Thinking About Starting a Cut Flower Garden?
If you’ve been dreaming of growing your own flowers but aren’t sure where to start…
I can help.
Planting Area:
First thing to find out, is if you have an area that has at least 6 hours of sun. Most cut flowers love the sun and do best if it’s not too shady.
Check that your soil isn’t waterlogged but drains so there isn’t puddles. You also don’t want soil that is hard as a rock. You will either need to take a shovel and loosen the soil down at least 6-8”, or mix in compost to your soil to help loosen it.
It helps to place your cut flower garden somewhere that’s not in direct view of your main window. When you’re admiring the flowers every day, it can be surprisingly hard to cut them. A cut flower garden is most productive when you harvest often — the more you cut, the more it blooms.
What Flowers are Best for Cut Flowers?
Second, research what flowers are best for cut flowers. Many flowers at garden centers are grown to stay compact so these will not be useful for bouquets.
I would recommend going online to Johnny’s Seed because they specifically offer cut flower seeds, plus they have beautiful pictures. It will help give you lots of good ideas of what is possible to grow.
Great flowers to start with are zinnias, cosmos, celosia and sunflowers. These can be easily planted straight in the ground, so you don’t need to have indoor growing equipment.
When you are first starting, research flowers that are cut and come again. This means you can cut them and they will continue to produce new blooms. Zinnias, celosia and dahlias are all plants that keep producing the more you cut the blooms.
Some flowers, like sunflowers, you can only cut the flower once.
Choosing Colors:
Once you see some flowers you’d like to grow, then think about how the colors look together. If you pick random flowers that you like, you may be disappointed how they look all together in a bouquet.
A monochromatic look, with all plants being different shades of pink, can look very nice. Or if you love color, pick a few bright colors to go together like yellow, pink and purple. White can go with anything too.
Figuring out Your Last Frost Date:
By knowing your last frost date, this will help you know when you can safely plant seeds or seedlings safely outside without them being killed by cold weather.
Check here for your last frost date:
Ongoing Maintenance:
Lastly, be prepared to weed and water your flower growing area.
If you let the weeds grow, they can compete with your flowers and choke them out.
Watering regularly is very important. When starting seeds directly in the ground, you will need to keep the area moist and not let it dry out much until the seed sprouts.
Or after planting a new seedling, you may need to water it daily for a couple weeks until the roots are established. After that, watering weekly at least, is very important to how many blooms your plant will produce.
Happy gardening!