering. I could just as easily cause my plants harm as do them some good if I took the offhand advice. Back to fertilizing: If your soil is slow, so you are forced to water in sips to prevent root rot, fertilizing in winter can be a very BAD thing. There would already be salts accumulating in the soil, originating from fertilizer and irrigation water. These salts CONTINUE to accumulate unless you flush the soil when you water. The effect of these salts is they make it commensurately more difficult for the plant to absorb both water and the nutrients dissolved in water as salt levels rise (They interfere with osmosis on a cellular level). From what I said, you can see that the advice to fertilize should never be given w/o some knowledge of how you are maintaining cultural conditions that affect salt levels and at least a GUESS at the likelihood of how much salt is in the soil now. IF you've fertilized every 4 weeks, it's almost assured that salt levels in your soil are high, unless you're growing in a fast (free-draining) soil. It also sounds like the plant is getting plenty of sun to assure budset when the plant is in the appropriate point in it's growth cycle (It's likely setting buds now). Some spaths bloom more continuously than others, but they all tend to bloom more prolifically in spring & early summer. That is genetically programmed into the plant, and no amount of fertilizer will change that. Additionally, you cannot make the plant grow MORE or grow Better or make it BLOOM more by supplying nutrients that are already present in adequate supply. It is only by increasing those nutrients that are deficient and LIMITING growth that you can improve growth (Search "Liebig's Law of the Minimum". How long has it been since the plant was repotted? Root-bound conditions slow extension. o/a growth and vitality, and can interfere significantly with bloom induction. Al

Wow Marie!! Those are some beautiful COTS!!! I see you have a "new" addition to your beautiful Adeniums :o)...You can never have to many addictions when it comes to plants, lol... Thanks for posting!!

Thank you so much to all my friends in this forum with very nice commends. Mike, many of my plants died too, with so many unknown reasons. I didn't show you those....hehehe... Kathi and Juliebees...I don't use any special fertilizer. I love Osmocote for my desert rose and crown of thorn...everything I have gets Osmocote...twice per year.. Miracle grow mix about once every 3 weeks. More of my collection on this link. CROWN OF THORN COLLECTION http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cacti/msg0518211326868.html Copy and paste if the link doesn't work. Marie

I believe there is a good article on how to get AV's to bloom again in the FAQ section (main forum page, above the threads). What happens with plants that have just been bought, they were fertilized etc to produce maximum bloom for the 'sale window'. Most plants need to recover from that energy expenditure. Using a balanced fertilizer (not a 'bloom booster') you should be able to achieve near constant bloom, though not the same bouquet style as when you bought it. Show plants with lots of blooms have typically been disbudded for months, along with a (tricky) repotting, fertilizing and light schedule, designed to bring the plant to maximum potential. Oftentimes they get chopped up and re-started after a show, rather than being nursed back. Karin