This will be my third year growing a cut flower garden in our backyard! I am no gardening professional, so I fully believe you can successfully do exactly what I’m doing. A single planting of these flowers will produce about 3 months of blooming backyard flowers, which I use in arrangements for our home and give away to friends. This post is intended to be super simple and not overwhelming, so keep in mind there is SO much more to learn!
To help you get started, I’ve broken it down to 5 easy steps, and added some links to additional resources and products at the end of this post.
It’s important to note that I’m located in Middle TN (Zone 7b), so planting information will vary by zone!
If you’re wanting to dig in more, I highly recommend the book Floret Farms Cut Flower Garden. It is worth the money. Not only is it full of information, but it also doubles as a beautiful coffee table book!
1. Determine Where You Will Plant Your Cut Flower Garden
To make things simple, the flowers I recommend starting with are zinnias and cosmos, which are two of the easiest cut flowers to grow. These are both prolific bloomers that continually bloom from roughly July through September.
First, you need to determine a spot with full sun where you are going to plant your flowers in order to know how many seeds to order.
You only need a couple of feet to grow flowers. You’re supposed to plant these seeds roughly 9-12 inches apart from one another, but I normally squeeze them in tighter.
This year, I’m planting mine in our raised garden beds, and in our mulched landscaping beds around the house. The first year I planted seeds, I cleared out the grass from around our chicken coop, bought a bag of gardening soil to spread on top of the dirt, and planted them there. If you don’t have a preexisting landscaping bed, clear out grass & add some soil like I did to create an impromptu bed.
2. Order Your Seeds
Now for the fun part! Figure out which varieties of zinnias & cosmos you want to order! I always order mine online. They are SO much better than the seed packets I grabbed at Kroger one year. Floret’s zinnia varieties are by far my favorite. Her seeds typically go for sale at the beginning of February and sell out quick. Johnny’s Seeds also has beautiful cosmos and zinnia varieties.
3. Patiently Wait to Plant
Once you have your seeds, I direct plant them into the soil once it warms up. Both of these flowers resent cold weather, so you need to wait to plant them once it has warmed up. Patience is KEY! The rule of thumb that I follow for where I live (Middle TN) is to plant your seeds after Mother’s Day.
4. Water & Watch Them Grow!
Once your seeds are planted, begin to water them daily. You should begin to be able to see them sprout in 3-5 days. (Confession: there are many days I forget to water and these flowers are very forgiving!)
Both of these flowers benefit from “pinching” which leads to more abundant flower production and longer stems. This means that when your plants are young and 8-12 inches tall, take sharp pruners and cut the top 3-4 inches off the plant, just above the first set of leaves. This makes the plant send up extra stems from where you cut. However, if this scares you as a beginner, no need to worry. I’ve had beautiful blooms the past 3 years without doing this.
5. Cut the Flowers & Create Bouquets!
You should begin to see blooms within 3 months of planting the seeds. Once they start blooming, be sure to harvest & bring them into your home or give to others! They are called “Cut and Come Again” flowers, because the more you cut, the more will grow! Be sure to cut each bloom at a set of leaves, so a new shoot will start where you cut from. If you aren’t harvesting, be sure to cut off the dead blooms so they plant can use that energy to create new blooms.
When you’re creating bouquets, get creative with what you already have in your yard. Adding just a few extra clippings of different plants to your zinnias and cosmos really jazzes up a bouquet! It’s my goal to slowly add more perennials to our yard (plants that come back every year), so I have a plethora of flowers to choose from when creating bouquets. I currently have Annabelle Hydrangeas, a climbing rose bush, ferns, Daisies, a Butterfly Bush, mint, and more that I love to use! I may need to create a blog post on my favorite landscaping plants to use in arrangements. You can also purchase flowers at Kroger to fill in-I usually love their clearance flowers!
Like I said earlier, this just barely dips your toes in the water when it comes to flower gardening. There is SO much more to learn! I’ve included some of my favorite resources below, as well as some products you may need.
Favorite Cut Flower Garden Resources
- Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden Book– I already mentioned this above. It’s my favorite learning tool for flowers.
- Floret Farm’s Blog Post on Zinnias
- Floret Farm’s Blog Post on Cosmos
Favorite Cut Flower Garden Products
- My favorite hand pruners for clipping flowers
- Wide Mouth Plastic Watering Can (I love plastic so it won’t rust!)
Other Product Ideas
- Labels for Marking Types of Seeds
- Gardening Tool Set
- Gardening Gloves
- Heritage Blue Stripe Stoneware Pitcher for Farmhouse Flower Arrangements
- Whimsical Garden Lights
If you have any additional questions once you’re done reading, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook, or in the comments below. I’m sure you aren’t the only one with the question you have, and I’d love to answer to the best of my ability. Happy gardening!
Daisy Sue
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