If you love creating bouquets, adding a cut flower garden could be a wonderful addition to your landscape. This type of garden should be located in a sunny spot with easy access for cutting flowers.
Mix perennials (those that return year after year) and annuals (those that bloom and die within one season). Consider fragrant varieties or those boasting attractive foliage.
Planting
Start planting annuals and perennials together for an abundance of flowers for arrangements. Consider including fragrant blooms with visually-appealing foliage as well as those that dry well to find your seasonal supply of bouquet-worthy blooms.
Planning the planting to make it simple to weed, water and harvest is key for successful flower gardening. Wide rows are best, ensuring easy weeding, watering and harvesting of tall sunflowers as well as short blooms like zinnias. In addition, plants that need staking (dahlias or delphiniums) or grow-through netting (sweet peas) should be placed apart to avoid crowding issues.
If your garden is large enough, set aside an area for cuttings to be taken from existing flowerbeds rather than picking from them directly, as this can quickly deplete them of their plants and leave visible bare spots in their place.
Soil
Cut flower gardens require fertile and well-draining soil that will enable organic materials, like compost or leaf mold, to enhance its nutritional profile. Water the garden regularly but without getting it too wet; doing this helps minimize fungal problems and promote deep rooting. Use efficient methods of water delivery such as soaker hoses or drip irrigation systems which deliver water directly to roots while limiting evaporation and waste.
Select quality seeds or plant starts from reliable growers that are free from diseases. Follow the growing instructions on the back of the seed packet carefully, taking note of which varieties require sun or shade exposure.
Water
An ideal cut flower garden requires consistent watering and ample lighting; morning irrigation allows the plants to fully benefit from it before the heat of the day takes hold.
Plan your garden layout so harvesting and weeding are straightforward tasks, while planning an attractive planting pattern helps with identification and removal of diseased or insect-ridden flowers. A cutting garden combines perennials and annuals; perennials will return year after year while annuals provide you with new colors or height each year. Each species requires specific soil, light, and water needs.
Fertilization
Additionally to providing adequate drainage, fertilize your plants regularly as required. Grouping flowers with similar cultural needs will make this easier; sunflowers and zinnias prefer acidic solutions while sweet peas and climbing nasturtiums do better when fertilized with alkaline solutions.
Some tall annuals, like zinnias and celosias, benefit from being pinched regularly to promote more stem production. Although this requires advanced gardening knowledge, pinching can still be done easily using either fingers or pruners – aim to pinch when your plants reach 10 to 12 inches.
Pruning
Ideal garden design should allow easy access when picking flowers. A sunny location is preferred since most cut flower plants need full sun (at least 6 hours of exposure per day). Seed packets typically indicate how much sun each variety requires.
Make sure the soil is loose and well-draining by incorporating plenty of organic matter. Doing this will improve water retention and drainage. Also, mixing vegetable and herb plants in with cutting flowers adds interest while encouraging pollination. When it comes to weeding, make sure you pull weeds by their roots so they won’t return – best done when the soil is wet for easier weed pulling!
Harvesting
If you want a regular harvest, plant flowers with similar bloom times together or spread them across your garden so they will be ready for cutting at once. This saves both time and energy spent deadheading, watering and fertilizing all at the same time – saving both energy and effort on managing identical plants at the same time!
Be sure that your gardening scissors are sharp and clean when using them to cut flowers, and bring a bucket of lukewarm water along to place cut stems as soon as they have been cut. Also keep in mind that certain flowers (roses and hydrangeas) need acidic solutions while other (tulips, daffodils, carnations, sweet peas) require alkaline solutions.
Be sure to remove fading flowers to encourage new blooms, while manually weeding as necessary is an integral part of gardening maintenance for any size garden.
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