When cultivating a cut flower garden, it’s crucial that the area receives full sun. Make sure you check regularly throughout the day to make sure there’s adequate illumination of this space.
Start seeds indoors to kick start your cut flower garden today. I have covered this process in two articles – Indoor Seed Starting and How to Harden Off Seedlings.
Sunflowers
Sunflowers are one of the most beloved cut flower choices and can easily be grown from seed. Boasting long stems and an array of colors to choose from, you can grow sunflowers as branching or non-branching varieties; branching varieties produce multiple blooms on shorter stems while non-branching varieties have thick stems with one flower on them.
Ease of Growth: Cacti and Ferns can be easy to grow in full sunlight with regular watering needs, requiring only ample space and plenty of sunshine. When planting make sure they have adequate room as these plants tend to spread over the ground quickly.
Start sunflower seeds indoors early or sow directly in spring to jumpstart the growing season! For an introduction into starting seeds indoors, read my post on Essential Gardening Supplies for Indoor Seed Starting.
Zinnias
Your cut flower garden should include an array of easy-to-grow annual flowers. These bloom quickly, providing continuous blossoms throughout the season.
Zinnias are an easy and essential addition to any garden. Available in an array of colors and sizes – from giant blooms such as Benary Giant’ to smaller double flowers like Oklahomaa series varieties – Zinnias make growing flowers effortless!
Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm has developed two delicate zinnia varieties called Zinderella and Golden Hour that make perfect supporting or secondary flowers.
When arranging flowers, it’s crucial that the shears and snips used when cutting are clean – this reduces stress on the flowers while prolonging their lives in water.
Celosia
Celosia–better known by its common name “cockscomb”–makes an eye-catching statement in any cut flower garden, boasting feathery plumes and round combs that make an impressive display in a vase, as well as offering an appealing color range.
Place seeds in a seed tray during spring, placing it on a heat mat to facilitate their germination. When about 60% of your seeds have sprouted, remove it from heat and transplant seedlings into your garden once all frost risk has passed.
To maintain blooming celosias throughout the summer, pinch back regularly. This encourages long stems and lengthier flower seasons. Fertilize regularly with balanced fertilizers for best results in your garden. In order to maximize results from planting plans by grouping similar varieties together and following proper color coordination guidelines.
Perennials
As garden season nears its end, be sure to clean up beds, dig up dahlias as necessary and apply a final application of fertilizer for an abundant harvest next season. This will ensure an abundant yield.
Perennial flowers make an excellent addition to a cutting garden, yet often only bloom for shorter seasons than annual ones.
These perennials should be planted later in the season to produce cut flowers for bouquets, including yarrow, garden phlox, anemones, peonies and veronicas.
Annuals
Some annual flowers such as cosmos, scabious and sweet peas can continue to produce new blooms even after being cut from their garden beds, adding variety and being more cost effective than perennial blooms such as dahlias or yarrow. This makes these types of annuals great additions to bouquets as they add variety while remaining relatively inexpensive compared to their perennial counterparts like dahlias or yarrows.
Attract fall beauty to your cutting garden by growing colorful seedhead-producing flowers such as rudbeckia, aster, ornamental kale, and sedum plants that produce colorful seedheads; or use cool-season blooms like cress, flax (Linum usitatissimum), millet or scabiosa to add texture and interest. As with all flower gardening projects, preparation of soil and regular fertilization are critical in encouraging healthy growth and blossoms; get a soil test before planting to learn how the clay or sandy soils responds.