Flower Questions Answered

By Tom:When Gladiolus & Lilium will bloom ?

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Tom,

Gladiolus bloom 90 days from planting. They bloom only once. They do not rebloom that year.

Lilium bloom during summer, mostly June - July.

By Catalina:What can be paired up with purple statice?

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Catalina,

Roses can be arranged with purple statice flower.

They can be made into beautiful purple Statice and Roses flower arrangement.

By Guest:I have a lot of iris beds, but they no longer bloom. I get lots of foliage, but no blooms. What am I doing wrong?

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Sir/Madam,

Non blooming Irises might have been affected with :

1. There might have some problems during transplanting.

2. When you plant your irises, sure the top surface of the rhizome is level with or just slightly below the soil surface. If you bury the rhizome too deeply, the plant may refuse to flower. Do NOT mulch directly over the rhizomes.

3 Or some nutrient deficiency.

By Melody:Is there something special I should do when using daffodils as a cut flowers in a vase?

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Melody,

By Guest:How should we care for Hyacinth plant? Should it be kept inside or be planted outside? If planted outside, will it comeback year after year? If kept inside, should it be repotted in a bigger pot? It is now in a 6" pot.

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Sir/Madam,

You can plant them outside outdoors.

It would grow this year , but will not bloom this year.

Larger the bulb, larger the flower.

Make sure to let the leaves turn brown and then remove the leaves to let the rest of the growing time go to the bulb.

In my view, the size of the pot can be increased.

By Richard Segal:In the rear area of my property, which gets perhaps 6 hours of sun or partial sun, the ground is always very wet after a rain, and will remain so for many days. It will dry out after several days of sun so I can't term it as being "swampy".

Can you suggest a type of iris that I should consider for that particular location. I live in South Carolina.

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Richard Segal,

Irises prefer well-drained soil, rich in organic matter.

Japanese and Louisiana iris can grow in wet soil.

Yellow flag iris can be grown in standing water.

By Guest:HYACINTH'S ARE FALLING OVER, WHAT CAN WE DO IF ANYTHING TO CORRECT THIS.

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Sir/Madam,

In my view, its normal in case of hyacinths.

They are toppled over when they opened due to their weight. You can lift and put small stakes to hold the flower stalks.

Usually it is probably be due to heavy rain.

By Guest:I would love to know how to care for my Birds of Paradise. I live in a Mediterranean country, Malta, that has a changeable climate.

The leaves of my Birds of Paradise are a pale green rather than the usual healthy green, and the foliage have like black spots or stains. What can it be and what I can do.

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Sir/Madam,

Probably it might be the work of fungi or bacteria.

You can remove the infected leaves when the plant is dry.

Leaves that collect around the base of the plant should be raked up and disposed of.

Avoid water from top, but water from the base of the plant. For fungal leaf spots, use a good fungicide.

By Guest:Can acymbidium plants survive when planted outside?(florida)

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Sir/Madam,

Cymbidium is a type of Orcchid. It can be grown indoors and outdoors. Its a very good houseplant.

If planted indoors, it can be brought outdoors, during winter months.

If planted outdoors it should be given protection from direct sunlight and taken indoors during summer.

By Charlotte, NC:We have a pink dogwood tree which is approximately 4-5 yrs old, and appears to be healthy, but it never blooms. It is surrounded with white dogwoods, but is our only pink. Is it true that a pink dogwood needs another pink in order to bloom properly? And by the way, it is about 8-9 feet tall in partial sun.

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Charlotte, NC

Dogwoods are basically a southern tree and do not tolerate cold weather in the springtime when the flower buds are forming.

The climate must be warm enough in the spring to develop the flower buds.

The nonflowering of a dogwood may have several causes. Insects and diseases may have damaged and weakened the tree. The main insect is a borer, and the main disease is a fungus called anthracnose. Involvement with either of these is usually evident from their characteristic signs.

The lack of sunlight is also a possible cause for no blossoms. Dogwoods are often thought of as a shade tree, but they survive full sun and seem to do best with about a half day of morning sun and afternoon shade. Total shade or only an hour or two of sun is a cause of non-blooming.

By Geraldine:My tulips came up but did not bloom. The bulbs were transplanted to a new flower bed this year. Can you think of any reason for not getting blooms?

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Geraldine,

If those non-flowering bulbs were planted last fall, you probably have a soil (or added fertilizer) with too much nitrogen in it.

Nitrogen also encourages leafy growth at the expense of flowering.

You can have your soil tested. And make sure that any bulb fertilizers you use has a higher second and third number (the P and K) that it does nitrogen (N). Numbers like 5-10-10 are good.

Another possibility is that your bulbs are in too much shade.

By Barbara Johnson:How can we divide the agapanthus?

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Barbara Johnson,

Propagation by division of Agapanthus bulbs is the spring most widely used method of propagation and is the most reliable.

By Brown:I live in the UAE and have a newly planted Frangipani in my garden which keeps losing its leaves.They turn yellow then drop off. There are only two leaves left now. There were some new shoots apearing but that growth seems to have stopped now too.

I've tried watering it - which seems to make it worse. I've also tried stopping watering it - which seems to help.

What am I doing wrong? What doesn't it like?

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Brown,

Rust problem might have been there in Frangipani.

Symptoms of rust include many small, bright-yellow pustules on the undersides of leaf surfaces. These pustules rupture to release masses of powdery, yellow spores. The spores, falling from infected leaves onto stems and leaves below, make them appear as if dusted by yellow powder. Heavily infected leaves fall prematurely.

Researchers found that fungicides such as Mancozeb and sulfur which are available for home garden use to control rust and other fungal problems in ornamentals were not as effective as oxycarboxin. You could try using a general fungicide to slow the development of the disease (such as Yates Spray Insecticide and Pesticide, which contains sulfur and Mancozeb), and as a winter cleanup.

Leaf burn can also cause on frangipanis this is usually due to watering of the leaves during the intense heat in the middle of the day.

If you're watering, then do so in the morning or late afternoon.

By Guest:I have an outside flower box that doesn't ever get sunlight, What is the best flower to grow in no sunlight besides ivy? Thank you very much

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Sir/Madam,

When you talk about no sunlight , that means only shaded plants, then Ferns, bleeding hearts can be a good choice.If you say about no light, Mushrooms comme to our mind.

Some other shade plants are Pothos vine, philodendron vine.

By Victoria Dixon:I found your website while researching for a novel I'm writing. I need to know if an established lotus plant would already have large, green leaves in late winter/early spring if the climate's warm enough. Do the leaves die back? (I'm clueless on botany.) Thank you for any assistance you can give!

Answer By The Flower Expert:Dear Victoria Dixon,

Lotus plant is dormant over the fall and winter months.

The Lotus plant will have and should have the leaves all winter.

Leave the lotus leaves until they totally dry out, turn brown and dessicate. Leaves can be removed well above the waterline in late fall, winter or even spring.

They should not be removed as it may injure the plant.