How to Choose the Best Cut Flowers to Grow in YOUR Garden
If you want to grow a cut flower garden this year, but you’re confused and don’t even know how to begin choosing what to grow…
I’ve got you, friend.
In this blog post, you will learn:
What IS a cut flower garden?
What qualities are we looking for in a “Good” cut flower?
What are the different types of cut flowers/foliage for making bouquets?
I’ve helped hundreds of people create the garden of their dreams, so let’s dive right in and start at the very beginning.
What IS a cut flower garden?
A cut flower garden is an area dedicated to the sole purpose of growing and harvesting/cutting blooms to be displayed in a vase.
I’ll be completely honest. Many cut flowers plants are unattractive! In fact, I often recommend that people keep their “Cutting Garden” separate from their landscaping.
Cutting gardens are utilitarian. They are working spaces, not display gardens.
The whole point of a cutting garden is to CUT ALL THE FLOWERS!!!! The blooms are meant to be enjoyed in a VASE, not blooming on the plant. This can be difficult for landscape/bedding flower lovers to embrace.
For example, our Dahlia field is quite ugly. It’s full of rusty t-posts, twine, stakes and fabric pathways. It’s not very picturesque… and that’s OK because we do not care how the flowers look in the field - we care how they look in the vase!
Not all flowers are good candidates for "Cut Flowers". Many of the flowers grown and sold at your local garden are designed for landscapes and flower beds ("landscape plants" and "bedding plants").
These are plants that have often been bred to be low growing and compact (which is the opposite of what we’re looking for in cut flowers!). Some of these may also work as cut flowers... but not always.
Thankfully, plant breeders have been hard at work creating new plant varieties designed specifically for "Cut Flowers".
There may be some crossover between the flower groups (landscape/ bedding plants vs. cut flower plants), but if you want to grow flowers for cutting, it's best to buy seeds/plants that are bred exclusively for that purpose.
2. What qualities are we looking for in a “Good” cut flower?
Good cut flower meets the following requirements:
LONG STEMS
For cut flowers, the stems are a minimum of 12"-18", preferably closer to 24".
Trying to create arrangements with flowers with short stems is frustrating. You can ALWAYS cut stems shorter... but you can't make them grow longer!
It’s VITAL that you read seed packets and plant tags carefully to check the plant height. I will not grow plants that are less than 18” tall.
Long stems give you lots of options when arranging. Short stems are limiting.
LONG VASE LIFE
Every flower has its own “vase life”. This is a rough estimation of how long you can expect the bloom to last in the vase when displayed properly.
Vase life can vary wildly, from 1 day to 2+weeks.
5-7 days is considered a "good" vase life. Most cut flowers can last 5+ days with proper harvesting and care.
Some popular cut flowers, such as Poppies and Dahlias, have less than optimal vase lives (2-3 days for Poppies, 3-5 days for Dahlias), but they are still often used in arrangements.
It’s best to consider these flowers "Event Flowers".
This means they are best suited for arrangements where they only need to look spectacular for 1 day (like a wedding bouquet or a dinner party).
Dahlias
3. LONG(er) GROWING/BLOOMING SEASON:
Does the plant bloom for at least 2 weeks during the season? If you’re short on space, you may want to focus on plants that have a longer growing/blooming season.
For example, Peonies are beautiful, but they only produce blooms for about 2 weeks of the year. The other 50 weeks, they are taking up valuable space in the cutting garden. The same could be said of many other Perennial flowers.
Perennials might not be the best choice for a small cutting garden, where every square inch matters. It may be more useful to fill that space with a flower that will bloom consecutively for at least 4 weeks.
Peony
3. What are the different types of cut flowers/foliage for making bouquets?
There are several types of plants that make good cut flower material.
Be sure to pay attention and read the plant information carefully, so you know what type of plant you are dealing with.
If you’re a beginner, I recommend planting a garden of Annual cut flowers for your first season.
Annuals are:
Generally easy to grow from seed.
Inexpensive. Seeds are very affordable and have a spectacular ROI (Return on Investment). I don’t know anything else on earth that brings as much joy, happiness and delight for such a small price!
Low maintenance. They grow, bloom and die in one season, so you don’t have to keep taking care of them.
As you gain skill over the years, you can begin adding other types of cut flowers to your garden.
*We have a great selection of seeds for cut flower gardens. These are the “tried and true” favorites on our farm that meet all the high standards for our bouquets and arrangements!
Zinnia
2. Biennials:
Plants require 2 seasons to set blooms. The first year, the plant grows and establishes itself. The second year, it will bloom in the spring, then die back.
Biennials are tricky to grow in a small cutting garden because they take up space for 2 years, but only provide cutting material for 1 year.
To solve this problem, plant them in late summer/early fall. You'll likely have an empty place to fill in your garden by then, as some annuals stop blooming and are removed.
Examples:
Columbine
Foxglove
Sweet William
Foxglove
3. Bulbs (including Tubers and Corms):
Plants that have underground, fleshy structures. These plants are usually propagated (multiplied) by their bulbs/tubers/corms, not their seeds.
Examples:
Daffodil (bulb)
Ranunculus (corm)
Dahlia
4. Hardy Annuals:
Annual flowers (1 year life cycle) that have more "frost-hardiness" than typical annuals.
Hardy Annuals do not like heat and thrive in cool weather. They generally bloom in the spring/early summer and die back in the heat of the summer.
The seeds should be planted either in the fall OR in late winter/early spring, as soon as the ground has thawed enough for you to work the top few inches of soil.
Examples:
Bells of Ireland
Larkspur
Nigella (Love-in-a-Mist)
Larkspur
5. Perennials:
Plants that live for more than 2 years (seasons). Perennials can be slow-growing and some are difficult to start from seed.
If you can find the plant at your local garden center/nursery, it's worth buying from there so you don't have to wait a few years for them to bloom.
Perennials can make beautiful cut flowers, but they often have a short bloom time of only a few weeks out of the year, so they take up valuable space for little output.
Examples:
Daisy
Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan)
Veronica
Veronica
6. Shrubs/Trees:
Some of the plants you have growing in your landscaping can be lovely additions to your cutting garden.
They can be expensive and take a long time to grow, so unless you happen to have them growing on your property already, most beginners skip these the first few years.
Examples:
Hydrangea
Lilac
Viburnum
Lilac
Ready for more?
If you’re serious about growing the garden of your dreams this year, register for my online course, “Backyard Cutting Garden 101”. You’ll find everything you need to plan, grow, harvest and arrange your stunning blooms. I can’t WAIT to help you grow! Click on the button below for all the details.