Make gorgeous flower arrangements with a ready supply of beautiful blooms from your own flower garden.
The key to a great cutting garden is to have plants flowering throughout the year, and that takes a bit of planning, especially when space is limited. The easiest way to do this is to divide the year into seasons and make sure you grow enough plants to supply each one.
SPRING
Spring is all about the bulbs but there are also early flowering perennials that make beautiful cut flowers. Have a look at these suggestions to get you started.
Perennials
- Peony – Paeonia officinalis ‘Rubra Plena’
- Euphorbia – Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’
- Columbine – Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Nivea’
Bulbs
- Scilla – Scilla siberica
- Tulips – Tulipa ‘China Pink’
- Daffodils – Narcissus ‘Thalia’
SUMMER
Perennials really come into their own in summer and there are some more unusual ones which make striking arrangements. And don’t forget summer flowering bulbs like alliums and gladioli. The gladioli suggested below is a really beautiful, almost iridescent, pink.
Perennials
- Acanthus – Acanthus mollis
- Dill – Anethum graveolens
- Agapanthus – Agapanthus Headbourne hybrids
Bulbs
- Alliums – Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’
- Gladioli – Gladiolus communis subsp. byzantinus
- Crocosmia – Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’
AUTUMN
Small boughs from shrubs with lovely autumn colours can be incorporated into floral displays at this time of year. For flowers you’ll find late-flowering perennials, such as dahlias and anemones, will keep going until the frost cuts them back, and there are some amazing, autumn-flowering bulbs.
Perennials
- Dahlia – Dahlia ‘Arabian Night’
- Japanese anemone – Anemone × hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’
- Aster – Aster novi-belgii ‘Lady in Blue’
Bulbs
- Nerine – Nerine bowdenii
- Autumn-flowering cyclamen – Cyclamen hederifolium
- Colchicum – Colchicum autumnale
WINTER
Winter is the most difficult time to keep the flower garden productive but the main plant has to be hellebores. There’s just one named below but these perennials come in a huge variety of colours and shapes. Also look for very early crocuses, called ‘Snow Crocuses’.
Perennials
- Hellebores – Helleborus orientalis
- Pulmonaria – Pulmonaria rubra ‘Redstart’
- Bergenia – Bergenia purpurascens var. delavayi
Bulbs
- Snowdrops – Galanthus nivalis
- Crocus – Crocus sieberi ‘Violet Queen’
- Iris – Iris unguicularis ‘Mary Barnard’
[Source:- House Beautifull]
