Grow a Cut Flower Garden for Homegrown Bouquets

This inspiring guide shares how to grow a cut flower garden in any size garden. It includes tips for beginners on how to lay out your garden, amend soil, and choose flowers for scented and long-lasting bouquets.

I absolutely love growing flowers, arranging them, and just being on my plot surrounded by them. Everyone needs flowers in their life. That’s why, as a florist and allotment gardener, I’m sharing my tips for growing them with you. I remember feeling very overwhelmed when I first started my cut flower garden. If you’re starting out, you might feel the same. There was so much to do, and every time I went up there, it felt like the jobs were never-ending. Over time, I’ve learned to love this aspect of gardening. Especially when it comes to growing cut flowers.

My first foray into gardening began with vegetables, but I soon discovered a love for growing and arranging flowers. After working for others in the floristry world, I was shocked by the huge quantities brought in from all over the world in such an unethical way. These once-natural and organic blooms are cut, plunged into chemicals, and often flown thousands of miles before we see them. So much so that it is difficult to find anything that even has a scent anymore. This didn’t make sense to me. Growing your own is a much more eco-friendly way to have cut flowers for home.

Plant Cut Flowers in Rows

When it comes to growing cut flowers, you must get out of the mindset of planting for an ornamental garden. It will still look pretty, but your main aim isn’t for visual aesthetics but for maximum yield. You want to plant everything a little closer together and in straight lines of one variety. That way, you will have a very clear idea of what you have growing, and most importantly, the flowers will be easier to harvest (and deadheading!). Cut flowers also prefer a position in full sun and protected from the wind.

Most Cut Flowers Prefer Rich Soil

Next, you want to think about your soil. If you want your flowers to be at their best, you have to make their growing conditions just right. I feed my beds with rich manure and compost at the start of every season and again in the winter before the spring and summer bulbs go in. On my North London plot, I have very heavy clay soil. That means I have to feed my beds with lots of organic matter; otherwise, my plants would be very sad indeed.

Grow Cut Flowers for Your Situation

Another thing to consider is which flowers are right for you and your space. For example, if you only have your plot or garden for a short time, annuals are the best thing for you. They are easy to grow and very rewarding. You can direct sow lots of them and many of them produce flowers all summer long. If you have sandy soil or a shady location, you’ll want to grow flowers best suited for that situation.

Annuals are wonderful to grow, but if you know you will be somewhere more permanent, you can invest in shrubs and perennials. Hydrangea, lilac, forsythia, and peonies are all beautiful. They’ll take longer to establish but will be very useful in the long run. Ideally, if you have space, you should plant a variety of flowers and shrubs for your cut flower patch.

Must-Have Cut Flowers

On my plot, I have five beds for annuals and five for perennials and shrubs. Annuals are plants you need to sow seeds for every year, and they are well worth the effort! These annuals are a must for fragrant cut flower displays, and you’ll always find them in my cut flower garden:

• Ammi majus
• Cosmos
• Queen Anne’s Lace
• Amaranthus
• Nigellas
• Cornflowers
• Sweet peas
• Zinnias
• Sunflowers
• Celosia

Perennials and Shrubs for a Cutting Garden

When choosing what to grow in your cuttings patch, aim to have blooming flowers or lovely foliage for every month of the year. Also, choose varieties in colors that you prefer and have a mixture of leaves, flowers, and branches that add interesting texture when paired together. You want big, bold blooms but fillers and dainty flowers, too. Lastly, it’s easiest to plant perennials since they’ll come back to bloom every year without having to re-seed. They make for some of the easiest cut flowers in your garden. Here are some of my top picks:

• Roses
• Dahlias
• Echinacea
• Chocolate cosmos
• Peonies
• Verbena
• Achillea
• Mint
• Rosemary
• Fennel
• Smokebush
• Spirea
• Ferns
• Eucalyptus

Grow a Variety of Cosmos

There are a lot of flowers that are still blooming on the plot, even now in September. The cosmos are in their element and just seem to keep on flowering. People tend to go for the standard Purity variety, but there are so many more to choose from. I grew ten different varieties this season, and I am bowled over by the results. These are my favourites: candy stripe, daydream, seashells, cupcake, double click cranberries, and double click rose. Also, Cosmos sulphureus ‘Bright Lights’ is a beautiful little orange variety.

Chocolate Cosmos as Cut Flowers

If there’s one cut flower I’d recommend for you, it would be chocolate cosmos. They’re one of my absolute favorite flowers to grow, and they still look glorious at this time of year. I tend to plant them in March, and I often find them in Wilkinson’s [a British supermarket] for a great price. There’s no need to pay a fortune for them. They come as bare roots, and I’ve yet to have any unsuccessful plants. They are perennial, but sadly, mine never make it through the winter, even in mild London on a very sheltered plot. I may try lifting them this year and bringing them indoors.

Chocolate cosmos are wonderful for floristry as they have a lovely long stem, a very long flowering season, and hardly need any maintenance. Just a bit of a feed through the summer and lots of water. The color and scent are stunning, too. They’re almost black when they first flower, but over time, it morphs into a stunning deep red. They’re useful in summer arrangements since they add contrast and depth, especially when using pastels. Best of all, they smell like chocolate, which becomes more noticeable towards the end of the day.

Plan Next Year’s Cut Flower Patch

Now is also the time to start thinking about spring bulbs. We plant hundreds on the plot, so it takes a lot of organizing and planning to make the most of the space. As I’m growing cut flowers, I don’t plant things like crocuses or snakehead fritillaries. I save these for my garden. In autumn, you want to plant narcissi and tulips that will flower from January to March. Other flowers like ranunculus and anemones are planted in the spring.

As we reluctantly head into the colder months, just remember that there is always something we can do for the cut flower garden. Whether it’s planting indoor paperwhites for a glorious scent to fill the house, ordering seed catalogs in January, working the soil, or planning out next year’s garden, there is always something we can do. But for now, enjoy this last bit of warmth and make the most of your outside space. The plot still looks glorious, and I plan to soak up every minute of it.

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