If you’re in search of some fresh flowers to brighten up your home this summer, consider growing a cut flower garden. This type of garden requires less maintenance than its counterpart and can be placed anywhere with enough room for its plants to flourish.
Step one in creating an impressive cut flower garden is planting both perennials and annuals for maximum variety in terms of colors, heights and textures for arrangements.
Location
Location selection for a cut flower garden is essential to its success. You should ensure it is located in a sunny area while being accessible so you can reach all of your blooms easily for cutting purposes.
Your garden should feature at least one cutting garden; either as part of its regular layout or with its own dedicated area. Either way, fresh blooms will fill your days throughout the seasons!
For maximum bloom, place your cutting garden in an area that receives at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight each day and offers shelter from wind and rain. This should help your flowers flourish!
Soil
A successful cut flower garden requires soil that’s packed with organic matter to retain water and promote plant growth. To enrich the soil in your cut flower garden, mix a couple inches of compost and fertilizer before planting your seeds.
Soil is an inexhaustibly complex mixture of minerals, air, water, organic matter and living organisms which forms over time at Earth’s surface. Over time it changes depending on climate change, organism activity, relief (landscape), parent material and time itself.
Before planting your cutting-flower beds, carefully plan your cutting-flower beds by considering varieties, bloom times and height. Make sure that tallest flowers are placed at the back, followed by medium-sized ones in the middle, then short-stemmed plants at the front.
Sunlight
Light is essential to the growth and health of many plants and flowers, so select a sunny location for your cutting garden. Aim to find one with six hours or more of direct sunlight daily if possible.
Cut flower gardens require soil with sufficient permeability and organic matter content to maximize water retention and drainage. When planning, incorporate several inches of compost or leaf mold into the soil prior to planting.
Once you have selected an ideal location, the next step should be determining what kind of plants to grow. Here is your opportunity to be creative by adding flowers that add color and interest to your landscape or vegetable garden.
Water
Water is essential to the healthy development of both stems and leaves in flowers, without it they would quickly wilt and fade prematurely.
For optimal success when creating a cut flower garden, select plants that thrive in your climate and soil type before deciding how you intend to use the blooms – bouquets, wreaths or other projects may all come into play here.
Ideal locations include full sun gardens; however, there are still plenty of “cuttable” flowers which thrive under partial shade conditions. Furthermore, think carefully about accessibility when selecting your site.
Pruning
Pruning is essential to the health and beauty of any flower garden. Pruning improves airflow by opening up dense growth, as well as decreasing disease risk and rot.
Plant pruning also ensures a balance of older and younger growth that suits each plant’s type, health, age and use (e.g. general landscape, specimen or cut flower).
Pruning involves selecting specific locations on a plant with sharp tools to promote new growth or alter its overall shape or size, or remove dead wood and shape changes to branches/stems, in order to promote specific branching habits. This process also serves the purposes of eliminating deadwood removal as well as encouraging specific branching patterns.
Harvesting
Harvesting a cut flower garden is essential to maintaining fresh and vibrant blooms. Cutting properly ensures long vase life and prevents bacteria and fungus from damaging blooms.
Planning a cut flower garden requires thoughtful consideration when placing plants. Make sure there is enough space and accessibility to harvest easily.
Make sure to select plants that can handle the amount of sunlight available to them, along with wind and rainfall exposure, while taking your personal preferences and desires into consideration before selecting flowers to grow.