Cut Flower patch
raisingirl
Posts: 6,652
in Plants
Hostafan mentioned on another thread that he's planning a cut flower patch this year. I had a bit of a half hearted attempt at this last year and was thinking of trying a bit harder this year.
Last year I had some dahlias 'arabian nights', some antirrhinum, rudbeckia and sweet peas with euphorbia oblongata for greenery. I also had larkspur that I don't think I'll bother with this year. I was thinking of adding cosmos and sunflowers - what else would you suggest? Either perennial or annuals?
“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first”
0
Posts
Ammi, Scabiosa, sunflower vanilla ice, cornflowers, anemone coronaria, Calendula snow princess, salvia viridis pink and blue, cosmos, Antirrhinum and dahlias.
I started my first cutting patch last year and it was great fun. One thing I will be doing dif this year is planting much closer together. I planted at recommended spacing and although it looked ok it lacked the wow factor I was hoping for. Cornflowers I have since learned like to be planted very closely together. I will probably double the amount of planting this time, but give the dahlias the recommended spacing.
Another vote for salvia viridis from me, easy to grow with masses of colourful stems that last for ages. I bought a seed mix that had pink/purple and white in it. Zinnias have good long, straight stems for arrangements.
Have bought a couple of bare root echinops to try out this year.
We had great success from cosmos, cornflowers and Calendulas (I can't remember the type) which kept giving the more we cut so would definitely recommend those.
We also had some fennel that added some green interest to displays, but I grew that in its own herb bed rather than in the flower patch.
I can completely receomend a cut flower bed, there is nothing better!
First year gardening last year and I did
dahlias, clary sage, rudbekia, nigella, sweet peas, cornflowers, cosmos, ammi majus, anenomes, cerinthe, gaura all in a dedicated bed
some I wont be doing again this year: clarkia, zinnias, didiscus.
I also pinched some flowers from the borders such as scabious, lavender, roses, spirea, hydrangea
Its nice to have flowers of different shapes and lengths of stems for interesting combos..
I had literally buckets of flowers daily! I had too many for myself but anyone visiting went away with flowers it was so lovely!
Ill try and upload some pics in a bit
Busy Lizzie does very good vases of cut flowers so I suggest you have a chat with her RG and see what she grows.
You could also have a peek at Sarah Raven's website and see what she recommends but her seeds tend to be expensive so hide your credit card!
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
I love this idea. I did a selection of Cosmos, Cornflowers and a Wildflower mix last year but they were fairly dessimated by slugs! It was just an experiment, with free seed packets, to underplant a corner I have filled with Aliums. I will try again this year - so any tips for slug-protection or slug-resistant plants please share (I won't use slug pellets as have loads of wildlife plus cats).
Try Nematodes or sow your seeds in pots, prick out and grow on until you have a strong healthy plant able to withstand slug attacks before you plant in garden.
Lovely flower displays newgardeningirl. I’m feeling inspired to try harder this year.