I seem to be taking flowers to lots of people recently. I’ve had a rash of friends and relatives in the hospital, and, unless the person lives far away, I usually do an arrangement from the garden. It seems more personal, and I can do a really nice arrangement for little cost.
Whether you want flowers for friends, for your dining table or for your place of worship, think about growing your own. Some flowers will come from perennials and some from woody plants, but save some space for a cutting garden of annuals. Most have the same needs: rich soil, regular watering and full sun.
Another requirement of a cutting garden is protection from high winds. If a plant is blown over, it usually keeps growing, but there will be a bend in the stem that makes arranging difficult. Staking will be necessary for some flowers, but a windbreak will help you limit that time-consuming task as much as possible.
My ideal cut flower would be easy to grow, have long strong stems, have lots of flowers over a long season, be fragrant and last in a vase for at least a week. That’s a tall order, but many flowers meet the criteria. Here is a list of the 10 plants I rely on most.
Dahlias: From midsummer to frost, there is probably no more productive plant for cut flowers than dahlias. By this time of the year, mine usually have powdery mildew on the foliage, but I simply strip the leaves off and use other greens.
Winter daphne (variegated): Daphne odora Marginata is a shade-loving shrub I use often for foliage. Its glossy green leaves with a pale yellow edge look great and hold up well. From January through at least March the little clusters of super-fragrant, pink flowers make it the basis for winter bouquets. Add winter-flowering branches, early bulbs or a few store-bought flowers, and you can do a home-grown arrangement most of the off-season.
Feverfew: These seed themselves year after year around my garden. They are easy to weed out, but if they aren’t in the way I leave them for a long-lasting filler flower.
Godetia: Few people grow this plant and the reason is a mystery to me. It is easy from seed and can self-sow. It has stalks of satiny flowers in shades of pink and purple that have a great vase life.
Larkspur: Another flower that conveniently self-sows, this flower is terrific to add brilliant blue (or white, pink or lavender) to your arrangements. Sometimes I even dry stems for winter use.
Peonies: They definitely rate low on the long-season scale, but do well on most of the others. Pick them just as the buds are opening to avoid bringing in ants. Prepare the soil well before you plant, because they don’t like being moved. Choose a fragrant cultivar and you have a nearly perfect cut-flower plant.
Roses: There is nothing low-maintenance about most rose bushes, particularly since I tend to chose cultivars for fragrance, not disease resistance. Roses add so much to an arrangement that I consider them worth the trouble.
Snapdragons: My favorite are the Rocket strain, which make tall spires of blooms in various colors. They over winter in my garden, but I rip them out and replant annually. Otherwise, they inevitably get covered with rust disease the second year.
Sunflowers: Nothing says summer like sunflowers, and there are so many nice cultivars to choose from now. You probably don’t want to grow Mammoth Russian, since it’s hard to arrange blossoms that are a foot across.
Zinnias: These annual beauties have a tremendously long season. For cut flowers you want a nice big plant such as State Fair strain or Burpee Giant. Zinnias are slug candy, so keep the bait traps handy.
Holly Kennell is the Snohomish County extension agent for Washington State University Cooperative Extension. Master gardeners answer questions on weekdays at WSU Cooperative Extension – Snohomish County, 600 128th St. SE, Everett, WA 98208. Call 425-338-2400.
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