Cut Flower Gardening 101 {how to flowers}

It’s time for How to Flowers!  Last week we learned what the top 5 Easiest Vegetables To Grow From Seed are and today we’re learning about cut flower gardening. Tina is back in our how to garden series by giving us the 411 on how to flowers for a beautiful cut flower garden and fresh flower arrangements.

How To Flowers

When people think of a cut flower garden, they tend to think of a separate plot with rows of plants which offer good cut flowers, much like a vegetable garden offers vegetables. This is but one way to plan a cutting garden and can be hard to find the space for, difficult to maintain as well as unsightly in your yard.

Another way, is to come up with a plant list of the cut flowers you want, and incorporate them right into your landscape. You can add these to a perennial border, a shrub border or a few annual beds, and then enjoy meandering through your yard with the classic “basket in arm” swagger, snipping this or that to bring in and make beautiful, one of a kind arrangements.

Important things to consider when amping up your yard with the addition of cutting flowers are:

1. Say to yourself… “I am going to plant these in the existing beds of mine so I don’t have to do back breaking work creating a new bed. So what beds do I have and what are their conditions?” (ie. wet, dry, fertile, sunny or shady) And then plant plants accordingly to their requirements.

   

2. What are some mainstay flowers I must have because I love or know them well, what is their mature size, are they annual, perennial or bi-annual?

   

3. I think I need some filler, like the clusters of tiny blooms of ‘Solidego’ and ‘Aster’. These will help fill the arrangement?

   

4. Foliage is a huge opponent to flower arranging, you can look around your yard to see if you already have some good shrubs or evergreen trees for cutting on and if not, adding a few will reap huge reward.

   

5. Just know that, while long stems are good, they are not necessary.

   

6. Make sure your plan includes checking the bloom time of your plants! You will want something blooming in your yard every week of the year! Sounds daunting but it really is do-able, even in cold regions you can make creative arrangements every week with plants that have cool seed heads and evergreen foliage.

Daylilies…. not so good for arranging with, the blooms don’t last but a “day”. But Iris, Tulips and Peonies are a great start for Spring! Then look for plants that bloom early Summer and so on and so on.

A good tip is to start perusing the nurseries every couple of weeks for about a year, and either buy the plants that are blooming at that time or make a note of them and purchase their seeds. Just know that you have these plants for the purpose of arranging, do not get scared when you find yourself cutting every single bloom off a plant, if it is a perennial, it will bloom again, if an annual, you can plant more. The goal is to fulfill your joy of fresh flower arranging and the beauty you are bringing indoors!

How to Garden Series:

Step 1 – Ground Site Selection
Step 2 – Improve Gardening Soils
Step 3 – Garden Beds, Pockets and Pots 101
Step 4 – What To Plant
Step 5 – Gardening with Children
Step 6 – Top 5 Easiest Vegetables to Grow From Seed
Step 7 – Cut Flower Gardening 101
Step 8 – Container Gardening 101
Step 9 – How to Grow a Salsa Garden
Step 10 – How to grow a Perennial Garden
Step 11 – How to Grow Strawberries In Your Garden
Step 12 – Six Steps to Reduce Water Needed in My Garden
Step 12 – Five Best Herbs Go Grow for Kitchen Use
Step 13 – Waging War on Weeds
Step 14 – Plant and Gardening Pest Control
Step 15 – How to Preserve Water in your garden
Step 16 – 7 Ways To Store Vegetables  {from garden}

Feel free to ask Tina any ‘how to garden’ questions you might have!  You can leave your question in the comments or on the Tip Junkie Facebook page. Tina is a Southern gardener  who has a passion for plants and a desire to learn more about them every day.  We are so glad she’s sharing her knowledge with us.  You can find her at Botanicsonline, A Southern Gardeners Blog.