Growing cut flowers from seeds is truly rewarding – almost magical. Transforming small seemingly inanimate seeds into tall plants that bloom and produce armloads of beautiful, fragrant blooms for cutting is truly remarkable.
Grow a mix of cutting perennials and annual flowers to achieve a wide array of colors, heights, textures and bloom cycles in your arrangements. Plan planting accordingly.
Choose Your Site
Selecting an ideal site for your cut flower garden is essential to its success. Avoid trying to convert all areas of your yard into cutting gardens as this could prove futile (not to mention time consuming!). Instead, concentrate on choosing one specific spot.
Choose an area with at least six hours of sunshine each day and sheltered from gusty winds, and conduct a soil test – as many flowers require specific conditions to thrive.
Once you’ve established where your cutting garden will go, select which flowers will make an appearance. Look for varieties with long vase life and fragrant notes – baby’s breath and coral bells may add filler plants that bloom year round to give year-round bouquets!
Do not be put off by including vegetables in your cut flower garden; some plants act as natural deterrents against pests like the thrips that infiltrate tomatoes and squash plants, as well as providing excellent additions for floral arrangements like cilantro and mint.
Prepare the Soil
Before beginning your cut flower garden, first prepare the soil by clearing away any existing weeds and adding compost or organic matter such as mulch to provide your flowers with the ideal conditions to thrive and bloom. This will allow them to experience maximum success!
Deliberate over which flowers you wish to grow. Think carefully about fragrance, color and foliage preferences as well as vase life; adding perennials (which tend to bloom longer) could add depth and variety.
Make sure you know how much sunlight each plant requires and group them accordingly to their specific requirements, in order to provide optimal conditions for each of your plants. Zinnias have very specific growth requirements, while dahlias and delphiniums may benefit from being staked or staked with fencing (or both!). Also ensure they’re arranged by mature height – this way shorter ones won’t get hidden by taller plants!
Plant the Flowers
To make gardening simpler, it’s essential to plant both annuals and perennials in the garden. Separating plants with differing needs from each other is also helpful – for instance tall annuals like sunflowers and zinnias may need support such as fencing or netting to climb. It may be advantageous to stagger plantings of single bloom time flowers like sunflowers so as to extend harvest season.
Long-stemmed flowers like dahlias, hydrangeas and zinnias make excellent cutting garden flowers; shorter stemmed snapdragons and cosmos may also make great additions. Your selection will depend on what kind of bouquets you plan to create; take fragrance and foliage into consideration along with colors, shapes and sizes when planting your garden. Deadheading helps encourage plants to continue producing blooms by pinching off spent blooms as soon as they begin wilting – this will encourage new buds from opening in later seasons!
Care for the Flowers
Growing flowers is an amazing process – from tiny seeds to lush, full blooming plants! But it can be easy to become overwhelmed, especially if space or time constraints make managing it challenging – so take things step-by-step and don’t be daunted by what might seem like daunting challenges!
Before beginning your cutting garden, determine how much space there is and the ideal planting method (rows, blocks or scattered). Keep in mind that many cut flowers require at least six hours of direct sun each day in order to thrive; windy environments should also be taken into account and whether protection from elements may be provided to keep their flowers safe from damage.
Once your garden is in place, provide it with regular care by watering and feeding its flowers regularly. Deadheading faded flower heads as they emerge is also key for their wellbeing; to extend vase-life you can recut stems and add cut flower food. Keeping vases clean also prevents bacteria and disease spread.