Seems there is a bit of confusion re what "pink chelone" is: Chelone obliqua is called red, pink (or rose) chelone. Chelone lyonii (as C. Lyonii 'Hot Lips') is called pink chelone.

Three hours of sun is certainly at the low end of the scale for semi-shaded. I have chelones in a longer period of sun than that.

In nature, Chelone obliqua is a lowland plant and C. lyonii is a highland one, but all gardening advice says that chelones require (even) moisture.

Not enough light, perhaps. Also, if you have used a high-nitrogen fertilizer anywhere near the chelone, you may have promoted all sorts of lovely, green growth, but prevented it from flowering.

It is my experience that lack of light is not the issue.

Take a look at this chelone `hotlips` shown in the picture in this recent thread:

It gets at most 3 hours of direct sunlight.

I have two other `hotlips`. And one of these gets even less light i.e. maybe 1.5 hours of direct sun and it is in bloom although this one is much taller, more `leggy` than the other 2.

Here is a link that might be useful: chelone in bloom

Rouge, when I find chelone in the wild, it is most often in a fairly sunny, but wet site. Does your chelone receive indirect sunlight during the day in addition to direct sunlight?

Hi, Whenever my older clumps get densely overcrowded they are competing for the available water and nutrients too much and that reduces their blooms. Buds start to form but they are small and compact and don't ever swell up enough to actually flower.

If the stems of your plants are tight and really close together I would lift, divide, and thin them out. They do like a lot of regular moisture in the summer and if they are too crowded they might not be able to get enough for each flowering stem to develop well.

Good luck.

Chris

Hi ctopher

My plant does look very compact and is about 10 years old.
Should I divide it now or wait till the Spring?

It wouldn't make sense for it to be an exposure issue if it bloomed fine in previous years in the same location. Something else has to be causing the stress such as nutrient deficiency or excess, soil too dry, etc. Or maybe it is going to bloom, but later than usual. This can happen in dry summers.