Create your garden in rows or beds that are easy to plant, weed and access. Each row or bed should feature all of your favorite blooms plus some focal ones to add height and color arrangements.
Consider starting your seeds indoors to extend harvest season for certain perennials and annuals.
Location
Cut flower gardens should ideally be situated in a sunny corner of your landscape, not as separate beds from the rest of your garden, yet easily reachable so that water, weeding and harvesting can take place efficiently.
Determine how much sunlight each flower requires and group those with similar lighting requirements together in order to prevent competition for resources. For instance, many perennial flowers such as phlox, iris, rudbeckia and delphinium require between 4-6 hours of daily sun.
Choose annual flowers with long vase lives and combine them with perennials to make stunning arrangements of colors, shapes and sizes. Also add filler plants like kale, euphorbia or petunias as ground cover to minimize weed growth.
Soil
Floral beds adorned with vibrant blooms can be a sight to behold, yet growing your own flowers does not require extensive space or an incredible green thumb – you just need some simple tips to create a cutting garden and fill vases throughout the season with blooms!
Cut flower gardens should be situated in sunny spots with well-draining soil that’s rich with organic matter, close to water sources as most of these gardens require regular irrigation.
To simplify weeding, staking, and picking in your cutting garden, plan to plant in rows. This makes identifying perennials from annuals more easily while distinguishing plants requiring stakes (dahlias or delphiniums) from those without (sweet peas and snapdragons). Also plan to incorporate some compost or leaf mold into the planting bed prior to beginning your journey.
Water
Flower gardens require plenty of water in order to stay lush and flourishing, but care must be taken not to overwater their soil, which could promote fungal disease and cause stem rot.
Hand-watering is the ideal approach to maintaining a cut flower garden, using either a can or hose to water each plant directly at its base. A soaker hose may be useful as well – slowly releasing water directly to the soil to decrease chances of diseases and rot developing in its soil profile.
If you’re planting a cutting garden, be mindful of which flowers require staking (dahlias, delphiniums) or supports (sweet peas). Separate those from those which don’t (buttercups and snapdragons). When cutting flowers for arrangements, avoid picking in direct sunlight as their blooms will fade more quickly; additionally, make sure your shears are clean before using as dirty tools spread bacteria that could cause stems to rot quickly.
Fertilizer
Organic fertilizer is ideal for cut flower gardens as it will increase soil microbes and improve its structure. Miracle-Gro is one such water-soluble product designed for cut flowers with balanced NPK formulas and active soil microbes that may be utilized regularly.
Be sure to include fragrant plants like peonies, Oriental lilies and Volcano(r) phlox in your arrangement, as well as aromatic herbs like mint Sweet Annie Eucalyptus or lavender which also add their sweet fragrances. Look out for annuals or perennials which dry easily or leave behind unique seedpods!
Plan your garden so it can be easily managed, such as using raised beds to have complete control of soil quality and plant health.
Pruning
Use only clean pruning shears or snips when pruning flowers; using unsanitary tools spreads bacteria that leads to stem rot quickly. Water the garden regularly but not excessively as too much rainwater could wash away nutrients and cause fungal diseases in your soil.
Plant your flower varieties gradually so they won’t all bloom at once, and to maximize space use raised beds as planting space.
Add variety to your bouquets by including long-lasting perennials such as full-flowering phlox ‘Volcano’ and ‘Flower Carpet, as well as long-flowering perennials like full-flowering phlox ‘Volcano’ and ‘Flower Carpet, as well as seasonal blooms such as irises, chrysanthemums, hydrangeas, penstemons, rudbeckias, dahlias and zinnias, says Dooling. Add showy foliage like ferns and ornamental grasses for texture; finish the design off by including some filler flowers like baby’s breath or coral bells for filling out.