Backyard Cut Flower Garden
January is no friend of mine – – it’s cold, dark, and wet. However, January is the time I start ordering my seeds, corms and tubers for my backyard cut flower garden! So there is some redeeming value to this less than desirable month!
Planting a backyard cut flower garden is actually easier than you may think, especially when you dedicate a space just for cutting. No guilt here when I hack down the beautiful flowers – – that’s their job!
Why Create a Backyard Cut Flower Garden
- Bringing flowers inside to enjoy on my table, windowsill, or anywhere there is space.
- No guilt in cutting. This may sound bizarre, but for me, I would hesitate cutting flowers from my flower beds because I loved looking at them in the flower beds, too. When I started planning out spaces just for cutting flowers (flowers that are bred tall so they can be cut for bouquets), my guilt disappeared. These flowers have a purpose…grow and be cut.
- When a cut flower garden is designed into the backyard space, you use less space than you may think. You don’t need long crop rows. I love using half of my raised bed space for flowers, and then I plant dahlias along my fence lines. And when you get really crazy, you plant extra so you can leave some behind to make your garden shine.
- You can grow fewer flowers when you plan ahead for bloom times and coordinating colors. You don’t need to plant every flower in every color. With just a few choice selections, like a pink and white palette of specially designed cutting flowers, you can have weeks of cut flowers at your finger tips.
Backyard Cut Flower Garden for Late Spring Bouquets
We are going to focus on a late spring/early summer cutting garden. For me in zone 6b (last frost is roughly mid-may), these flowers should be blooming the first week of June….assuming I get everything in the ground on time!
My weakness is wanting all the pretty things. Every year I plant too much in varying colors and then I’ll have 2 of this and 1 of that, and 3 of something else, but none of them go together. This year I’m changing that!
No doubt I’ll still plant extras and too many colors, cause hey, we’re gardeners and that’s what we do! But, I’m making sure to have cohesion in my flowers. Spring is a time for life. Light colors scream spring so I’m planning on a pink and white color palette for my late spring bouquets.
I’m planning bouquets in a basic breakdown of 4 or 5 types of flowers: Focal, Spike, Disc, Backup, Filler, and Foliage.
I know a lot of florists LOVE big bunches of greenery and greener collars around bouquets. But that’s just not how I roll. I’m in it for the flowers!
If you’re interested in some of the these beauties, I’ve linked the images back to Longfield Gardens and Johnny’s Selected Seeds, where I ordered everything. On to the pretty!
Focal Flower: Aviv Picotte Ranunculus
If you’re new to ranunculus, let me acquaint you! These beauties are called ranunculus. They grow via corms instead of seeds, like other flowers on my list. Corms look like tiny dried up octopus. They are about 3/4″ big, you soak them in water for a few hours, then place them in potting soil about 1″ deep for 2 weeks to let them sprout. Then, in mid to late March, these bad boys head outside to be planted. Yep. March! They do need some protection so frost cloth is a must.
If this all sounds foreign to you, I’ll be posting a full how-to when it’s time to start these guys in March.
I have found ranunculus to not be deer or rabbit resistant. Mine were ravaged pretty hard right about the time they started to bloom. This is my 3rd year and they are going into the secured vegetable garden.
Spike Flower: Costa Rose II Snapdragon
Oh snapdragons. My cut flower garden will never be without snapdragons. These snapdragons are bred for cutting. They grow about 3′ tall and need support with netting so they don’t fall over from their heavy blooming heads.
Snapdragons are one of my favorites for backyard cut flower gardens. They are easy to start from seed indoors and grow under lights. They can also get planted out in April while it’s still cold. I have found that they don’t need frost protection. They do need deer and rabbit protection.
They are listed as deer resistant but I have found that deer love mine. Rabbits too. Rabbits may be a bigger issue than deer, though. So, if you have these guys in your yard, plan accordingly with fencing. Snapdragons are completely worth it!
Disc Flower: White Finch Orlaya
This is my first year growing Orlaya. I’ve being growing Ammi, false Queen Anne’s Lace, and I have loved it. However, last year I had an absolutely terrible time with it.
This year I’m going to try Orlaya instead. It has beautiful white, 3″ flower heads in a disc shape. It grows about 2 feet tall so shouldn’t need support. I will plant half in the vegetable garden (deer protection) and half in the landscape.
Filler Flower: Bells of Ireland
Bells of Ireland are a plant that, in my opinion, you have to see in person before you can make a judgement call on it. It’s an absolutely stunning flower in person. It has the most unique look and color to that I don’t believe pictures do it justice.
As far as cutting it through, there are leaves all along the bell flowers that I remove. It takes a minute but the effect is totally worth it. It’s a stunning flower. Albeit kind of a jerk to germinate. I start WAY more seeds than I plan to use just so I have a handful of germinated seeds to work with.
Foliage: Baptisia
This bad boy is actually a perennial shrub! It grows up from the ground every year so the greener is always fresh in spring and summer. In spring it has beautiful spikes of purple flowers. I use the flowers in spring bouquets, and the foliage in summer bouquets. I have found that the foliage in the fall looks good as a garden shrub, but not good enough for a bouquet.
Baptisia grows to about 4′ tall and wide, and fast! I have five gorgeous Decadence Blueberry Sundae in my yard from several years ago. This past year I added 7 more in Pink Lemonade.
As far as deer, my plants are nibbled in the early spring and then seem to be left alone. I have HEAVY deer pressure, so the odds should be in your favor for these shrubs to be a safe bet with deer.
Starting Your Backyard Cut Flower Garden
If you’ve been thinking about starting a cut flower garden, or if you’re considering upping your cut flower game, this is the time!
Head outside on a cold and grey day and start sketching out ideas for layouts. If you can find a 3’x6′ bed in a sunny spot, you can make yourself a small cutting garden.
Something to keep in mind with early blooming spring flowers – – they won’t bloom through summer and fall. These plants, with the exception of baptisia, are cold hardy plants that thrive in cooler temperatures. When the heat of summer rolls around at the end of June or beginning of July, these plants will wither away and get cut down.
That’s where having a plan comes in! There will be another round of crops waiting to fill in when this first flush of blooms comes to an end. Stay tuned and I’ll fill you in on my summer and fall bouquet line ups. It’s going to be a great season. Now we just have to endure the rest of winter!
Stay warm and dry. And head over to Instagram for the latest on seed starting and baking.
As always, feel free to let me know if you have any questions.
