Become a Member
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Pinterest
  • New Plants
    • New Plants Search
    • Green Thumb Award Winners
  • Year Of Plants
    • Year of the Amaryllis
      • Amaryllis Pictures
    • Year of the Broccoli
      • Broccoli Pictures
    • Year of the Celosia
      • Celosia Pictures
    • Year of the Orchid
      • Orchid Pictures
    • Year of the Rudbeckia
      • Rudbeckia Pictures
    • Year of the Spirea
      • Spirea Pictures
    • 2022 Year Of Plants
      • Year of the Gladiolus
        • Gladiolus Pictures
      • Year of the Lilac
        • Lilac Pictures
      • Year of the Peperomia
        • Peperomia Pictures
      • Year of the Phlox
        • Phlox Pictures
      • Year of the Salad Greens
        • Salad Greens Pictures
      • Year of the Verbena
        • Verbena Pictures
    • 2021 Year Of Plants
      • Year of the Hardy Hibiscus
        • Hardy Hibiscus Pictures
      • Year of the Garden Bean
        • Garden Bean Pictures
      • Year of the Hyacinth
        • Hyacinth Pictures
      • Year of the Monarda
        • Monarda Pictures
      • Year of the Sunflower
        • Sunflower Pictures
        • #YearoftheSunflower Video Contest Winners
    • 2020 Year Of Plants
      • Year of the Lavender
        • Lavender Pictures
      • Year of the Lantana
        • Lantana Pictures
      • Year of the Hydrangea
        • Hydrangea Pictures
      • Year of the Iris
        • Iris Pictures
      • Year of the Corn
        • Corn Pictures
    • 2019 Year Of Plants
      • Year of the Snapdragon
        • Snapdragon Pictures
      • Year of the Dahlia
        • Dahlia pictures
      • Year of the Pumpkin
        • Pumpkin Pictures
      • Year of the Salvia nemorosa
        • Salvia nemorosa pictures
    • 2018 Year Of Plants
      • Year of the Coreopsis
        • Coreopsis Pictures
      • Year of the Tulip
        • Tulip Pictures
      • Year of the Calibrachoa
        • Calibrachoa Pictures
      • Year of the Beet
        • Beet Pictures
    • 2017 Year Of Plants
      • Year of the Daffodil
        • Daffodil Pictures
      • Year of the Brassica
        • Brassica Pictures
      • Year of the Rose
        • Rose Pictures
      • Year of the Pansy
        • Pansy Pictures
  • Combo Ideas
  • Inspiration
    • NGB Blog
    • FAQs
    • Newsletter
    • Pinterest
    • Promote Gardening
    • #YearoftheSunflower Video Contest Winners
    • Snapdragon Video Winners
  • Education
    • Member Blogs
    • Books
    • Online Courses
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • Products
    • Garden Books
    • Garden Décor
    • Garden Tools
    • Green Thumb Award Winners
  • Shop Members
    • United States
    • Canada
  • Garden Grant
    • Grant Application
    • Therapeutic Grant Program
  • Contact
Grow Your Own Cut Flowers for Beautiful Bouquets

Beautiful Bouquets from Your Cut Flower Garden

Flower Gardening, Garden Planning & DesignJune 2, 2022gail

Is there anything lovelier than a beautiful bouquet of homegrown blooms?

Whether you adore the sweet scent of spring narcissus, the vibrant colors of easy-to-grow zinnias, or the charming cheerfulness of sunflowers, growing your own cutting garden provides the perfect way to enjoy fabulous flowers throughout the year—with garden-to-vase arrangements.

But not all flowers make the best bouquets. Fortunately, some newer cultivars of classic blooms provide increased disease resistance for prettier foliage and flowers, better branching for more blooms, and longer vase life. You’ll even find some flowers bred to keep your dining room table pollen-free, while the flowers still provide nectar for pollinators in the garden. With so many great new plant choices, your vases will be filled all season!
Zinnia Benary Giant Mix - Cutting Garden Flowers - National Garden Bureau
PanAm Seed Snapdragon Maryland Appleblossom - Cut flower Garden - National Garden Bureau
Sunflower Vincent's Choice from Sakata - Cut flower garden - National Garden Bureau

Why Grow a Cutting Garden?

As a gardener, you know there’s nothing nicer than wandering through the garden, enjoying the colorful blooms, fabulous fragrance, and interesting textures in the landscape. But it’s equally enjoyable to bring your favorite flowers inside, adding color, texture, and fragrance to your home or office. Plus, because they’re fresh from your yard and haven’t traveled thousands of miles (like most bouquets found in grocery stores), you’ll enjoy the blooms longer—while also relishing the fact that you’ve grown them yourself. You should take pride in the fact that you’ve nurtured those lovely flowers from seeds or bulbs to create gorgeous, personal homegrown bouquets.
If you’re like most gardeners, though, the thought of leaving holes in your carefully created landscape beds or borders might make you hesitant to snip blooms for bouquets. Many flowering shrubs’ blooms make lovely additions to arrangements, producing dozens of blooms that make snipping a few for a vase inconsequential to the overall landscape. But cutting a border of daffodils, tulips, or zinnias just as they reach their peak show can make the landscape look a bit bare. Instead, consider planting a cutting garden.
Delphinium Aurora Deep Purple - Grow Your Own Cut Flower Garden - National Garden Bureau
Zinnia Queeny Lemon Peach - AAS Winner - Cut Flower Garden
Purpurascens Kiwi Blue makes a great cut flower from Sahin - National Garden Bureau

