Garden Style: Cut-Flower Garden

Growing your own cut-flower garden can be very rewarding. It can also save you some cash, since you won’t need to stop by the florist, or impulse-buy a bouquet from Trader Joes whenever you want fresh flowers in the house.

If you are thinking about growing a flower garden for the fresh-cut blooms, we have a little advice to get you going in the right direction. Planting and tending to a cutting garden is fairly easy, provided some basic rules of thumb are followed. 

1. Plan your location wisely. Most flowers need full sun (6-8 hours daily), and well-draining soil to thrive.
2. Speaking of soil, here in the Denver area, the soil is dense, alkaline clay–not ideal for growing many types of flowers. Pick up some compost from the garden center and mix it in with the dirt. 
3. Choose flowers of different colors, textures, heights, and blooming times, for maximum visual appeal all season long. You can mix annuals with perennials, or even add them to the vegetable garden or in between shrubs.
4. Plant like you’re lining them up for class pictures–tallest in the back, shortest in the front. This provides the most sun exposure for everyone, and it looks nice. 
5. For many flower varieties, the more often you cut them, the more they bloom (zinnias, I’m looking at you), so don’t be stingy with the bouquets. Spread the love!
6. You don’t have to just stick to big-blossom plants — keep it interesting by planting some grasses, herbs, shrubbery, or other non-blooming plants. 

Here are a few flower varieties that are perfect for a fresh-cut bouquet garden: