Garden Advice

Grow a Cut flower garden

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Having fresh flowers on the table can help make a home feel pleasant and inviting. Store-bought flowers can be expensive, but growing your own may not be as hard as you’d think. Gardeners can grow and create their own cut flower bouquets with surprisingly little time and space.

What Types of Flowers Should I Grow?

There are many flowers that are suitable and easy to grow as cut flowers. These include:

  • Sunflowers
  • Celosia
  • Zinnias
  • Cosmos
  • Sweet Peas
  • Snapdragons
  • Tulips
  • Yarrow
  • Poppies
  • Daffodils
  • Asters
  • Amaranth
  • Bachelor’s Buttons
  • Ageratum
  • Echinacea (coneflowers)
  • Lavender
  • Sweet William

Especially if you’re new to flower gardening, we recommend growing zinnias and cosmos as they produce tons of flowers over a long season. The more you cut and deadhead, the more they produce.

Soil Preparation

Just as you need healthy soil to produce a good vegetable crop, you need healthy soil to grow quality cut flowers. Forking your flower bed, adding compost, and testing your soil before planting can help ensure that you get a great harvest.

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Plant Early & Plant Successions

Many flowers need to be started indoors weeks before your last frost. Be sure to read the growing instructions for your chosen varieties well before the season begins and stay on top of spring planting.

You can also use the fall to do some extra-early planting. Tuck in bulbs like daffodils and tulips and sow self-seeding flowers like poppies. Visit our post, Fall-Sown Flowers for Spring Blooms, for more ideas.

Throughout the beginning and middle of the summer continue sowing, if you have space. Some quick-growing flowers like zinnias can be sown every 2-3 weeks until midsummer. For more details on how to succession plant flowers, check out our post, Succession Planting Flowers.

Keep the Weeds Down

Keeping the weeds at bay, especially while plants are getting established, is essential. Plants won’t produce as many flowers if they’re competing with the weeds for nutrients and space.

Water Consistently

Consistent watering is key to good flower production. Soaker hoses or drip irrigation are an ideal low maintenance way to keep flowers watered. They’re also more efficient!

You can also mulch around flowers once they’re up. Mulch will help block weeds and keep the soil cool and moist.

Harvest & Deadhead Regularly

It may seem counter-intuitive, but for many “cut flower” varieties, the more you harvest, the more they will grow. The same goes for deadheading. Not letting flowers go to seed will encourage them to keep producing. So even if you don’t need another bouquet, cut your flowers and give them to a friend.

Harvesting

There are a few things you should know when harvesting cut flowers. The first is that your flowers will last the longest and look the best if you harvest them in the morning after the dew has dried, but while it’s still cool.

Always use clean cutting tools. Cut stems at a 45° angle and bring flowers into the shade as soon as possible. When arranging flowers, remove all foliage that’s below the waterline.

Garden Advice

Grow Lavender From Seed

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Lavender is a terrific addition to any perennial garden. It’s fragrant, beautiful, and can be used medicinally or to discourage moth damage and musty odors in woolens and linens. If you’re gardening on a budget, it can be much more cost-effective to start lavender from seed rather than purchasing plants. This advice will help you have success.

Starting Your Seed

Note that not all lavender cultivars will come true from seed. Select one that will like English Munstead.

You can use trays commonly used in vegetable gardening to start lavender. It’s best to use a light, slightly alkaline sterile, and well-draining potting medium. Lavender can be prone to rot if it stays waterlogged.

Lavender can take up to 30 days to germinate, so starting your plants early is key! Place your seeds in your tray and lightly cover them with soil. It germinates best in soil that is around 70°F. To ensure your soil is warm enough, keep your trays in a warm area of your home and use seedling heat mats if available.

Water your lavender regularly, especially as the seed is germinating but avoid overwatering and constantly wet soil. Use lights if you’re starting indoors.

Planting Out

After all danger of frost has passed and your plants have a couple of sets of leaves, you can transition your seedlings out to the garden. Harden them off, bringing them outdoors for just a little bit longer each day.

Plant seedlings in a bed with well-drained soil that receives full sun. Lavender is sensitive to wind. Depending on your garden, you may need to provide wind protection during the winter. Covering your plants with a breathable fabric like burlap is a good option.

Once mature lavender plants make excellent borders and are great for achieving a cottage garden style.

