An ornamental cut flower garden is an eye-catching and rewarding addition to any home landscape, but success depends on being properly prepared.
Plant your flowers in an area receiving at least six hours of sun daily and ensure the soil provides proper nutrition with adequate drainage. Deadhead regularly to promote new growth and ensure that blooming continues.
Planting Tips
Cut flower arrangements should ideally have their own bed, although you could also incorporate them into your vegetable garden or border borders for added color and filler purposes, says Leigh. ‘Flowers provide filler while providing beautiful displays of blooms!’
Make sure your plants receive ample sun; flowering plants usually need 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day for proper growth.’
Consider your wind and rain exposure. Larger flower varieties like sunflowers and lilacs may be easily be knocked over by strong winds, requiring pruning before being planted again.
Always select a planting site with well-draining soil. Before planting, amending it with plenty of organic matter will allow your flowers to flourish more easily and stay healthy; you could use raised beds or simply add tons of compost and all-purpose fertilizer.
Sunflowers
Sunflowers are essential in any cut flower garden. Not only are they easy to cultivate, they come in an array of vibrant hues and add beautiful flair to bouquets. Sunflowers come as both branching and non-branching varieties – with non-branching varieties possessing one thick stem with just one flower produced, while branching varieties feature side branches on longer stems that bear flowers.
Plant your flowers in wide rows to reduce weeding time and access for cutting flowers more easily. Be mindful of when each of your blooming times occurs within your overall gardening schedule and take note of when you should expect to harvest your harvest.
Zinnias and celosia may require pinching their growing tips when they reach approximately one month old to encourage branching and longer stems. You can do this either manually or using clean shears.
Annuals
Decide whether you wish to incorporate annuals – which don’t come back the following year – or perennials (like peonies, larkspur and garden phlox) in your cut flower garden. Annuals tend to bloom for longer and are ideal for beginner growers; try including cut-and-come-again species such as cosmos, Larkspur Sweet Peas as well as long stemmed varieties that perform well in vases such as Zinnias for best results.
When planting annuals, select an area where there is full sun. Cut flower plants require at least six hours of sunshine each day in order to thrive, while wind exposure should also be taken into consideration as tall flowers can be easily damaged in windy weather conditions. Certain flowers such as climbing nasturtiums and dahlias need stakes or netting as they mature.
Perennials
An optimal cut flower garden should feature perennial flowers such as hydrangeas, tulips, and sweet peas that offer long cutting seasons through early blooming cultivars as well as those blooming later.
To prolong vase life, it’s best to harvest stems in the cool of morning or evening and prepare a bucket of warm water that you can immediately put the harvest into. A pair of gardening shears should also help you trim stems at an angle so they begin absorbing liquid quickly.
Before planting, first check the soil quality in your chosen location and amend as necessary with compost or slow-release fertilizer, as needed. Incorporate sufficient sunlight; most flowers do better under direct sun. Plan out your bed, grouping plants according to bloom cycles and heights so as to create a diverse mix.
Containers
Many people associate cut flowers with rows of daffodils or rose bushes; however, there are so many more possibilities available now for growing cut flowers. Starting your own cut flower garden doesn’t need to be difficult and can add fresh blooms into any home setting.
Begin by selecting an area in the garden that receives at least six hours of daily sunlight, conduct a soil test and add necessary nutrients as required.
Create a balanced combination of annual and perennial flowers in your garden. Annuals such as cosmos, larkspur, sweet peas and sunflowers produce blooms all summer long while perennials such as yarrows, garden phlox and Japanese anemones bloom for shorter durations. Group the plants according to their cultural needs: carnations and snapdragons require acidic solutions while those that prefer alkaline environments – like hydrangeas and sweet peas – should be planted separately.