Your own cutting garden means fresh flowers all summer long!
A bouquet of fresh flowers at home is one of life’s little luxuries! With a little planning, you can have the satisfaction of cutting fresh flowers from your own yard.
Horticulturist Sheriden Hansen has the strategies for success, and shares why now is a great time to think about the possibilities of growing your own cutting garden.
Grow Your Own Cutting Garden
Where to grow
- Select a sunny site, prep the soil. You can have a dedicated cutting garden or…
- You can intermix cut flowers in existing garden spaces
- Add a border around or grow a row in vegetable gardens will draw in beneficial insects and pollinators and improve the health of your garden
What to grow
- If you want to grow for yourself, you will want to select a wide variety of flowers that fill certain functions in arrangements.
- FOCAL FLOWERS:
- Larger blooms
- Colors that draw your eye
- Examples: sunflower, rose, peony, zinnia, dahlia
- SPIKE FLOWERS:
- Tall, spike shapes
- Give height to your arrangement
- Carry color through the arrangements
- Foxglove, delphinium, snapdragon
- FILLER FLOWERS:
- Smaller bloom than a focal flower
- Add texture, color, and depth
- Dianthus, smaller zinnia cultivars, gomphrena, statice, baby’s breath, sweet pea, nicotiana, stock, feverfew, lisianthus
- GREENERY:
- Helps create overall shape and give the eye a rest
- Shapes and textures can add to the look of an arrangement
- Many of these can be foraged
- Myrtle, eucalyptus, oregano and other herbs, bells of Ireland, penny cress, dusty miller, and more
Where to source seeds, supplies, and learn more:
- Online stores: Johnny’s Seeds, Burpee, Floret Flower Farms, Harris Seeds, local nurseries and seed supply companies
- Great places to learn: Johnny’s Seeds has an incredible library to support growing cut flowers, each type of flower has a wealth of research-based information that you can read and learn from.
See a local cutting garden at USU Botanical Center in Kaysville when you attend the upcoming event “Quilts & Quartets.”
Quilts & Quartets Garden Event
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
6-8pm
USU Botanical Center, Kaysville, Utah
Cost: FREE
Find more information about the event at usubotanicalcenter.org.
Note: Organizers are still seeking quilts for display.
To enter a quilt, click here.
Sheriden Hansen serves as an assistant professor of horticulture with the Utah State University Extension. She holds a Masters in Plant Science from Utah State University. Sheriden loves to teach about fruit and vegetable production, how to grow crops in small spaces and container gardening. Sheriden is married with two sons. She is a registered nurse and beekeeper.
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