Your cut flower garden should include annuals and perennials that bloom throughout the season, making maintenance easier by grouping plants with similar growing requirements together.
As an example, plant tall flowers like sunflowers in the back, medium-sized ones in the center and short-stature plants at the front. You should also note whether any plants require staking or would benefit from being tied onto a trellis (like climbing nasturtiums).
Prepare the Soil
Grown your own flowers allows you to bypass expensive florist prices while enjoying unique heirloom blooms that add color and beauty to indoor spaces. Many gardeners create cut flower gardens in dedicated planting beds, while others mix cut flowers in among vegetables or perennials in vegetable or ornamental gardens.
To ensure optimal performance of cutting flowers, select a sunny location and incorporate plenty of organic matter to improve soil structure and water retention. It is ideal to start this practice during fall or spring seasons and maintain it throughout their seasons of harvesting.
Plant a mixture of annual and perennial flowers to provide yourself with a range of colors, heights, textures and heights for your bouquets. Be sure to include flowers that dry beautifully for use in wreaths and garlands as well.
Plant the Seeds
Once your soil has been properly prepared, it’s time to plant seeds. A cut flower garden works well in its own garden bed; however, you could also incorporate cut flowers into vegetable gardens or landscape plans. Just ensure the flowers have access to water.
Cut flowers thrive in full sun, so choose a location in which they receive six to eight hours of daily sun for your garden. If you plan on growing tall plants such as sunflowers in your garden, use supports so they don’t collapse under their weight as they grow.
As soon as you’re ready to plant, consult your seed packet or catalog for recommended sowing times. Generally speaking, late spring – two weeks post last frost date – is often recommended as an ideal time.
Water
No sprawling garden is needed to fill your vases with homegrown blooms; rather, an urban cut flower garden may only need a small patch in your backyard.
Make sure that you provide your flowers with sufficient water throughout the growing season and variety of flower. Overwatering can lead to root rot or wash away nutrients while underwatering may slow or prevent blooming altogether.
Consider mixing perennial and annual plants. Perennials will come back year after year and are easy to care for, while annuals give you the freedom to experiment with different varieties each season. Group flowers that require similar care together – like dahlias that need staking or snapdragons that benefit from netting; pinch zinnias once every month after they bloom for increased blooming!
Fertilize the Seeds
At the core of any successful cut flower garden is rich, well-draining soil. Loose organic compost and slow release flower fertilizer make excellent additions to garden beds or containers, while raised beds offer optimal drainage – but any location with full sunlight will do!
Some flowers require staking or support in order to remain upright; placing these types of plants where you can easily add stakes if necessary. Others need regular pinching or deadheading in order to encourage branching and more blooms; these varieties should be planted where they can easily be reached from behind a garden fence or raised beds.
Be mindful of your local climate when planting flowers – some species prefer cooler temperatures and will flourish best during fall or spring blooming, but may struggle in hotter summer temperatures. Also be wary of potentially invasive varieties; contact your extension office before planting any such species.
Deadhead the Flowers
A cut flower garden consists of annuals, perennials or bulbs as well as greenery arranged into beds specifically dedicated to them. However, existing beds may also work, provided all plants bloom with similar times and heights.
Deadheading your flowers regularly will ensure they bloom beautifully. Deadheading removes old flower heads, encouraging new buds to form. Failing this step could drain energy away from producing new blooms – leaving an energy deficit behind that could have otherwise gone towards producing more blossoms.
As soon as harvesting begins, be sure to have a bucket of clean water ready in which to place cut stems as soon as they’ve been cut from their stalks. Mix floral preservative in the bucket as soon as the flowers arrive home from harvesting; remove lower leaves that might sit beneath the waterline; add floral preservative as soon as you add fresh water; strip lower leaves that might lie below waterline before allowing your flowers to rehydrate for several hours before arranging them into arrangements.
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