Planting a cut flower garden is both exciting and fulfilling. Watching seeds come to life and grow into large plants producing armfuls of beautiful blooms or stunning seed pods to add beauty and bounty to indoor arrangements is truly breathtaking!
Plant perennials and annuals that bloom at different times to extend your cutting season. Plan your beds so as to maximize productivity – taking into account variety, height, bloom cycles and harvest time.
Lay Out Your Beds
Assuming you don’t have a vast tract of land to spare, cultivating a cutting garden doesn’t need to take place on acres. By applying square foot gardening principles and creating a small patch dedicated to flowers in full sun conditions – you will maximize the number of blooms harvested each growing season.
Carefully consider which plants to include in your garden. Look for those with long stems, high yield and colors that complement your decor before selecting varieties with fragrant blooms for additional fragrance or added interest in bouquets.
Start seeds indoors several weeks or months ahead of the last frost date and transplant them out when established, to save both time and ensure optimal success. Doing this may save several weeks while increasing chances of success!
Plan to arrange your beds from east to west so you can arrange tall plants such as sunflowers along the north side while providing ample light from the south for shorter plants like zinnias and cosmos. Deadhead spent blooms regularly as this will encourage annuals and perennials alike to produce more buds.
Choose Your Plants
No matter the size or scope of your garden space, cultivating beautiful cut flowers is simple and can produce abundant harvests. Choose a mixture of perennials and annuals with long seasons of blooms; order seeds early from flower seed catalogues or websites so they’re ready when spring arrives; alternatively start seeds indoors before taking them outdoors once spring comes around!
Sweet peas are an indispensable staple in the cutting garden, thanks to their delightful fragrance and romantic ruffled blossoms. Get planting now so your bouquets will be ready by summertime!
Evaluate your outdoor space to determine how much sunlight there is available for a successful cut flower garden. Most plants need at least six hours of direct sunlight each day in order to thrive, and ensure that there is rich and well-draining garden soil on this site. When planting from seeds, remember to harden off tender sprouts before transplanting – I shared a guide in this post that can help.
Prepare the Soil
Before planting your garden, it is essential that it is well prepared. This means loosening and tilling the soil in order to get it ready for planting – this step is especially critical if your plan involves cut flowers that need to be easily harvested.
Decide whether to plant annuals or perennials when planning your garden. Annual flowers tend to bloom more regularly while perennial varieties, like yarrow, larkspur, and garden phlox may return year after year – although their bloom times tend to be shorter.
Annuals typically only bloom once every year but often produce flowers throughout the entire growing season – including cosmos, zinnias and sweet peas.
Make sure that your plants will receive adequate sunlight. Cutting gardens with full day sunlight tend to do best, though morning sun exposure will help your flowers flourish with minimal heat or stress; additionally, this will guarantee long, straight stems for bouquets.
Water
Keep your flowers healthy and blooming by providing regular watering, especially during high-temperature spells. Furthermore, some cut flowers require periodic applications of light fertilizers during their growing seasons in order to promote continued blooming and increase yields.
Planting both annual and perennial flowers is essential. Annuals don’t come back every year, yet still produce gorgeous blossoms throughout the growing season – such as cosmos, larkspur, zinnias and sunflowers – while perennials include yarrows, garden phlox and Japanese anemones.
Flowers offer an abundance of colors, scents and shapes for bouquets. Make sure to deadhead faded flowers as soon as they appear; this will encourage new growth and extend blooming period for plants. Use clean shears or pruning snips for this task and pinch off flower stems at their base above leaves or buds for minimal trauma to the plant and maximize bloom production in your cutting garden.