Lavender grows very slowly, especially in the first year. Your garden bed may take a while to look full and impressive.

Harvesting

During the first year, it’s best to let your lavender grow without cutting any. By year two, your plants should be larger and flowering. During the second year, you should be able to begin harvesting, if desired.

The best time to harvest lavender is when the buds have formed, but the flowers haven’t opened yet. Harvesting at this time will ensure the best color and fragrance once the lavender is dry.

Use sharp, cleans scissors or pruners to harvest your lavender. Always leave at least one set of leaves growing on the stem below your cut.

Bundle your stems into small bunches and hang them upside down somewhere out of direct sunlight to dry.

Using Your Lavender

After your lavender has dried, in about 2-4 weeks, you can use it for a variety of projects. Use your lavender to make wreaths or simply enjoy the bundles hanging or in vases throughout the house.

You can also easily strip the buds off the stems with your fingers. The buds can then be sewn into satchels for keeping with clothing or under pillows to help with sleep.

Use the buds for herbal tea and adding to lemonade. Lavender is a traditional herbal remedy used for stress-related headaches and as a carminative, antidepressant, and calming tonic for the nervous system.

Lavender buds can also be used to create infused oils for soap or salves or in bath salts for their pleasant, soothing fragrance.

Garden Advice

Garden Chores to Complete Before Spring

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The weather might be dreadful outside, but the gardening season is right around the corner! Soon the crocuses and daffodils will be popping up! It’s time to think about garden preparations before we reach the height of spring planting. You can complete some of these chores at any time, and others will depend on your climate.

Stratify Seeds

As we discussed in our last post, How & Why to Stratify Seeds, some seeds require or benefit from a process called stratification. Depending on the variety, this can be a long process, so it’s best to start early. For example, certain echinacea varieties require cold stratification in a refrigerator for 2-4 months!

Place Orders

Now’s a good time to make sure all your orders are in. Think about the vegetable, flower, and herb seeds you’ll want to plant for your summer and fall gardens. You might also want to consider adding fruit or nut trees and shrubs to your property, and early spring is a great time to plant these.

Organize Seed Starting Equipment

Depending on where you live, you’re probably already starting a few seeds. If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to make sure all your supplies are in order. Purchase or make a DIY potting mix, get your containers or soil blocker together, check lights, heat mats, and other equipment.

Begin Starting Cold Hardy Varieties

No matter what your hardiness zone is, you should be able to begin starting seeds indoors by the end of February. Begin with cold-hardy crops like onions, cabbage, broccoli, celery, celeriac, and cauliflower. Here in zone 7a, you can start artichokes and tomatoes indoors this week.

Start Flowers and Herbs with Long Germination Periods

You may also want to begin starting flower and herb varieties that have a long germination period. Examples include lavender, snapdragons, and rosemary. It’s a good idea to read all of your seed packets well ahead of time.

Create a Garden Layout

Creating a plan for your garden can help you make the most of your space. You can use a garden planner app or just paper and pencil. Though they can help efficient maintenance and harvest, you don’t have to stick to straight lines. Your garden should reflect you.

Tool Maintenance

Make sure all of your tools and equipment are ready to use. Sharpen them and replace broken handles. Take any mechanical equipment like tillers and mowers that need it in for service now ahead of the spring rush.

Create a Cold Frame

Having a cold frame can help you get a head start on the spring season. You don’t need any construction skills to make one. You can create simple cold frames from strawbales with an old window laid on top.

Plan Fruit Tree Guilds

If you’re planning on adding fruit trees to your property, consider creating fruit tree guilds. They’re a permaculture method where you make a mini-ecosystem around a tree to help deter pests and build healthy soil.

Start or Maintain Your Compost Pile

Compost is a gardener’s gold. Creating compost keeps food waste out of the landfill and is a free way to add nutrients and structure to your soil.

Get a Soil Test

A soil test can help you improve your soil and, therefore, your garden’s productivity. You’ll know exactly what nutrients your garden needs to thrive.

Mow Winter Cover Crops

At the end of February, southern gardeners can mow cover crops in beds that they’ll be planting soon. Just make sure your soil has dried out enough so that you’re not compacting it.

Spread Compost

Where temperatures are mild enough, late winter and early spring are good times to spread an inch or two of compost over beds you’ll be planting soon.

Spring will be here sooner than you think! Make sure you’re ready for it with these tips.

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