Want blooms in the blink of an eye? An affordable and abundant way to satisfy your floral thirst is to Grow a Cut Flower Garden from Seeds!
Who wouldn’t want an endless supply of versatile cut flowers right at home for decoration? But a bouquet a day from the supermarket will surely drive you to bankruptcy! Hence, we show you how to grow your own cut flower garden straight from seeds—the cheapest and most consistent way to enjoy beautiful blooms inside your home!
What is a Cut Flower Garden?
A cut flower garden exclusively produces flowers for harvesting or “cutting.” These flowers are then used in various flower arrangements, for home decor, or even simply for a pleasure stroll!
Cut flowers should have long stems and a longer shelf life. They can be a mix of annuals, perennials, and biennials. You could also grow flowering bushes and filler plants in your garden. Let’s explore!
Grow a Cut Flower Garden from Seeds
A cut flower garden doesn’t have to be symmetrical or tidy like a landscaped garden, as the agenda is abundance and diversity. So, it’s crucial to prioritize continuous blooming, which can also be quite pleasing to the eye!
This allows for a more free-flowing and organic arrangement where plants grow naturally, leading to a spirited and untamed cottage-like aesthetic. However, once you cut your blooms, ensure they look good in vases, bouquets, and whatnot!
1. Choose Good Quality Seeds
Choosing good quality seeds is among the best and most important investments for the perfect cut flower garden. While cheap seeds may entice you with their price point, just add in those extra bucks for pest and disease resistant varieties to truly make them worth your effort.
Go with a reputed brand from a local, trusted garden center or website where you can check the quality of the seeds and peruse their catalog for future plantings.
2. Prepare Your Garden
Prepping up the garden involves two vital steps. The first is knowing the last average frost date before sowing your seeds. This can help you plan sowing time for the best results. Follow the instructions on the back of seed packets and sow based on the last frost date.
The second step is often ignored but essential—a soil test. Whether you hire a professional or do it yourself, you must measure the nutrients in your soil—such as nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus—and determine the soil pH. You can then add organic matter, such as compost, to amend the soil to suit your flowers best.
3. Germinate Indoors, Transplant Outdoors
Germinate indoors, transplant outdoors—make this your mantra. Why? Starting your cut flower seeds indoors gives you better control of their growing conditions, resulting in sturdier, more resilient plants. Make sure the seeds get ample sunlight for at least six hours, or as per the instructions on the seed packet.
When transplanting your seedlings, plant taller varieties at the back of the garden so they don’t block sunlight from reaching the tinier ones. For annuals and perennials, use a soaker hose or drip system to water for efficiency and hygiene. Overhead watering could make your plants more prone to fungal disease.
Best Flowers for Cut Flower Garden from Seeds
1. Sunflowers
Botanical Name: Helianthus annuus
Sunflowers grow fairly quickly from seeds. In about 2-3 months, they go from seeds to dramatic blooms on towering stems! These flowers last almost two weeks in vases, especially if harvested when their petals just start to open.
While most are annuals, they readily self-seed, ensuring they return year after year with just the one-time initial effort. Sow the seeds indoors two to three weeks before the last frost date. Check out these giant varieties to grow at home.
2. Cosmos
Botanical Name: Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Versailles’
With delicate, airy petals and feathery foliage, these daisy lookalikes are incredibly easy to grow from seeds. Once established, these drought-tolerant annuals self-seed and return each season with little fuss. And the cut flowers last around a week in vases.
Cosmos seeds can take 75-100 days from seed to bloom. You could start the seeds early indoors, about three weeks before the last frost date, and then transplant them outdoors as the weather warms up. Check out these reasons to grow it.
3. Shasta Daisy
Botanical Name: Leucanthemum x superbum
Yet another beginner-friendly flower, the perennial Shasta daisies are pretty easy to grow and need very little attention. You can sow the seeds both indoors and outdoors. In the latter, sow them after the last frost in spring and cover them with 1/8th of moist soil.
The ‘Becky’ variety is heat-tolerant and sturdy, with a shelf life of two weeks with regular water changes. Shasta daisies need full sun for about six hours daily and hate wet feet! These self-seeders can often invade if not deadheaded.
