Grow some cut flowers this summer

Most people like the idea of growing some flowers for cutting but few of us have room for a dedicated cutting garden. In a previous job I had to supply cut flowers ‘for the house’ all year round. This can be a challenge but is easy to grow flowers for cutting during the summer months.

Now is a good time to plan for some flowers for cutting this summer. You do not need a special bed and you can cut flowers from around the garden. It can be a real wrench to cut peonies and delphiniums from the border, leaving gaps in your display but that is why annuals and other plants that keep on blooming are perfect.

You can buy and start dahlias now – perfect for garden display and cutting, but there are many annuals, that you can grow from seed in the next few months, that will provide you with lots of bunches for the house.

I grow flowers to sell for charity at the gate and the plants that I list below are my reliable, annual favourites. There are others, including alstroemerias, astrantia and pinks, which are always customer favourites, and daffodils in spring, but these annuals, including the tall ageratum, zinnias and statice, make up a lot of the bunches from June till September.

All these are half-hardy annuals or treated as such and should be sown in seed trays, in heat indoors, transplanted to grow on and planted out in May, unless otherwise stated.

Sweet Peas

Sweet peas smell as good as they look and can be sown from October to March so these can be sown now. Sow two or three seeds per pot. They don’t need a lot of heat but they do need good light to grow until they are planted out in March – they are hardy annuals and can withstand a light frost. Nothing is lovelier than the sight and scent of sweet peas and here is a flower that you can cut without guilt – the more you cut, the more flowers you will get. Never let old flowers fade and set seeds.

Antirrhinum

‘Snapdragons’ come in many sizes and shapes so make sure you grow a tall variety, ideally more than 45cm high.

The double F1 ‘Madame Butterfly’ is one of the best. Antirrhinums need to be sown early and are fiddly, small seedlings but they are tolerant of light frost so can be planted out in late April. Unless pinched out they tend to produce one, or a few, main, early stems and then many secondary stems.

Some are fragrant. They last well in water. Pick when in full bloom. Faded flowers at the base of the stems can be picked off so they will still provide colour in the border and cut flowers. You will have to grow tall snapdragons from seed because most plants sold for bedding are dwarf.

Bracteantha

Commonly called ‘helichrysum’ or ‘strawflower’, these upright, woody-stemmed plants produce the familiar ‘rustly’ flowers in a wide range of colours. They can be used fresh but are usually dried. The flowers continue to expand after picking so cut them when they are only partly open. The stems also go brittle when dried so it is usual to pick off individual flowers and dry them, to allow remaining small buds on the plants to grow and flower later. The dried flowers can be skewered on wooden sticks or attached with a glue gun.

Cornflower

Cornflowers are great for wildlife and cutting.These easy annuals are available in a widerange of colours and the blooms attract pollinators. Their nectar is particularly rich in sugar so they are of real benefit to all kinds of bee.

The flowers last a few days when cut. It is difficult to pick just open blooms without lots of unopened buds. This is a hardy annual so you can sow the seeds direct where you want them to bloom. Sow from March to May.

Cosmos

Cosmos have beautiful long-lasting flowers, Easy to grow and beautiful, cosmos are a must in the summer garden. Avoid the dwarf kinds if you want them for cutting and don’t buy ‘bargain, cheap, mixtures (Cheap mixes often contain seeds of plants that grow into monsters but don’t bloom till September)

Go to Nags Hall and pick some good, tall, named varieties. Cosmos have large seeds and are easy to sow. The seedlings grow fast too and  bloom all summer. You don’t need to sow till early April. It is difficult to pick open flowers without lots of buds which will need stripping off but the plants grow fast and new buds will soon appear.

Aster Callistephus

Asters come in single and double varieties in a wide range of colours.

Everyone knows these as asters.

They are not as popular as they once were but the taller kinds are fantastic for cutting. Sow in March in trays and plant out in May. Avoid dwarf kinds if you want to cut them.

They produce one flush of flowers, usually in August and September. They last at least a week in water.

Ornamental Grasses - Lagurus

Lagurus is a neat, fairly short grass with adorable flower headsThese are great to add to bunches of flowers to add contrast and texture.

Squirrel grass (Hordeum jubatum) is elegant and Panicum elegans (Fibre optics) is great in bunches though I can’t resist the soft, fluffy heads of ‘bunny tail grass’ (lagurus).

All are hardy annuals so can be sown where they are to bloom. They all self seed in my garden but then I leave some so the birds can enjoy the seeds in winter.

Nigella

Love-in-a-mist is easy to grow and lovely in bloom or covered in the horned seed pods. Love-in-a-mist (or devil-in-a-bush – take your pick) is a hardy annual that is easy to grow. They are available in a wide range of flower colours and they can be picked and used fresh or dried. And if you don’t pick them all the seed pods are beautiful too and ideal for drying.

You can sow seeds in April where you want the plants to grow

Rudbeckia

Rudbeckias are reliable plants for late summer colour. Some rudbeckias are perennials but the annual kinds are wonderful flowers for late summer.

Available in a range of colours and flower shapes, the blooms last for almost two weeks in a vase. They are easy to grow from seed but the seedlings, when tiny, are prone to overwatering so mix some perlite with the compost and don’t sow till late March. The plants take a while to reach flowering size but from August they are covered in bloom.

Statice

Statice is easy to mix into borders and is useful fresh or dry.

Statice is a useful plant with masses of flowers to use fresh and dried.

A mixed pack will provide loads of colours and flowers. Sow in March and grow the plants on and plant out in May.

They form wide rosettes of ‘dandelion-like’ leaves before they start to bloom.

Sunflowers

To produce small sunflower heads on straight stems, growers sow and grow them close together.

So, for cut flowers sow seeds about 15cm apart in rows or grow in pots and plant them 15cm apart.

Each plant will then produce a single flower. Or you could grow them in the normal way and pick flowers from the side-branches – but these usually have thick stems and flowers at odd angles that are difficult to arrange.

Zinnias

Zinnias flowers all summer, providing bunches of long-lasting blooms These are my favourites for cutting. There are lots of varieties and colours but make sure you are not growing dwarf kinds if you want to cut them.

Zinnias like sun and heat and they hate cold, damp conditions when small. They also hate to be transplanted so delay sowing till early April and sow a few seeds in each cell in cell trays so you can grow them on with minimal handling them and avoid damaging the roots.

Do not plant out till late May when it is nice and warm outside. The flowers last ages in water and any left in the garden will delight bees and butterflies.

 You can buy seeds of all these now and over the next few months so stock up, ready for sowing in the next few months.