How to Create a Cutting Garden

Traditionally, a cutting garden is a space tucked out of sight, where rows of flowers are cultivated much like you’d grow and harvest a veggie crop. However, because cutting gardens are filled with gorgeous color, texture, and fragrance, there’s really no need to hide these beauties—it’s just a personal preference. Instead, it’s more important to select a site with ample sun, rich soil, good airflow, excellent drainage, and access to water.
If your front yard boasts the best sun, don’t be afraid to plant your cutting garden where neighbors can appreciate the beautiful blooms, too. (Of course, check to make sure your cutting garden complies with Homeowners’ Association regulations.) Or incorporate your cutting flowers among your veggie crops. Not only do the flowers help attract pollinators to your vegetables, but they also add beauty to the kitchen garden.
Once you’ve chosen a sunny space for your cutting garden, pay attention to the soil. Is it rich, loamy, and well-drained, or does it need amendments for your flowers to thrive? The sole purpose of a cutting garden is to produce flowers and foliage to harvest for bouquets, and nutrient-rich soil is essential for healthy, bountiful floral harvests.
Beginner Tip for the New Gardener

It’s always a great idea to test your soil when creating a new garden space to ensure the soil provides the pH and nutrients your flower crop needs. You can find DIY soil test kits at garden centers or online. Most university extension offices also provide soil testing services.

For brilliant blooms all season long, add compost to your soil to give your plants a great start. Rich compost helps feed the plants, providing micronutrients they need to produce gorgeous blooms. As the season progresses, you may need to side-dress the plants with additional compost or add fertilizer to encourage more blooms. Choose a fertilizer for flowers and follow the directions on the label.
While plants need rich, well-drained soil to ensure their roots stay healthy, they also require adequate water to produce brilliant blooms. Before you plant, consider laying drip irrigation in your cutting garden beds.

Drip irrigation offers several benefits in a cutting garden:

  • Saves time and hassle. After all, who likes lugging a hose around the garden on 95-degree summer days?
  • Saves water by targeting the root zone of the plants—where they need it.
  • Prevents disease, which can be spread through soil splashing onto the plant’s leaves when watered overhead.
Most flowers need about an inch of water per week to produce well. Check the top inch of soil. If it feels moist, no need to water. If it’s dry, turn on your drip irrigation. (Or pull out the hose!)
Tulips are perfect for spring cut flower bouquets - National Garden Bureau
Summer Cut Flowers make a beautiful design - National Garden Bureau
Fall Cut Flower Bouquet - National Garden Bureau

Plan for Beautiful Bouquets All Year

A well-designed cutting garden keeps your vases full, from the first hint of spring through the chilly days of winter. By creating a seasonal planting plan for your cutting garden, you’ll enjoy beautiful blooms and fabulous foliage all year long.
While many gardeners focus on only summer-blooming flowers grown from seeds, like zinnias and sunflowers, you can extend floral displays by adding spring and summer-blooming bulbs and tubers, hardy annuals, perennials, and foliage plants to your cutting garden.
To get started, make a list of your favorite flowers: those should be a must for your cutting garden. Next, make a calendar based on bloom time. Think about the earliest bulbs you enjoy in your garden, starting with daffodils and tulips. Then, consider your favorite early summer blooms, and add them to the list. Continue through fall, focusing on late-blooming flowers, grasses, and foliage. And finally, don’t forget winter: evergreen foliage and winter-flowering plants, like hellebores, make great additions to your cutting garden.

The goal is to enjoy indoor homegrown floral displays all year long.

“This post is provided as an educational/inspirational service of the National Garden Bureau and our members. Please credit and link to National Garden Bureau when using all or parts of this article.”

Previous post Gardening Simplified: Time-Saving, Practical Products Next post Fabulous Flowers for Your Cutting Garden

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Follow Blog via Email

Sign-Up to receive notifications of our new posts.

Search

Topics

  • DIY Crafts & Gifts
  • Flower Shows and Festivals
  • Garden Grant Recipients
  • Gardening as Therapy
  • Gardening Books
  • How-to
  • Indoor Gardening
  • Kid's Gardening
  • Planning and Design
    • Backyard Habitat
    • Container Gardening
    • Garden Planning & Design
    • Perennials
    • Plants for Shade
  • Plant Care
    • Pests and Diseases
    • Plant Care & Maintenance
    • Soil, Compost and Mulch
    • Winter Gardening
  • Planting
    • Flower Gardening
    • Foodscaping
    • Herbs
    • Planting Tips
    • Seeds and Seed Starting
    • Vegetables
  • Pollinator Gardening
  • Recipes

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017

Contact

National Garden Bureau
5201 Walnut Ave., Suite 3
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Phone: 630-963-0770
Email

Quick Links

New Plants
2022 Year Of Plants
Inspiration
Shop Our Members
National Promotions
Garden Grant
AAS Winners
Video Contest Winners

About NGB

Who We Are
Become a Member
Member Directory
Member Photo Libraries
NGB in the News

Newsletter Sign-Up

Sign-Up for our Newsletter Here

Copyright © 2023 National Garden Bureau. All rights reserved.