4. Poppies
Botanical Name: Papaver
Poppies are excellent candidates to grow from seed for a cut flower garden. With large, papery, cup-shaped blooms, varieties like Iceland poppies are prized for their flair in bouquets and floral arrangements. Under the right conditions, seeds can take as little as seven days to germinate and up to 90 days to bloom.
Since they thrive in cooler conditions, sow the seeds in early spring for blooms in late spring and summer. Here’s everything about growing poppies in containers.
5. Snapdragon
Botanical Name: Antirrhinum majus
With their unique jaw-snapping structure and blazing hues, snapdragons look striking in vases and cut flower arrangements. They last about two weeks in vases. Check out their ‘Madame Butterfly’ variety that blooms mid-spring with tall, luscious double blooms!
You can sow snapdragon seeds in spring, late summer, and fall, depending on the climate.
6. Zinnias
Botanical Name: Zinnia elegans
The bright and colorful annual zinnias are a fierce favorite among gardeners for a few reasons. First—they steadily bloom through summer when sown indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost date. Then, they are too easy to grow from seeds, blooming in just about two months!
Consistent harvests will give you more flowers than you could imagine! Varieties like ‘Benary’s Giant’ are a good choice and have a healthy shelf life of up to two weeks.
7. Strawflower
Botanical Name: Xerochrysum bracteatum
Aptly named strawflowers, these blooms have a unique papery, straw-like texture. Appearing as picture-perfect origami blooms in all kinds of colors, they can also be dried and used in arrangements. Their seeds need to germinate indoors up to 4-6 weeks before the last frost, and you can expect them to reach maturity in 75-85 days.
Spring-planted strawflowers have a shelf life of up to 10 days in vases if used fresh.
8. Gomphrena (Globe Amaranth)
Botanical Name: Gomphrena globosa
Gomphrena sports small, globe-shaped flowers and is a drought-resistant plant that loves hot, sunny conditions. It lasts about two weeks in a vase and is perfect for a warm, cut flower garden.
Once nighttime temperatures go over 50 F (10 C), you can sow the seeds directly about a quarter-inch deep into the soil. It needs full sun and well-draining, compost-rich soil to thrive.
9. Asiatic Lilies
Botanical Name: Lilium
Our final two quintessential cut flowers on this list are typically grown from tubers or bulbs rather than seeds.
The first is Asiatic lilies—upward-facing blooms with little or no scent that are much easier to use in bouquets and floral designs than downward-facing ones. Choose colored buds and cut them early in the morning or evening, when they are well hydrated, to use in vases.
To extend the shelf life of your cut lilies in vases to about two weeks, keep them in a cool spot away from bright light and change the water every three days. You can also snip the stem at an angle to ensure effective water absorption.
10. Dahlias
Botanical Name: Dahlia pinnata ‘Cornell Bronze’
Though mostly grown from tubers, dahlias can also be started from seed. Dahlias can be a challenge for beginner seed growers as they require more care. But they do showcase a spectacular range of colors and have a robust vase life of about a week.
Explore other varieties, such as ‘Cafe au Lait,’ ‘Bishop of Llandaff,’ and ‘Rip City,’ for multi-color patterns in your cut flower garden.
Tips for Growing a Cut Flower Garden
- To have a steady supply of cut flowers throughout each growing season, choose flowers with different bloom times, such as those that flower in spring, summer, and fall.
- Plant vegetables and herbs as companion plants with your cut flowers to attract more pollinators to make your garden more productive.
- Grow flowers that need similar soil, water, and light together. Plant them in rows and unique, efficient arrangements for better aesthetics and productivity.
- The more you deadhead, the more they grow! This is especially true for annuals, which produce way more blooms when cut back.
- Pinch off the plant’s early buds to make your cut flowering plants branch out and produce more blooms. Thus, the plant will grow newer stems below the node where you snipped it.
- Deadhead all spent blooms so your plants can focus their energy on producing new ones. To deadhead, cut the spent flower just above the first set of leaves.
- Water your plants early morning so that it has sufficient time to reach their roots. Avoid watering in the evening, as that could cause fungal diseases.
- It is better to fertilize during your plant’s growing season, which often falls in summer, rather than when it blooms or heads toward dormancy.
Now that you’ve got pro hacks on growing a cut flower garden mainly from seeds don’t forget to check out these top flower varieties for options. And tell us which ones you will choose for yourself in the comments below!
