How to Create a Cut Flower Garden
By Kaw Valley Greenhouses, Inc.
Create and enjoy your own fresh-cut flower garden with our list of tips.
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When it comes to trends in the gardening world, home-grown fresh florals are bursting and blooming in popularity. With these tips for planting stunning flowers, you can have endless fresh-cut bouquets to proudly display and share with others.
What are Cut Flower Gardens?
Cut flower gardens are generally filled with long-stemmed, scented, and gorgeous flowers or ornamental plants. These plants look amazing when displayed in a vase, bouquet, or even dried. Sometimes cut flower garden plants can work double-duty by also being edible! Planning a cut flower garden requires a bit of strategy and some work to harvest the flowers at the right time, but it’s totally worth it!
How to Plant a Cut Flower Garden
If you’re new to the flower game, you can start with some beginner-friendly options like zinnias, sunflowers, phlox, or rudbeckia. Whatever plants you choose, you’ll want to think ahead when it comes to planting them.
Follow the instructions for each plant to make sure you know their bloom schedules. Another thing to consider is succession. If all of your flowers bloom at once, you may run out of vases and the beautiful blooms might go to waste. It’s a great idea to calculate bloom times so your plants produce flowers at intervals. Perennials, for example, may only last a few weeks, so you will want to look for spring, summer and fall bloomers. You can also plant several types of annuals to have a good supply of flowers throughout the growing season.
Types of Flowers to Grow for Bouquets
The possibilities are really endless when it comes to choosing flowers for your cut flower garden. You can go for classics like roses, lilacs, and tulips, or change it up with salvias, hostas, or coneflowers. Take some time to think of bouquets that you have loved in the past, and then plant your most-loved varieties— and make sure they work within your garden conditions. Be aware that just like any plant, you’ll need to make sure your cut flowers are getting adequate light, water, fertilization, and are thriving in their location.
Growing Ornamental Grasses for Bouquets
While it’s easy to focus on the show-stopping blooms that will be in your cut flower garden, you may also want to consider complementary accents for your bouquets like ornamental grasses. When it comes to floral design, it’s always smart to have ornamental grasses and foliage as a backdrop to your bright blooms. Try options like ribbon grass, millet, or feather-reed grass.
How to Harvest Cut Flowers
You may be super excited to snip off a bloom as soon as you see one, but proceed with caution! Some plants are more sensitive than others, and there is an art to how and when you snip a bloom for your bouquet.
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Harvest your flowers in the early morning or later in the evening.
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Avoid harvesting in the middle of the day, when the plant is most distressed.
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Make sure your plants are well-watered before harvesting.
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Have a bucket or container with clean, cool water to immediately put the fresh-cut flowers in.
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Use clean, sharp shears and cut stems on a slant.
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If you need a break between harvesting and arranging your flowers, keep them in water in a shady and cool area.
Show-Stopping Cut Flowers
Get creative and dream big with your cut flower garden! Here are some of our favorite flowers that we think you should try this year:
Roses: When you can’t say it with words, say it with a rose! Roses are timeless classics that come in so many varieties. You’ll be able to find a color and variety that reflects your unique floral design preference. If you’re looking for a rose that will leave a big impression, opt for the Double Knock-Out Rose.
Lavenders: Another fragrant option, lavenders do well in bouquets if you remember to remove any foliage that would be submerged in water. In hues of purples and blues, lavender flowers look great alone or in a romantic bouquet and even dry very easily.
Dahlias: Dahlias always steal the show in any bouquet they are a part of. As fresh-cut flowers, they make amazing bouquets at weddings and stunning centerpieces at dinner parties. Their vibrant blooms are available in an array of colors and these plants are tough in the heat of summer.
We’d love to see what you come up with in your next bouquet. If you’re looking for ideas for your cut flower garden, come visit one of our locations.
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