Ask Dave Epstein: How to rethink Mother’s Day flower arrangements – GBH News

Popular Flower Types

Plant these flowers in spring for a colorful garden. Phlox produces dense clusters of small flowers in a range of colors and can handle summer heat and bloom until frost.

This perennial is an old-fashioned cottage garden favorite that thrives in sun or shade. Its fern-like leaves and cheerful flowers are easy to care for. Gladiolus is a tall, long-blooming flower that’s a great choice for 40th wedding anniversaries.

Meteorologist Dave Epstein is our go-to person for pressing weather questions on everything from winter blizzards to summer droughts. He’s also a horticulturist, meaning he’s an expert in anything that grows leaves and flowers. GBH’s Morning Edition asked our audience for weather and gardening questions, and Epstein graciously answered them on the air. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Have a gardening or weather question for meteorologist Dave Epstein? Tweet him @GrowingWisdom, email us at thewakeup@wgbh.org, or text 617-300-2008.

Epstein’s suggestion: Skip the cut flower arrangements altogether and head to a local nursery or garden center.

“Right now, a lot of the garden centers are showing off perennials as well as small shrubs that are flowering,” Epstein said. “So go buy one of those, plant it somewhere, and then it comes up every year at the same time, and generally flowers at the same time. And then mom can kind of look and go, ‘Oh, that’s the plant that Paris bought for me, or that’s the plant that Jeremy got for me.’”

Epstein got a number of questions from listeners whose rose bushes don’t look like they’ll be flowering this year. The culprit, he said, is a warmer-than-average January and February, followed by that one cold snap on a February weekend. Rose bushes were getting ready to bloom in the warmer weather when the severe cold came and froze the delicate buds.

“That really knocked out, no pun intended, a lot of the blooms on those,” he said.

Epstein’s noticed that, in his own garden, hybridized roses like Knock Outs and Flower Carpets, have been hit hard. Tea roses and rosa rugosa beach roses have fared better, he said.

If your roses are struggling, it’s time to prune them, he said.

“I would say cut it back,” Epstein said. “I fed mine heavily. I’ve also, every other week, been giving them some liquid fertilizer specially made for roses. You can find that and it allows you see some new growth.”

The bottom line: Do not abandon all hope, rose lovers.

“Eventually they’ll come back,” Epstein said.

Blooming lilacs will be around for a few more weeks, Epstein said.

“It depends on the variety, because there [are] so many varieties out there,” Epstein said. “I was actually at the Arnold Arboretum yesterday. They are stunning.”

The annual Lilac Sunday celebration at the Arnold Arboretum is this Sunday, May 14. Epstein recommended people go earlier to miss the crowds.

Not too late, Epstein said. But because there’s not significant rain in the forecast, get ready to water them.

“You do need to water your newly planted tree shrubs and perennials on a regular basis,” he said.

The weather looks “stunning” for Sunday, Epstein said.

The Boston area has some warmer days coming into the weekend, with highs approaching 80. By Sunday, temperatures will hover around 50 degrees in the morning and approach 70 in the afternoon.

“Certainly nice for a nice walk in the morning,” Epstein said. “And if you want to do a brunch outside at 9 a.m., it’ll probably be close to 60 degrees by then.”

Source: wgbh.org