So you love having fresh flowers around the house to brighten up rooms and add cheer. But have you considered growing your own cutting garden to provide a steady supply of flowers for bouquets? It’s easier than you might think, and incredibly rewarding.
A cut garden is a dedicated garden area for growing flowers specifically for cutting and bringing indoors as cut flowers. With the right planning and plant selection, you can have a beautiful array of blooms basically from early spring all the way through late fall. Let’s go over all the key steps to plan the perfect cutting garden.
Choosing the Location for a Cut Flower Garden
The first step is deciding on the site for your cutting garden. You’ll want an area that gets at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day, with loose, nutrient-rich soil that drains well. A spot near your house is ideal for easy access when cutting blooms. Avoid areas prone to strong winds that could batter and damage tall flowers.
It’s helpful to choose an area close to a water source like an outdoor spigot, or at least run a hose nearby, since frequent watering is required for many cutting flowers. The space can be any size and shape, but keep in mind that the larger the area, the more variety you can plant. Even in a small yard, you may be surprised just how many cut flowers you can tuck into spaces like along a fence or property border.
Designing Your Cut Flower Garden
With the location set, it’s time for the fun part – creating the layout and picking which flowers to grow. An efficient design is key to making the most of the space. Arrange taller plants like sunflowers or cosmos towards the back, then graduate down to shorter bloomers in the front.
Include flowering plants with different bloom times so you’ll have continuous rotations of color throughout the season. For instance, early spring bloomers like daffodils, tulips, and irises; followed by late spring/early summer crops like peonies, bachelor buttons, and sweet peas. Mid-summer brings zinnias, sunflowers, dahlias, and rudbeckia. You can round out the season in late summer and fall with celosia, asters, marigolds, and chrysanthemums.
Be sure to factor in vines like sweet peas and morning glories that can climb on trellises, arches, or fences. This adds lovely vertical interest. You’ll also want to leave ample space between rows for weeding and flower harvesting paths.
Preparing the Beds
With the layout mapped out, prepare the planting beds in advance. The soil quality is crucial when growing flowers for cutting. Amend the soil by mixing in several inches of compost or other nutrient-rich organic matter like composted manure. This will improve drainage and fertility. You may also want to have your soil tested and add specific amendments per the results.
Use a tiller or garden fork to loosen and aerate the soil at least 8 inches deep to allow plants to establish strong root systems. Then rake the beds smooth, creating raised rows if desired for improved drainage. Make sure to leave wide enough paths between rows for maneuvering.
Factor in Stems Too
When planning what flowers to grow, don’t just consider the blooms – pay attention to foliage and stems too. Textural fillers with branching stems like amaranthus, bupleurum, and snapdragons complement the focal flowers beautifully in bouquets. Long, straight stems like those of sunflowers, stock, and lisianthus are ideal for arrangements.
Also think about plants with attractive seed heads, berries, or foliage that can extend vase life. For example, let some of your zinnias, cosmos, nigella, and ammobium mature to the dried seed pod stage before cutting. Others like ninebark, viburnum, and eucalyptus provide lovely greenery for arrangements.
A Few Other Tips:
• Succession plant crops like zinnia, sweet peas, and sunflowers every 2-3 weeks for continual bloom times
• Grow flowers in a rainbow of colors for gorgeous, eye-catching bouquets
• Leave ample space between plants for good air flow to prevent diseases
• Install drip irrigation lines or soaker hoses to make watering easier
• Apply organic fertilizers according to instructions throughout the season
• Use row covers or low tunnels in early spring to get a jumpstart on cool-weather crops
Gathering Your Blooms
Part of the fun of having a cutting garden is heading out with your pruners or scissors each morning and carefully harvesting the fresh blooms. Follow these simple tips for gathering cut flowers:
• Harvest in the morning after any dew has dried but while temperatures are still cool
• Use sharp, clean blades and cut stems at an angle
• Cut stems long, removing any foliage that would be submerged in the vase water
• Place in a clean bucket with several inches of room temperature water
• Add a floral preservative if desired to extend vase life
• Store in a cool, dark area until ready to arrange in vases
Creating Beautiful Arrangements
With an abundance of freshly gathered blooms, you can get creative with designing arrangements. A classic mix features focal flowers like roses, peonies, or sunflowers; accented with smaller bloomers like asters, statice, or daisies. Add texture and height with elements like thistle, amaranthus, and scabiosa seed heads. Finish with lush greens like eucalyptus, ninebark, or dusty miller foliage.
Get artsy by using flowers in unexpected ways. Tuck Queen Anne’s lace into small vases for a sweet bouquet. Float rose petals or whole violas in a shallow bowl. Use kitchen jars and tin cans as makeshift rustic vases.
Try arranging taller flowers vertically in massed clusters. Or create landscape style designs with blooms facing in one direction, like a garden scene. Single varieties like 10 stems of simply sunflowers or a mass of dahlias also have high visual impact.
With a steady rotation of fresh-cut flowers, you’ll have ample blooms for bouquets around your home, as gifts, or special events. Nothing beats the joy and sense of accomplishment of arranging flowers you grew yourself.
So have fun dreaming up plans for your cutting garden, from mapping out the layout to carefully selecting flower varieties. Do a bit of prep work in the beginning and you’ll be rewarded with wheelbarrows full of heavenly scented bouquets all season long.
