Have a cut flower garden to provide fresh blooms to your home all summer long, and maximize production with annuals and perennials alike.
Raised garden beds may help improve the quality of soil for your cut flower garden, while adding compost or manure as fertilizers to promote strong roots and blooming blooms.
Sunflowers
Sunflowers add an eye-catching flourish to bouquets. Easy to grow, with proper harvesting techniques they can last up to two weeks in your vase.
Sunflowers require at least six hours of direct sunlight each day, preferably the early morning sun which offers less heat. Please refer to the back of your seed packet for specific growing instructions.
Consider selecting both annual and perennial flowers when planning your beds, like yarrow, garden phlox, peonies and Cosmos larkspur and sweet peas as perennials can return each year while annuals such as Cosmos larkspur and sweet peas provide quick blooms. Make note of bloom times and heights to create an effective mix. Also remember that cut flowers thrive best when they don’t “go to seed”, in other words stay on their stem. To prevent this from happening simply deadhead spent flower heads to encourage new growth or reflowering; place harvested stems into lukewarm water bucket and bring into a cool darkened space to condition them thereby increasing vase life and vase life!
Sweet Peas
Sweet peas are delicate yet add an eye-catching whimsical element to floral designs. Their whimsical charm makes them the ideal partner for other flowers and bouquets alike, or plant them in your cut flower garden for enjoyment of their fragrant blooms and longer stems that allow easier picking. When pinched back regularly they produce more blooms for harvest.
Start seeds indoors a few weeks prior to your frost date, and plant out once their roots have established (unless you live in an extremely hot climate). These plants cannot be transplanted easily, so try finding an area for them in your garden where they will remain permanent residents.
Dependent upon your climate, planting both perennial and annual flowers for your cutting garden could be ideal. Aiming for variety in terms of colors, heights, textures and blooming times allows you to create captivating arrangements throughout the season. When designing cut flower beds map out all varieties so they are accessible at various points during their blooming times.
Zinnias
Zinnias are one of the easiest cut flowers to grow. Their wide array of colors, shapes and sizes makes them one of the best ways to attract pollinators-attracting pollen in your garden. Their daisy-like blooms on single straight stems make zinnias ideal for supporting other blooms or acting as focal flowers in any arrangement.
Zinnias, like other summer annuals, are susceptible to powdery mildew; we find that spraying them regularly with Cease and MilStop (or similar organic fungicide) helps combat it. Since they tend to get leggy over time, we advise cutting them close to the ground or installing a trellis system if they become leggy.
One way to encourage long, straight stems on your zinnia plants is to pinch them when they reach 8 to 12 in (20 to 30 cm), just above a set of leaves. This will prompt them to send up multiple new stems from that spot where you pinched.
Begonias
Begonias are easy to grow in both shaded and sun areas and come in many colors and forms, perfect for cutting gardens that bloom year-round. Mixing annuals with perennial flowers helps ensure an abundance of summer blooms for cutting. You might also add winter-worthy varieties for winter bouquets.
Begonia seeds should be planted indoors 12 weeks prior to the last frost date. Starting them off using seed starting trays is ideal; old plastic takeout containers such as those found with rotisserie chicken are great too – or better still berry containers equipped with drainage holes are an alternative solution.
Harden off seedlings or tubers for approximately one week before transplanting outdoors; this will allow them to adjust to wind, rain and temperature variations before being exposed to direct sunlight.
As your plants mature, pinch back their stems periodically to encourage bushy growth and more flowering. This will also promote longer stems for cut flowers! Water them morning or evening to avoid heat stress; keep their soil evenly moist – limp or rotting leaves indicate overwatering!