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Cut Flower Gardening: The Best Cutting Flowers + Growing & Harvesting Tips

The act of growing flowers is therapeutic and it beautifies your space while creating food for beneficial pollinators. Many stunning garden flowers can be grown in a home cutting garden and the last well in bouquets. When you are planning your garden, you often think of flowers as garden decoration and vegetables, fruit, and herbs as consumables. Why not add some of the best cutting flowers to the “consumables” category? Chances are, you are already growing a number of cutting flowers already.  And really, there’s nothing better than bringing a bouquet of homegrown flowers to cheer up or delight a family member or friend.

The Best Cutting Flowers to Grow and Harvest from Your Garden

Best Cutting Flowers to Grow in the Home Garden

Many perennials, annuals, and even herbs and bulbs can be snipped and brought inside for a gorgeous arrangement. Creating a cutting garden or adding some extra blooms in your garden space means there will be plenty to add to vases, providing color and fragrance around the house. The possibilities for what you grow in your cutting garden are really endless, but here are a few favorites for floral arrangements:

  • Allium
  • Anemone hupehensis (Japanese anemone)
  • Antirrhinum (Snapdragon)
  • Dahlia
  • Delphinium (Larkspur)
  • Echinacea (Purple Coneflower)
  • Echinops sphaerocephalus (Globe Thistle)
  • Forsythia
  • Gladiola
  • Helianthus (Sunflower)
  • Hydrangea
  • Iris
  • Lavandula (Lavender)
  • Monarda (Bee Balm)
  • Paeonia (Peony)
  • Rosa (Rose)
  • Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
  • Syringa vulgaris (Lilac)
  • Zinnia

Handpicked bouquet of cutting flowers from the garden

How to Cut Flowers From The Garden

In most cases your plants can spare a few blooms to create a gorgeous bouquet. Still, cutting off any of the flowers is somewhat stressful to the plant so it’s best to take care to ensure the health of your plant is first priority and it will continue to produce many blooms for you to harvest throughout the season.

  • Cut plants in the early morning before the day becomes too hot. This will give you the longest-lasting blooms.
  • Use sharp scissors or pruners to remove the flowers with as long of a stem as you can get. Snip as close to the base of the plant as you can because a long stem will be the most useful in a bouquet.
  • Always use clean scissors openers when cutting flowers in the garden. Each cut can introduce disease into the host plant so it’s best to carry a bucket of soapy water with you and give the tools a quick wash between different plants.
  • As you cut flowers from around the garden bring a mason jar or vase with a bit of water in it so you can put the stems right into the water immediately on cutting.

Making a Cut Flower Bouquet

Once you have all of your flowers selected from around the garden it’s time to prepare them for the bouquet.

flowers with bottom leaves removed

Cut a large piece of craft paper into a square. Angle the craft paper with a point towards you so it looks like a diamond shape.

Start your arrangement by choosing the largest, tallest, and strongest flowers first. Add these to the paper with the stems a few inches up from the point that faces you. Layer more flowers into the bouquet with the stem ends around the same place. You can trim the stems at the end so they are even. Soak a paper towel in water and wrap it around the stems of the flowers. Cover the wet paper towel in a plastic bag and use a rubber band to secure the bag onto the stems.How to Wrap Cut Flowers in paper

Now is the time to wrap up the flowers in the paper. First fold the point that faces you up over the bottom of the stems that are covered in the paper towel and bag. Next fold one side of the diamond paper to cover the flowers and talk the point underneath them. Roll the rest of the flowers towards the other point and use a piece of tape to secure the point closed. Finish the bouquet by wrapping with a piece of raffia and tying a bow.Home grown bouquet

Add a personalized tag to your beautiful bouquet and get ready for the smile that it puts on the face of the person who’s lucky enough to get it.

Once you have them planted and blooming, here are some ideas for using flowers from your cutting garden.

Related: How to Make Cut Flowers Last

Make Unique Fresh Bouquets

Love herbs? See the “Chicken Soup,” “Spaghetti Dinner,” and more creative posy bouquet ideas here.

Make a flower arrangement in a pumpkin for fall. Do this by hollowing out the pumpkin, then adding florist foam or a vase inside to hold the flowers. Wondering if the pumpkin will decompose before the flowers wilt? Read about How to Make Planted Pumpkins Last.

Plant cut flowers in a birdcage using a similar method as the pumpkin planter. Add a vase or florist foam on a dish into the birdcage and let the flowers flow freely!

For even more cut flower arrangement ideas, have a look at this post by Louise Curley, the author of The Cut Flower Patch: Grow your own cut flowers all year round. She shares her best ideas for arranging homegrown flowers here.Best cutting flowers for the home garden

Comments

  1. hi Stephanie…i’m a florist,thank you so so much for sharing this useful tips about flowers

    Reply
  2. I enjoyed your article. On when and how to cut flowers for indoor enjoyment. I will use the vinegar and sugar solution from now on. Thank you.

    Reply

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