Cutting Flower Garden

Cutting flowers are any flower that you can remove from the garden and they will happily live in a vase for a reasonable amount of time. I’m a little loose on this definition because there are very few plants that I haven’t cut and tried to put in a vase before. Some do better than others and some wilt as fast as dandelions picked by your children.

There are two ways to look at cutting gardens. If you are growing them strictly to cut and put in vases, you could plant them in rows like in a vegetable garden. Gladiolas, zinnias, marigolds, and dahlias are perfect for growing in rows. If you are growing flowers just to cut though, you may want this garden in a less visible location as it won't be very decorative to look at, but still choose a location in full sun as many cutting flowers are ones that require a lot of sunlight.

The other way to view a cutting garden is more as a cottage garden perhaps. Anything that grows in the garden is a possibility to cut and put in a vase. When your garden is young this can be a difficult decision. Do I want to enjoy it in my garden or do I want to enjoy it on my kitchen table? Hopefully, your garden can grow to the point where you can pick a bouquet and still have many blossoms to enjoy in the garden.

I love to pick bouquets to give to people. I give flowers to neighbors, friends, and have even been known to pick a bouquet for a complete stranger that admired my garden. My kitchen table is rarely without a bouquet from the garden, either.

So what are some good cutting flowers? The season of course dictates this, but we can start with the spring bulbs. Tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths all do very well as cut flowers. (Even if you only have one hyacinth, I’d bring it inside just because the scent is so heavenly.)

Daffodils and tulips are always the first of a long line of fresh flower bouquets that I pick. After these are just about gone the flowering trees and shrubs are usually in full bloom and they make good cutting flowers also.

From forsythia to lilacs to hydrangea-they all look stunning in a vase and will not wilt when you turn your back on them.

When the peonies and lilacs are blooming, I can be hard pressed for jars because not only are they gorgeous, they are big and quickly can fill up a vase. The lilacs smell so wonderful that I may have several vases of them in the house at a time.

Some people have an aversion to bringing peonies into the house because they can be covered with ants, but I’ve found that if you give them a good shake before you bring them in and then leave the vase in your sink for an hour or two most of the ants fall off and you can get rid of them.

Next blooming are the Lilies of the Valley. These little woodland flowers don’t look like much in the garden because their leaves usually camouflage most of the blossoms, but if you reach down you’ll realize they have nice long stems and they’re adorable in a small vase. They also have a powerful, fragrant aroma and are just delightful to bring in the house.

Next blooming are the Lilies of the Valley. These little woodland flowers don’t look like much in the garden because their leaves usually camouflage most of the blossoms, but if you reach down you’ll realize they have nice long stems and they’re adorable in a small vase. They also have a powerful, fragrant aroma and are just delightful to bring in the house.

Lilies of the Valley are bulbs and they grow deep into the ground. They can be used for ground cover in woodland or naturalized gardens but they can become invasive, too. They are hard to remove if you don’t get all of the roots out. So before you plant them be sure you have enough space for them and don’t be afraid to hack at them to make them stay confined if you need to.

Around this time the iris are blooming, too, as are the bleeding hearts, colombine, and lilies. Here are some new choices for flowers that do very well in a vase. Don’t forget to pick some interesting foliage, also, to add to your bouquets. Lamb’s ear, Artemisia, ferns, and hostas can add some wonderful texture and depth to your bouquets.

By the time the bulbs and flowering shrubs have finished their displays, the roses are coming on and your early season perennials are starting to flower. Roses, of course are grown to be cut. So I need say no more. Cut them, enjoy them, and cut some more.

Many cutting flowers actually thrive on being cut. Basically, a flower’s job is to set seed and reproduce so if you cut a blooming flower you disrupt this process. The flower knows it hasn’t produced seed yet and so it creates a new bud and a new flower.

Cutting flowers not only gives you something to enjoy in a bouquet, it forces the plant to produces more flowers. The chrysanthemum is a perfect example. Most people know that cutting back these plants early in the summer causes them to double the number of blossoms they produce by fall.

Some cutting flowers are also used by crafters in dried flower arrangements and wreaths. Some that dry particularly well are straw flowers, statice, globe amaranth, yarrow, baby's breath, lavender, pearly everlasting,globe thistle,and cockscomb. There are also many flowers that produce interesting seed pods that can be used for floral arrangements. One example of this is the Oriental poppy.

Poppies don’t last very long in a vase, so leave them in your garden and enjoy them there, but they produce an awesome seed pod which can be used for long periods of time in dried arrangements. Love in the Mist and Spring Anemones are like that, too. Their petals fall off rather quickly, but the remaining skeletal structure is quite attractive.

Now it’s time for the daisies and all their relatives to bloom. Practically anything with a flat head and petals surrounding a circular middle will do well as a cut flower. Think sunflowers, cone flowers, chrysanthemums, asters, bachelor buttons, coreopsis, zinnias and dahlias to name a few.

What about tall, stalk like flowers? Delphiniums, foxglove, gladiolas, lupine, and larkspur are all such flowers and do wonderful as cut flowers.

Are there more? Yes! In fact there are so many I would need an encyclopedia of flowers to name them. Sweet peas, astilbe, butterfly weed, penstemon, and cardinal flowers also do well in a vase.

If you want a lot of flowers for cutting, consider annuals seriously because not only do they flower profusely all summer, they grow rapidly and happily squeezed in between your slower growing perennials. Since many of your perennials might only have a two or three week blooming window each season, you may want to just enjoy them in your garden and make your arrangements with annuals. Some particularly good annuals to pick are zinnias, marigolds, snapdragons, cosmos, and asters.

As you move later into the summer the black eyed Susans, sunflowers, cyrsanthemums, and goldenrod will be blooming. They all do well as cut flowers.

If you’re not sure if the flower you’re contemplating will last when you cut it, don’t hesitate. Try it and see. If it does, hooray, and if it doesn’t-now you know. Even if you only enjoy it for a few hours, what better way to relax-perhaps with a cup of tea, a good book and a vase of flowers from your own garden.

Related Articles:

Summer Bulbs
Bulbs
Wildflowers
Annual Flower Garden
Perennial Flower Ideas
Fragrant Perennials
Perennial Flowering Shrubs

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