Perennial and Annuals to Grace Your Home
Do you love cut flowers in your home? Then a cutting garden is perfect for you. There are several ways to arrange the cutting garden to have the best display inside the house and in the yard.
Arrange the flowers by height:
When you want the most appeal from the outside you need to put the tallest flowers to the back of the garden. Make sure that they are not in front of shorter plant when facing the sun. It is simple reasoning that a taller flower blocks the sun and thwarts the plant in its shadow.
Check the sun requirement for the shorter flowers. Full sun means as it says, the sun all day. Don’t plant taller plants behind these. Most plants can thrive in partial sun.
Arrange by color and blossoming time:
Are you a monochromatic kind of person? Develop your color the same way in the garden. Plant clumps of color to get the full effect of it and contrast. I am not the best in organizing anything, and the color scheme of my garden had to be simple. Once I placed the plants in the right area, sun or shade, I simply made the colors go by the light spectrum and from the light shade of that color to dark.
The blossoming time of perennials vary quite a bit. Annuals, once flowering bloom a lot longer. Keep the blossoming times in mind and try to mix the plants so there is always something blooming.
Grow interesting foliage if you are going to use the garden for bouquets. You want to have variety in the vase.
Great flowers for a cutting garden:
Perennials:
Peonies: These beautiful bushy plants can be used all alone in an arrangement. Their flowers are big and varied, due to new hybrids. Giant multicolored, pink, white, or red flowers with a heavenly scent will grace your table around Memorial Day. Use the plant vivid dark green foliage as the background. WARNING: Shake the ants out of the flowers before bringing them in. There’s always some there.
Bellflowers: These beautiful blue flowers have several varieties. Check the height in the seed catalogue.
Poppies: The Oriental Poppy has a short life in the garden. It actually lasts longer when it’s brought indoors.
The Balloon flower: They look like a balloon until they pop open.
Lilies: There are so many types of Lilies. I have never tried the Day lily, but Oriental lilies and Stargazers last a long time.
Lilac: Snip a branch of the bush and add it to the bouquet. The fragrance calms even the most beastly of guests.
Roses: Well, of course.
Daisy types of flowers like the Echinacea, Shasta daisy, Black-eyed Susan, and Gaillardia all make great additions.
Chrysanthemums: Football weather is just around the corner when the mums start blooming. These hardy fall bloomers come in all shapes and sizes. They also can be annuals or perennials.
Lupines: Brilliant colors on a stalk.
Monarda: Bee balm is it’s common name.
Baby’s Breath: Don’t forget the accent flower.
Choose a bulb: All the spring flowers that we love like Tulips and Daffodils can be brought in doors. Warning: Paper whites STINK!
Gladiolas are dramatic accent flowers also.
The list is endless. Most wild flowers don’t do well, and ground cover or short-stemmed flowers are out of the question.
Annuals For the Vase:
Snap dragons: Another favorite of mine. The oil is used as food in Russia and has a wonderful folk tale about how the plant’s oil came to be given to the Russian people. If you squeeze the sides of the mouth of the individual flower (You’ll know what I mean if you see it.) You can make it talk. I play with these as my puppets until Mike takes them away from me and hides them. They are fun.
Cosmos: These are stunning daisy like flowers that are prolific. They are so simple to grow you see many communities plant them along roadways.
Calendula: Like oranges and yellow? If you do this one screams, “Pick me, pick me.”
Salvia: Another red dynamite flower.
Sunflowers: There are smaller versions that are multi head. These are great for bouquets.
Sweet peas: Charming plants.
Zinnias: Big and beautiful.
Larkspur: The annual of the Delphiniums.
Carnations: Yes you can grow them and they smell wonderful.
Spider flower: They have a unique shape that adds eye appeal
Corn flowers: Bachelor buttons are a member of this group. They are great for drying.
Don’t forget the foliage:
Try a few plants like fennel (I am officially a fennel pusher) for its lacy leaf and lemon balm for the scent to add interest to your cutting garden and bouquets.
There are more that I think of even now, like the Poor man’s orchid also know as the Butterfly flower. This is just a starting point for your unique cutting garden.
