If you grow your own cutting garden, you’ll have beautiful flower bouquets all season long
To ensure a steady supply of flowers for cutting, employ “succession planting” by sowing or planting more seeds or seedlings every two weeks.
By Jessica Damiano
Associated Press
June 27, 2023
Excerpt:
Every spring, I cut fragrant lilac stems from the two bushes flanking my front gate and set them in a vase indoors, where their fragrance perfumes the entire first floor better than any scented candle or diffuser could.
In summer, some of my hydrangeas and roses make it indoors too, their blossoms commanding attention in a vase on my dining room table.
Almost every flower can be cut and enjoyed indoors, but growing a proper cutting garden takes a bit of planning, and the first step is to consider your flowers as a crop to be harvested. Just as some tomato varieties are preferred for use in sauces, some flowers are better for cutting and arranging than others.
Those with short stems, for instance, don’t lend themselves to a second act in a vase. Ditto those with fragile blossoms, which would wither indoors within a day.
Seed catalogs offer the greatest selections, and their descriptions often include whether flowers are appropriate for cutting and arranging.
Annuals and perennials both can be grown in the cutting garden. Annuals complete their entire life cycles in one year but typically produce a profusion of blooms throughout the season. To ensure a steady supply of flowers for cutting, employ “succession planting” by sowing or planting more seeds or seedlings every two weeks.
Perennial plants return year after year but often aren’t as prolific as annuals. Some bloom for just two or three weeks; others rebloom repeatedly. Read plant descriptions carefully.
