Crotons are popular houseplants you can typically find at your local home improvement store or nursery. They are known for their vibrant appearance. Their leaves come in many shapes, colors, and color patterns. If you’re lucky and have the right conditions, you can get them to flower as well. In this post, I’ll address how often do Croton bloom?
Is it Rare for a Croton to Flower
Crotons can be grown indoors and outdoors. Crotons grown outdoors should flower provided they get enough light. Crotons can only be grown in zones 10 and 11 though. I’ve heard of some surviving in zone 9 if you can protect them a bit during the cold. If you live in a colder zone, you either treat them as an annual or bring them inside for the winter.
Crotons grown indoors can also flower, but it is somewhat rare. The conditions have to be perfect. The temperature should be between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which shouldn’t be too difficult for most homes. They also need a lot of bright sunlight. The optimal light can be much harder to achieve for many people. You will most likely need a south-facing window. If you don’t have a southern window, you’ll need to supplement with a grow light to get blooms, and unfortunately, the small purple grow lights that really popular aren’t going to cut it.
I also have a theory based only on my own experience with various Crotons. I think the maturity and size of the Croton affect whether it will bloom. In my case, one of my oldest plants is a Gold Dust Croton, probably seven-plus years old, and it blooms. It’s right next to a Croton Petra that is much younger and it does not bloom.
How Often Do Croton Bloom
It depends on whether the Croton is indoor or outdoor and other conditions. When the conditions are right, your Croton can bloom all year round. My indoor Croton flowers almost constantly all year. Granted, not every stem is blooming all the time, but it seems like I almost always have some blooms. In the summer, there are definitely more flowers, which makes sense.
If you want to encourage your Croton to bloom, first make sure it’s getting enough light. Then you can try to use fertilizer to encourage blooming. In general, I use an all-purpose balanced fertilizer for all of my houseplants. However, you can get fertilizers with a higher ratio of phosphorous. Phosphorous is the nutrient that promotes blooming and fruiting.
What Do Croton Flowers Look Like
Croton flowers are cute and small. Some people call them, gasp, unremarkable. They grow along a stem and there are typically many flowers along a single stem. There are male and female flowers where the male flowers kind of look like small firework explosions and the females have no petals but three stigmas sticking out. See the photo below for an example of Croton flowers.
How Long Do Croton Blooms Last
The actual blooms of the Croton flowers don’t last long at all. Maybe a few days to a week, at least for my indoor Croton. What’s left is the stem and some little bulbs, which can last for a long time. The flowers drop off pretty rapidly and they are pretty sticky. It can actually be annoying they leave sticky residue all over the shelf where I have the Croton.
Should I Cut Croton Flowers
This a completely subjective. It’s really about your tastes. You will not hurt your Croton if you cut the flowering stem off. If you aren’t trying to create seeds by mating the male and female flowers, then you don’t really have a reason to need the flowers. If you like the way the flowers look but want to cut the stem after the bloom that works too.
Has your Croton bloomed? Let us know in the comments.
I'm a long time plant lover on the quest to happily coexist with as many plants as I can. Let's grow!