This spring I have decided to grow a small cut flower garden. I have a small area in my front yard that is bathed in full sun all spring/summer long. This will be the perfect spot for me to try my hand at growing beautiful flowers for the sole purpose of cutting and filling vases and other containers to place around my home.

I decided on a 48” x 10’ plot to get started. You can make your gardens as long as you want but I wouldn’t go wider than 48” because you want to be able to reach the middle. And depending on how long you go you may want to break them up just so you don’t have to walk down too far especially if you have a larger plot, for example, if you have the room you can do four 48” x 10’ plots separated by 24” paths to get between them. And take into consideration if you need equipment to go between them you’ll want much larger paths.

Since I live in a lower zone with fewer warmer days I’ve decided to purchase the plants in lieu of planting seeds. I’ll have a combination of annuals and perennials but in my research, I have found that for a cut flower garden you’ll want to stick with 60% annuals and 40% perennial ratio. And take into account your zone. If you do not know what zone you live in do a quick Google search on the growing zone for your area.

I live in Minnesota so there are several flowers that are considered perennials in warmer climates but in my zone, they are considered annuals. The great news is I can still grow some of my favorite flowers, but they won’t winter over so I’ll have to replant them each season.

Once you’ve determined the size of your garden – you can determine what types of flowers you want to plant and how many flowers/or seeds you need. Whether you are seeding or planting my rule of thumb is to plant more than what your local garden store recommends. You can maximize a small space in a cut flower garden and have great results!

Once I have my garden plotted I’ll make sure the soil is good quality soil. My husband has already told me that the area I want to plant my garden is pretty sandy so we’ll have to add some good soil and compost. You want to ensure your plants have a healthy living environment.

When choosing flowers to plant make sure to plant them so you have a variety of flowers blooming all spring, summer, and autumn long. The flowers I’ll be looking to plant in my garden are daffodils, hyacinth, poppies, sweet peas, and ranunculuses which are all popular spring flowers. For my summer flowers, I’ll go with cosmos, dahlia, lilies, delphinium, and for autumn black-eyed susans and chrysanthemums. This will give me a great start in my first garden for the flowers and I’ll throw in some ornamental grasses and greens such as bells of Ireland and hellebores, too.

Harvesting the flowers is more involved than just cutting flowers and throwing them in a vase. You’ll want to cut the flowers during the coolest part of the day either morning or evening and then place the stems in cool, clean water. It’s best to let the stems rest in the water in a cool spot out of direct sunlight for a few hours before arranging.

You’ll also want to cut the flowers just before they’ve fully opened. Once you are ready to arrange, recut the stems at an angle and add a floral preservative to the vase water to keep them looking great. See our post on floral design to learn how to arrange flowers.

xx, Danae

P.S. We have several items on our online shop that are flower-inspired! If you are a flower lover like me, you won’t be able to pass these items up.