Top Five Annuals for Cut Flower Gardens
Each year I trial some new varieties on the farm to see how they fair in our Tennessee summers and if I like growing them. Then there are also a handful of flowers that I choose not to grow again because I either didn’t enjoy growing them or find enough value in dedicating precious space to grow them again. However, there are several flowers that will always be in my garden! My top five annuals for the cut flower garden love full-sun and tolerate our hot summers remarkably well. I also love that these can be directly sown in the field, which makes them even more low-maintenance and easy to grow. And as a plus, all these flowers pair well together, making for some beautiful bouquets.
Basil
‘Cinnamon’ Basil
Most people hear basil and think of the aromatic culinary herb that is often used in Italian cooking. However, basil also makes an exceptional bouquet filler and adds a lovely fragrance to any arrangement! Basil produces many stems throughout the summer, making it an excellent foliage for the cut flower garden.
Usually about a week after our last frost date, I direct sow our first succession of basil out in the field. We space our basil 9” apart in the field and pinch them when they are 6”-9” tall. The plants grow quickly, and we are able to start harvesting from them in 2 months. We also do a second succession planting about a month later because we harvest so much of the basil that we need to give the plants some down time to send up new growth before harvesting from them again. We are able to keep harvesting all the way until our first frost in the fall.
Recommended Varieties:
Mrs. Burns’ Lemon
Cinnamon
Note: Basil does have a reputation for wilting after harvest. I found that if I harvest first thing in the morning before the sun hits the plant, place them directly in water, and let them rest a couple hours in the shade, they stay well-hydrated and don’t wilt.
Celosia
I recently fell in love with celosia! It is a heat loving plant that comes in so many different colors and forms. It grows well when directly sown in the field, and the flowers pair well with everything. As an added bonus celosia can be easily dried and used in dried arrangements or wreaths by hanging the flowers upside down for several weeks.
While Celosia can be started indoors for earlier blooms, I prefer to directly sow celosia seeds after our last frost date as we have a long growing season here in Tennessee. We space our celosia 9” apart and pinch the plants when they are 6”-9” tall. I find that several succession plantings a couple weeks apart work well for us to have a continual harvest on the farm.
Pampas Plume Celosia Mix
Recommended Varieties:
Cramer Series
Pampas Plume Mix
Sunday Series
Sylphid Series
Texas Plume Summer Sherbert Mix
Texas Plume Vintage Rose Mix
Marigolds
Marigolds are a great flower for new growers to include in their garden! Depending on the variety, flowers begin to bloom 2-3 months after planting and will continue to produce a bumper crop of flowers until the first frost.
While I generally start marigolds from seed 6-8 weeks before our last frost date to get a jump on the season, they can also be easily sown outside after the last frost. I space marigolds 9”-12” apart in the field and pinch them when they are around 9” tall. Regularly harvesting flowers and removing spent flowers on the plants will encourage them to keep sending up new blooms all season.
Recommended Varieties:
Coco Gold
Tangerine Series
White Swan
Sunflowers
It is hard to beat a garden full of sunflowers in the summer! Over the years, many new varieties of sunflowers have been bred and the array of colors and sizes that you can grow is truly astounding. While there are so many options, you can’t really make a wrong choice.
Procut ‘Orange’ Sunflowers
When I first started growing sunflowers specifically for use as a cut flower, I realized how many different factors went into variety selection. There are single stem varieties which give one sunflower per seed, and then branching varieties which give you multiple flowers over several weeks. Day-length can also affect some varieties, while others are considered day-length neutral. For our farm, I found that day-length neutral, single stem varieties planted 4”-6” apart are ideal for us. Varieties in the Procut Series and Sunrich Summer Provence are also around 50 days to harvest, making them some of my fastest blooming summer annuals. We plant sunflowers every 10 days for a continuous harvest throughout the season.
Recommended Varieties:
Procut Series
Sunrich Summer Provence
Zinnias
Zinnias are a garden workhorse that come in so many great colors and sizes! They produce blooms for an extended period of time, filling your home and garden with lots of color.
‘Benary’s Giant’ Zinnia Mix
After our last frost, zinnias are directly sown in the field, spaced 9” apart. I pinch them when they are around 9” tall and then also lay horizontal netting at that time to support the plants as they grow. The first flowers begin to bloom in 2 months. The first stems are pretty short for us, around 10”, so I cut deep into the plant to get a nice long stem and simply remove the smaller side stems. I have found zinnias do well when you cut deeply when harvesting and will reward you with even more blooms. We plant a second succession of zinnias one month after our first planting, and then a final succession one month after that, ensuring we have lots of blooms until the end of our growing season.
Recommended Varieties:
Benary’s Giant Series
Oklahoma Series
While these are five of my top flowers for the cutting garden, there are so many other varieties I love to grow on the farm. If you want to learn more about those or how to grow your own cut flower garden, we are now offering a Cut Flower Mini Course, that provides the foundation needed to start your first cutting garden.
