New gardeners may wish to start off small with easy-care annual flowers like zinnias, marigolds and sunflowers as starters. Taller annuals and perennials such as lilacs, roses, hydrangeas or carnations also look lovely when placed appropriately in their designated spots.
Always ensure you cut flowers at their freshest to extend the blooms’ lives and ensure longer-lived blooms, such as early morning or late evening cuts, using sharp and clean pruning shears or snips.
Annuals
Annual flowers add vibrant hues to a cutting garden and are easy to cultivate. To maximize growth and blooming potential, plant your seeds several weeks ahead of the first frost date to give them time to develop and bloom.
Some annuals like zinnias and heucheras boast long stems that hold their petals well in a vase, while snapdragons feature shorter stalks but multiple blooms on each plant that make for beautiful arrangements in just one vase. To extend their vase life even further, use this trick that works well with many cut flowers: add sugar and vinegar or baking soda directly into their water source.
Preparing the soil is equally crucial. Loosen and amend the planting site by mixing in compost and slow-release flower fertilizer. If possible, find a sunny location where direct sunlight reaches your garden, then create raised beds to further improve both its quality and your plants’ wellbeing.
Perennials
As opposed to traditional garden beds, cut flower beds focus solely on flowers that can be harvested. They make an excellent option for new gardeners or anyone with limited space as the design is simpler and easier to manage.
Choose flowers of different colors, textures and blooming periods to create a varied bouquet. Include focal points, fillers and dry nicely for bouquets as focal points or filler flowers; herbs with interesting foliage could also add variety.
Know Your USDA Growing Zone and Annual and Perennial Flowers It is crucial that you know which flowers will thrive in your region, when to plant them and the difference between annual and perennial flowers. Perennials such as yarrow, garden phlox and Japanese anemones make great perennial additions to cut flower gardens because they come back year after year but tend to bloom for shorter durations than annuals such as cosmos, sunflowers, zinnias or sweet peas; although annuals produce more blossoms when cut than their counterparts while their counterparts produce more blossoms per cut which allows reblooming!
Sunflowers
Sunflowers make an excellent addition to a cut flower garden, thanks to their ease of cultivation, prolific blooming during the dog days of summer and early autumn, long vase life, and beautiful bouquets with single stems ranging from classic black-centered Procut Orange through Burgundy-Pink Procut Plum to Primrose Yellow Procut White Lite varieties.
An effective cutting garden depends on a balance between annuals and perennials – especially perennials like peonies, tulips and delphinium which have set bloom times; once their time is up, fill their places with hardy annuals such as lupines, sweet peas or cosmos to continue blooming throughout the season.
Raised beds can be extremely useful in creating your cut flower garden, providing more control over soil quality and depth, staggered planting times for longer harvest seasons and fertilizer application throughout the growing season. Just make sure that it gets applied both when planting as well as every two weeks to maximize performance!
Sweet Peas
Sweet peas are the cornerstone of most cut flower gardens, thanks to their ease of cultivation from seed and long growing season – ideal for winter sowing in colder climates.
If you’re planting sweet peas in your garden, select heirloom varieties with longer stems and more flowers per plant – such as the 19th century Indigo King variety; alternatively try modern day-neutral options like Sunshine Light Blue series which bloom up to one month earlier than other sweet peas.
As cuttings progress through their growth phase, fertilize them regularly with liquid organic plant food such as seaweed emulsion or liquid fish meal to promote their health and help ensure success. This will allow them to flourish.
Once your seedlings reach four to six inches tall, pinch them. This will encourage branching and produce more flowers when harvested later on. Also helpful is tying loosely to their support early on as growth begins – this way you won’t risk crushing their delicate tendrils as they climb.