Cutting gardens provide a convenient way of harvesting long-stemmed flowers throughout the growing season. As most cut flowers have specific blooming times and should be harvested regularly in order to extend vase life, a cutting garden provides an excellent means for collecting cut blooms throughout the growing season.
Create your cutting garden with care by considering factors like uniform spacing, soil testing and maintenance.
Location
Cutting flower gardens can be separate areas or part of an existing vegetable or other garden. Their location should be convenient for both cutting and maintenance – ideally with rows of uniform spacing so it is easy to find just the right plant to complete your bouquet! A grid system works especially well, providing rows with regular spacing so plants are easier to locate for cutting.
Location should also receive six to eight hours of sunlight each day, ideally early morning. This will help your flowers maintain their vibrant hue and extend vase life.
Organic matter should be added to the soil to enhance drainage and nutrition levels in cut flower gardens, where plants will be regularly harvested for bouquets. Many flower farmers recommend applying liquid organic matter fertilizer at planting time as well as every two or three weeks during the growing season to boost flower production and extend blooming periods for annuals. When planting perennials as well as annuals together, you can be assured of long blooming seasons for annual flowers to add variety in bouquets throughout the season.
Preparation
Growing flowers from seeds is an engaging and almost magical process. Watching those tiny, seemingly nonliving seeds grow into blooming plants producing armloads of fragrant, gorgeous blossoms is truly astounding! It defies logic!
Before planting a cut flower garden, carefully consider your space availability and desired blooms. Many long-stemmed annual and perennial varieties can easily be grown from seeds, producing many blooming stems during a single growing season.
Shorter-lived and shorter-blooming perennials and biennials can be more challenging to manage in a cutting garden, as they need two seasons for blooms to set and may not last the full year.
Be mindful when choosing the location for your cut flower garden: most cut flowers require both plenty of sun and nutritious soil for optimal growth. Furthermore, take into account that some flower varieties wilt quickly in hot weather. To extend vase life as much as possible after harvesting fresh-cut blooms submerge them in water mixed with flower preservative as soon as harvesting has occurred.
Soil
Your soil in a cut flower garden is of paramount importance in its success. Use an organic-rich soil that drains well to avoid over-watering or waterlogging your plants. Work in plenty of compost or leaf mold before planting to improve soil structure and increase nutrient availability.
Make sure to plant an array of simple-to-grow annuals and perennials, and plan to reseed some seeds periodically throughout the season to maintain a vibrant show. When growing annuals, pinch the center stem when they reach six to eight inches in height to promote branching. This helps extend blooming period as well as create more aesthetically pleasing plants.
Remember to harvest flowers early in the morning before they begin opening up, removing any spent petals before placing them in water for longer vase life. Additionally, fertilize them regularly with an effective slow-release fertilizer such as compost tea or fish emulsion while being cautious not to overfertilize and produce too much foliage without enough blooms.
Planting
Establishing a cut flower garden from seeds is an amazing, almost magical process. Transforming tiny inanimate seeds into tall plants that will eventually produce armloads of fragrant blooms is truly remarkable.
Once you’ve decided to cultivate a cutting garden, its layout must be carefully considered. A well-thought out plan makes harvesting much simpler; long linear beds (around 1m wide) help make walking through, planting, weeding and harvesting much simpler while protecting fragile stems from being damaged during this process.
Consider whether to separate perennials and annuals into different beds. Some annuals, like zinnias and celosia, can benefit from pinching to encourage branching out and longer stems.
To create the ideal cutting garden, it is best to include both perennials and annuals that bloom throughout summer at different times, creating an appealing mix of colors, heights, textures and heights in arrangements and allowing you to craft more unique bouquets.