The act of growing flowers is therapeutic, and it beautifies your space while creating food for beneficial pollinators. Many stunning garden flowers can be grown in a home cutting garden and last well in bouquets. Here are some of the best cutting flowers to grow at home!
When you are planning your garden, you often think of flowers as garden decoration and vegetables, fruit, and herbs as consumables. Why not add some of the best cutting flowers to the “consumables” category?
Chances are, you are already growing a number of cutting flowers. And really, there’s nothing better than bringing a bouquet of homegrown flowers to cheer up or delight a family member or friend.
Some flowers are better than others at being cut and brought inside. Here is my list of the best cutting flowers, as well as some tips for harvesting the flowers properly.
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Best Cutting Flowers to Grow in the Home Garden
Many perennials, annuals, and even herbs and bulbs can be snipped and brought inside for a gorgeous arrangement. Creating a cutting garden or adding some extra blooms in your garden space means there will be plenty to add to vases, providing colour and fragrance around the house. The possibilities for what you grow in your cutting garden are really endless, but here are a few favourites for floral arrangements:
- Ranuculus
- Rose (Rosa)
- Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
- Snapdragon (Antirrhinum)
- Stock (Matthiola incana)
- Strawflower (Xerochrysum bracteatum)
How to Cut Flowers From The Garden
In most cases, your plants can spare a few blooms to create a gorgeous bouquet. Still, cutting off any of the flowers is somewhat stressful to the plant, so it’s best to take care to ensure the health of your plant is first priority, and it will continue to produce many blooms for you to harvest throughout the season.
- Cut plants in the early morning before the day becomes too hot. This will give you the longest-lasting blooms.
- Use sharp scissors or pruners to remove the flowers with as long of a stem as you can get. Snip as close to the base of the plant as you can because a long stem will be the most useful in a bouquet.
- Always use clean scissors or pruners when cutting flowers in the garden. Each cut can introduce disease into the host plant, so it’s best to carry a bucket of soapy water with you and give the tools a quick wash between different plants.
- As you cut flowers from around the garden, bring a mason jar or vase with a bit of water in it so you can put the stems right into the water immediately upon cutting.
- Allow your flowers to condition by sitting in the water for a few hours before you arrange them. This gives them time to hydrate and perk up after being snipped.
Making a Cut Flower Bouquet
Once you have all of your flowers selected from around the garden, it’s time to prepare them for the bouquet.
Cut a large piece of craft paper into a square. Angle the craft paper with a point towards you so it looks like a diamond shape.
Start your arrangement by choosing the largest, tallest, and strongest flowers first. Add these to the paper with the stems a few inches up from the point that faces you.
Layer more flowers into the bouquet with the stem ends around the same place. You can trim the stems at the end so they are even.
Soak a paper towel in water and wrap it around the stems of the flowers. Cover the wet paper towel in a plastic bag and use a rubber band to secure the bag onto the stems.
Now is the time to wrap up the flowers in the paper. First, fold the point that faces you up over the bottom of the stems that are covered in the paper towel and bag. Next, fold one side of the diamond paper to cover the flowers and take the point underneath them.
Roll the rest of the flowers towards the other point and use a piece of tape to secure the point closed. Finish the bouquet by wrapping it with a piece of raffia and tying a bow.
Add a personalized tag to your beautiful bouquet and get ready for the smile that it puts on the face of the person who’s lucky enough to get it.
Caring for Cut Flowers
Whether you’re enjoying them or you’re going to gift them, these tips can help make your cut flowers last longer:
- Give flowers a fresh cut by removing 1/2 inch from the bottom of the stem when receiving a bouquet that’s been out of water for a while (including a soaked paper towel).
- Change the water every other day or every day if it’s cloudy.
- Add flower preservative to the water.
- Keep the flowers out of direct sunlight and heat.
Read more tips on How to Make Cut Flowers Last
Make Unique Fresh Bouquets
Love herbs? See the “Chicken Soup,” “Spaghetti Dinner,” and more creative posy bouquet ideas here.
Make a flower arrangement in a pumpkin for fall. Do this by hollowing out the pumpkin, then adding florist foam or a vase inside to hold the flowers. Wondering if the pumpkin will decompose before the flowers wilt? Read about How to Make Planted Pumpkins Last.
Plant cut flowers in a birdcage using a similar method as the pumpkin planter. Add a vase or florist foam on a dish into the birdcage and let the flowers flow freely!
The point is to get creative when it comes to your arrangements and bouquets! Flower arranging is an art and a great thing to practice with using your own flowers during the gardening season.
More Tips for Flower Arranging
A city girl who learned to garden and it changed everything. Author, artist, Master Gardener. Better living through plants.
