Tips for Growing a Cut Flower Garden

What is a cut flower garden?

So what exactly is a cut flower garden? Well, really simply put it’s a flower garden grown with the sole intent of being able to cut flowers and make bouquets. Bouquets and bouquets of fresh flowers for your home, your friends and loved ones. The best. And anyone can grow one. As an added bonus cut flower gardens are wonderful for inviting pollinators and butterflies to your yard!

Planning an urban cut flower garden

The biggest thing to remember when planning your garden is that flowers need plenty of sun and rich, well-drained soil. Once you have taken that into consideration, the planning is easy.  I actually didn’t do much in way of planning for my first cut garden. I just dove right in and chose bulbs, tubers and packets of seeds that I found at my local nursery (and Walmart…yep it’s true). But I was SO happy with my garden this summer, even though some things didn’t grow quite the way I liked, and some of the flowers I didn’t really love, it was all such a great learning experience. And I’m super excited to be planning my cut flower garden for this upcoming season. I learned a lot last summer, so I can’t wait to implement a few new things.

Consider your space

You don’t have to have acres of land to have a cut flower garden. In fact you can grow plenty of flowers in surprisingly small spaces. Cut flower gardens can be grown in pots, so anyone can have one…balconies, patios, urban yards…they can all be transformed into a garden for cut flowers. My cut flower garden is 100% grown in pots, so I treat is like an annual garden (I don’t reuse any bulbs the following year).

What to know about sunshine

The biggest thing to consider is the amount of sunshine your garden receives over the growing season. If you don’t get a lot of daytime sun, then you don’t want to plant flowers that require a lot of light. All you have to do is make sure you’re purchasing seeds and bulbs that match the sunshine in your yard…there are many options for all different lighting.

Use good soil

Get good potting soil that provides optimum aeration, drainage and nutrients.

Planters to use

There are so many options for planters for your cut garden. Raised beds are great because they retain moisture. But don’t think you need to have a full garden to be able to grow flowers, you can absolutely have a complete cut flower garden in pots! I like to use self watering pots because plants stay healthy between waterings. Heavy glazed pots are great too because they hold water well (Terracotta pots looks nice, but they’re the worst for growing flowers because they absorb water). For my garden I bought some self-watering raised planters which I love…I like being able to tend to my flowers without having to bend over all the time. And self watering is great because they’re very forgiving if you forget to water your flowers.

Anemones

I absolutely LOVE anemones. And for some reason I never considered growing them in my garden, I think I just assumed they were difficult. Boy was I wrong. Anemones are SO easy to grow, and they’re hearty. I had loads of anemones from June right into October. This year, 60% of my garden will be anemones. Tip: I bought my anemone bulbs from Walmart and they were excellent!

Dahlias

Dahlias are also surprisingly easy to grow! They bloom continuously through the summer, they come in the most amazing colours and sizes with long stems…from small to dinner plate size, and the more you cut them, the more they grow, making them perfect for a cut flower garden!

Sweet Peas

I used to grow many many sweet peas, but as the trees in my yard grew they blocked much of my daytime sun so over the years it became harder to grow them. But if you have great sun in your yard, sweet peas are SO easy to grow and will give you gorgeous scented flowers right into fall which is wonderful. I still do grow them but I’ve chosen to grow them in pots that I can put in direct sunlight.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are easy to grow, are generally quite prolific and they make the most beautiful additions to bouquets. They’re also great because they bloom right into fall, so you can have late summer + fall bouquets and vases filled with blooms.

Zinnias

Zinnias are also really easy to grow, come in a number of colours and sizes, and they’re just gorgeous! This year I’m going to dedicate quite a bit of my garden space to zinnias.

Peonies

Peonies make THE MOST GORGEOUS bouquets ever. They do however require more planning than the other flowers I’ve mentioned here. Peonies are not a flower you can just plant one season and expect to get flowers from, and they can’t grow in pots. You have to have a dedicated space in your yard for these perennials, and wait at least a year for blooms…but if you plant now, you’ll have peonies next year…they’re worth the wait! They also have the most lovely foliage that looks beautiful in bouquets. I look forward to my peonies every year.

Cut Flower Bouquet Ideas

Now it’s the fun part, putting together bouquets! I enjoy this part so much! There are no rules…anything goes. If you love it, pick it and put it into a bouquet. Here are some cut flower garden bouquet ideas that I’ve shared.

PIN IT for inspiration later!

Isn’t is amazing what we can grow in our own backyards?! Have an inspired day!