I have always dreamed about having a cutting garden that would enable me to give out endless bouquets to all my friends. One good thing about a cutting garden is that it is not designed to look beautiful in any organized way. A cutting garden has no other design purpose except to give each plant room to breathe. That means flowers can be planted in rows without consideration of whether they will clash with the other flowers around them. Rows and rows of flowers cannot help but be as beautiful in an unstudied mass as they are in considered arrangements.

When planning a cutting garden I might think of the flowers I like best, beginning with annuals which stay in bloom over a long season. Zinnias immediately come to mind because they are so easy to grow and come in so many forms and colors.  I am particularly interested in the Profusion series of single zinnias because they have won prizes from the All America Selections in the U.S. and from Fleuroselect in Europe. Profusion zinnias, yellow, apricot, cherry pink, orange, white and more, attract butterflies and bees. The single form gives pollinators a landing strip on the petals pointing to the center of the flower where the pollen and nectar are waiting. Profusion zinnias are about 15 inches tall with an equal spread and will bloom all summer. Cut all you want and the plant will continue to create blossoms.

Cosmos are taller and have always been a staple in my garden. One reason I like them is because they also attract bees and certain butterflies. They come in many colors, pinks, white, yellow and gold. There is even a dramatic chocolate cosmos, with deep maroon color and a chocolaty fragrance. Renee’s Garden Seeds offers a whole palette of cosmos from single flower forms to ruffly double forms. Some have petals that are rolled tubes like a seashell. In addition to the flowers themselves, cosmos also gives you lacy, light green foliage. If you don’t plant from seed, it is easy to find six packs of seedlings.

The Salvia family is large and includes perennials and annuals. Some of the perennial varieties are sold in our area as annuals because they are too tender to survive our winters. I always buy at least three little boxes of Victoria Blue annual salvia which I plant around a rose bed in lieu of a lavender edging. But I regularly steal a few spikes for the few bouquets I do make.

There are also attention getting red salvias with names like Salsa, Bonfire and Firecracker. They range in size from one to two feet tall. Salvias are another plant family that provide nectar to bees and butterflies.

Snapdragons are wonderful annuals that come in a whole variety of colors from pale pastels to rich reds, brilliant golds and yellow. There are tall varieties, usually two to three feet tall, and dwarf varieties that are only a foot tall. The Rocket series grow to almost three feet tall and are considered an excellent cut flower.

Most of us will buy snapdragon seedlings because they take so long to come into flower, but when we finally get them into our gardens they might welcome a little bit of shade. They do not like very hot weather. Of course, our weather has been so uncertain recently, that maybe this is something we don’t need to worry about too much. I know that in Heath I have not had to worry about long spells of hot summer weather for some years. But of course, that is Heath.

Even this small list, zinnia, cosmos, salvia and snapdragon, includes a variety of flower forms and this will make a bouquet interesting.

In addition to flowers a bouquet needs foliage. Cosmos have their own lacy foliage, but you can also plant annual artemesias like Dusty Miller. Dusty Miller looks like heavy silver lace and is sold in six packs in the spring. It is valuable for its silver foliage, but it does produce a yellow flower which many people remove. The foliage can be used as a kind of collar around the bouquet to hide the lip of the vase. Of course, other foliage plants will also serve this purpose, including lady’s mantle, alchemilla, which is a perennial and that is a topic for next week.

If you are bedding out your cutting garden in rows, as I hope to do, it is easy to remove sod if necessary, then add compost to the new bed. Dig the compost in well. When I am starting a new bed I usually add some greensand to provide potassium, also called potash. When you see commercial fertilizers marked with N-P-K numbers, the last number is potash. Greensand releases potash slowly so there is no worry about harming tender roots.  It is needed for root development, and plant vigor because it moves water and nutrients through the plant.

Whenever you are starting a new bed it is good practice to dig in plenty of organic matter, rotted manure and compost. I am not very scientific so I add rock phosphate (NOT superphosphate) as well as greensand because both release nutrients very slowly. I do not use commercial 5-10-5 fertilizers which are commonly available at garden centers.

After digging your bed, incorporating any compost and fertilizer, you can plant your seeds or seedlings. Keep them watered while they germinate and become established.

Next week I’ll write about those perennials that make good cut flowers.

Between the Rows   April 18, 2015