Planting a cut flower garden is easy and enjoyable – an ideal way to add beautiful fresh blooms into your home decor or gift fresh blooms as gifts!
Consider organizing your plantings into rows or blocks for easier access and maintenance, while creating a uniform grid pattern will make harvesting simple.
Outdoor seed sowing in winter can give cool-season annual flowers, like sweet peas and snapdragons, as well as perennials with intriguing foliage a jump-start on growing.
Choose a Location
As soon as deciding where to plant a cut flower garden, sunlight is of primary concern. Flowers thrive under direct sunlight and will flourish quickly with adequate exposure. Look for sites receiving at least six hours of direct sun per day (ideally early morning sunlight). Ideal sites should also be free from competing roots or weeds that might limit sunlight from reaching your cutting garden and tall shrubs or trees which might obstruct it during certain parts of the year.
Plan out your garden design on paper, taking into account its colors, bloom period and height requirements. This will enable you to assess how much space each variety requires as well as ensure easy picking/pruning access for each variety. Don’t forget about plants with multiple benefits like foliage and flowers (like mint and nigella) or flowering and edible pods ( like sunflowers) which provide even more opportunities for creating unique arrangements!
Prepare the Soil
Cut flower gardens typically require full sun. Review your existing garden beds to make sure that they receive enough light. Furthermore, the soil must be loose, well-drained, and free from large root systems; adding organic matter like compost or manure to improve its quality can further boost this type of planting project.
Annual cut flowers such as zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos and marigolds are the most frequently grown in cutting flower gardens; their lives span just one growing season before needing replanting each year. There are however perennial varieties such as dahlias, larkspur peonies and irises which can also be grown.
After harvesting blooms from your cutting flower garden, it is essential to deadhead them so as to extend their lifespan and redirect energy back into growth and flowers. Doing this will also encourage more plants to take root nearby. Pinching may be necessary with certain species such as zinnias or celosia to encourage longer stems with more branches.
Plant the Seeds
Once you have selected the flowers that you wish to grow, start them indoors (or outside if it’s spring or summer). Consult the back of each seed packet for specific germination and planting requirements, which can ensure you give your seeds every chance at flourishing.
Tip: Utilizing biodegradable plantable pots makes transplanting and root cuttings simpler, alleviating any unnecessary stress to plants. They also keep soil moist for extended periods, supporting quicker and healthier plant growth.
Before transplanting your cutting garden, ensure the space is large enough for all the plants you have selected. If possible, arrange your planting so that tall plants like sunflowers are at the back, medium sized zinnias in the middle, and short-statured sweet peas at the front – this way they receive sufficient sunlight while being easily accessible for harvesting purposes.
Water
When planting a cut flower garden, it’s crucial that you pay close attention to each plant’s individual growing conditions in order to maximize your blooms’ success. By giving each flower what it needs for maximum success, your blooms will thrive even more beautifully than anticipated!
Some plants can tolerate drought while others need regular irrigation to ward off disease and promote growth, and knowing this information will allow you to avoid overwatering or underwatering your garden plants, which could result in unhealthy or dead blooms.
Consider how much sun your garden receives as another factor. Cut flowers require 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily in order to thrive; if this cannot be provided, consider other alternatives like shade gardens or containers as ways of providing essential sunlight.