Who doesn’t like free fresh flowers from the back yard? In this post, I’m sharing ideas on what beautiful flowers to choose, also tips on planning and cultivating cut flower garden that will last a long time.
Why cut flower garden?
June is probably one of the most beautiful months, in terms of my garden. What could be a better time to talk about cut flower garden tips and ideas?
When my husband and I were house hunting two years ago, I was determined to have a space to cultivate a cut flower garden for our new home. Adding fresh flowers indoors is probably one of the most effective way to fresh up a space and add some instant beauty! Fresh flowers are not pricy when you get them from places like Trader Joes, but they do add up if you plan to have
With a well planed and cultivated cut flower garden, you will have an endless supply of fresh flowers to decorate your home for almost an entire year! I live in a warmer zone, and have spent very little money on purchasing flowers in the last 12 months while always have fresh flowers at my home.
Moreover, a cut flower garden is just beautiful. It will provide way more flowers than you can fill at home. So while you clip some for indoor purposes, the rest of the flowers will take care of the outdoor beauty. Walking through my garden full of beautiful flowers every morning before heading out for work is such a pleasure of mine.
Tips for planning a cut flower garden
1. Space out the blooming time
To have a long lasting fresh flowers supply come from a cut flower garden, make sure to space out the planting time. It could be planting the same type of flower in batches with weeks in between, or mix and match flowers which bloom at different time of the year.
For example, when I was planting ranunculus bulbs early this year, I divided those bulbs into 3 batches, and planted them 2 – 4 weeks apart. By doing that, I was able to continue harvest the flowers for a longer period of time, rather than all at once.
Flowers bloom at different time of the year. I clip a lot of ranunculus, camellia, viburnum, cherry flower and such, as winter to spring bouquet supply. From summer to fall, I harvest hydrangea, cosmos, rose, asters, verbena, etc.
2. Be mindful of the vase life
Flowers are not made equal. Some flowers have a longer vase life, while others only last very few days. Roses are beautiful but only last a couple of days. As much as I love beautiful roses, I only place them in a vase for special occasions, such as entertaining or photoshoot. Chosen wisely, most flowers can easily last 1 – 2 weeks, especially if you clip them in the morning when those buds are half open. Some of my favorite long lasting flowers are delphinium, ranunculus, billy balls, hydrangea, baby’s breath, stock, daisy, etc.
There’s a couple of ways to find out a flower’s vase life. If the flower last longer when they are on their mother plant, they last a long time in a vase of water too. If the flower does’t last long on its own plant, it probably will last shorter when placed in a vase. Another way is to just to do some simple research. When you buy seeds, sometimes they will say it on the website or seed packet. If not, a simple googling will just do!
3. Be creative
A beautiful bouquet doesn’t have to be from traditional flowers. It can be anything from your front or back yard, as long as it is pretty! A good example is this cilantro flower I clipped from my raised bed. The flower step stand up right with beautiful cluster of white flowers. It has a nice scent too. As the weather gets hot, my cilantro start to shoot out flowers. I had to prune it anyway, so why not put those clippings in a vase? When I displayed this in the kitchen, my husband didn’t realize this bouquet is from our herb garden 😛
A lot of times, it is not about what flower you have, but how you display them. I have put a bunch of climbers into vases as well, such as jasmine, bower vine.
Fresh flower bouquet ideas for your cut flower garden
Bulbs(Ranunculus)
You may not be familiar with the name “ranunculus”, but I’m sure you have seen it a lot in bridal bouquets. They are beautiful, romantic, and last for a very long time! They come in many colors, pink, red, fuchsia, yellow, white, and of course all the pastel colors too.
For post-bloom plant care, once the bloom fade and leaves turn yellow, just cut off the foliage and leave them in the ground, they will come back year after year. Alternatively, you can dig them up and separate the bulbs. Each plant will split into 3 – 8 bulbs to multiple your flowers for next spring!
These pink double bloom ranunculus are Italian Ranunculus. They are pricier than the Tecolote(the common type), but are so elegant and romantic!
This is Tecolote ranunculus, red and white.
Perennial bushes
These are the type of flowers serves double purposes: beautify the garden as landscapes and a good supply for cut flowers. Some of the examples below are: penstemon, shasta daisy, heritage rose, didiscus, hydrangea, campanula.
You might have seen this from my master bathroom reveal. Penstemon blooms spring through fall with abundant of flowers. I clipped some flowers stems and mixed it with some pruned camellia branches.
Ground cover
Ground cover makes pretty cut flower too! They work great in group of a few or big clusters. Because of the size, most of them work great in small vases, such as this wooden vase from Target.
Wild flowers
Early spring this year, there were free flowers on my front yard. Those are clover flowers, AKA “unwanted weed” locally. They thrive in California winter rain, and bloom with beautiful yellow flowers. So I cut a bunch of them and put them in a glass vase – instant spring vibe right away! I shared more on this in my spring decoration post.
Dried Flowers
As much as I love fresh flowers, they don’t last forever. Drying flower up naturally is a great way to have real flower in your home that last for a very long time. I’m currently drying didiscus, viburnum, billy balls and lavender!
I got some S hooks from Amazon and use that to hang bundles of flowers to dry on my mantle.
Billy balls is such a great choice for dried flowers. It looks the same fresh or dried, and the dense yellow color never fade!
In my master bathroom, I placed a few stems of didiscus and lavender in a glass vase from Michaels.
Fresh baby’s breath last a long timer; dried baby’s breath last forever! Photo from my DIY napkin holder post.
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