Question
Jim --
I live in Queens, NY and have a weeping golden chain tree. The tree is about 15 years old. It seems happy (that is, it's grown larger in the 12 years I've been here), but doesn't flower much. Some years it doesn't flower at all. Should I fertilize it? When? With what?
Thanks, Mike

Answer
I think fertilizer will help increase the flowering. Proper fertilization should be done annually to encourage blooming and increased healthy growth. When choosing a fertilizer for your flowering trees you can use either a liquid or powdered form; they provide equal benefits to the trees.

Apply fertilizer in the fall or early spring. Choose a fertilizer that is a bloom booster for your flowering trees, to increase the bloom production in the spring. This type of fertilizer is a 5-30-5 blend, which is a compound blend of 5 percent nitrogen, 30 percent phosphorous and 5 percent potassium. The phosphorous promotes flowers. Nitrogen will promote foliage. So you want a fertilizer with more P than N. I would fertilize now and again in the spring to give it a kick. Then annually. Spread the fertilizer at the base of the flowering tree. The amount of fertilizer depends on the age and size of the tree. I would use the above fertilizer at the rate of 1 lb per inch of trunk diameter scattered around the tree and watered in good. Make sure you do not use a lawn type fertilizer that contains a herbicide--these are the Weed and Feed type. The herbicide will kill the tree. Apply the fertilizer just before a rain event and you will not need to water.