No matter if you plant in the ground or containers, creating an abundant cutting garden is easy and fun. Just ensure your chosen location gets plenty of sun while having good soil drainage.
Accessibility is equally essential when creating flowerbeds; you will often need to reach over plants in order to cut flowers, so wide beds without too much overlap between rows should work best. If possible, avoid having too many beds so as not to trample on one another while trying to reach one next row over.
Choose the Right Plants
Cut flower beds can be planted in relatively limited space compared to vegetable gardens, making the best use of your available space and fitting more flowers into less room. By planning ahead and strategically selecting blooms that bloom well in small spaces, you can get maximum impact from your bed of blooms.
Choose varieties with long stems and good vase life; look for scissors icons on seed packets and catalogs to indicate which flowers are ideal for cutting.
Select a site with full sunlight; few flowers flourish under less-than-ideal conditions. Depending on the variety, seeds should be started indoors a few weeks (or even months) prior to your last frost date.
Deadhead faded flowers regularly throughout the season to promote new blooms, using clean shears or sharp pruning shears for cutting. For harvesting, picking in the morning ensures more hydrated stems. It is also beneficial to change out your vase water periodically in order to keep it sanitary.
Select a Good Location
An ideal spot for growing cut flowers is one that receives full sunlight and has well-draining soil, as this allows your plants to get all of the water and nutrients they require without competing with weeds for water and nutrients.
For the optimal cutting garden experience, plant a mixture of perennial and annual flowers that bloom for an extended period. Consider also including easy-to-grow herbs with beautiful foliage to add depth and interest to your arrangements.
If you are raising tender seedlings or transplants, harden them off for two weeks prior to planting. This allows them to adjust to life outside.
Plan Your Layout
An ideal cut flower garden typically consists of annuals, perennials and bulbs suitable for cutting that have long stems and an extended vase life. Consider adding filler plants such as ferns, eucalyptus or bells of Ireland bells of Ireland baby’s breath as filler to add bulk and texture to bouquets ranging from the pastel shades available up to vibrant hues that may help add visual interest when adding filler plants like this to arrangements in summer when other flowers begin wilting or fade out altogether. Foliage also works wonderfully in arrangements helping bridge gaps when other flowers fade when flowers fade out over time!
As part of your cut flower garden layout plan, it is a good idea to map it out on paper so you can anticipate which plants work best in your space and prevent any unpleasant surprises when seeds begin germinating.
One option for your gardens could be to lay them out east to west. This allows taller varieties, such as sunflowers, to be placed at the back while still providing daylight from the south for shorter plants such as zinnias and marigolds.
Take Care of Your Plants
Cut flower beds require plenty of sunshine and water, as with any garden. Check your seed packets to determine the sun exposure requirements of each variety before planting accordingly.
Make sure to deadhead (cut off faded flowers) and prune your plants regularly to promote more blooms, particularly annuals that produce an initial burst of blooms before tapering off. Pinching the stems also encourages additional flowers as well as supporting long, straight stems.
Starting a cut flower garden in springtime is ideal, although exact timing depends on your climate. Cut flowers can be grown from seeds, seedlings or tubers/bulbs.
No matter if you’re starting from seeds or indoor starting them, planning ahead can make your cutting garden a success. Order seeds, bulbs or tubers early for maximum selection; and be sure to start seeds two to three weeks before the last frost date for maximum success if starting them indoors.