Plants for a cutting garden: A Celosia ‘Bombay Pink’; B Antirrhinum ‘Rocket Mix’; C Helichrysum bracteatum; D Echinops ritro; E Limonium sinuatum ‘Forever Happy’; F Gerbera ‘California Mixed Colors’; G Zinnia hybrids; H Ageratum hybrid; I Antirrhinum ‘Madame Butterfly’; J Gomphrena globosa ‘Las Vegas’; K Phlox paniculata ‘David’; L Helianthus ‘Valentine’ and bud; M Centaurea cyanus; N Platycodon grandiflorus; O Tanacetum vulgare.

 

A garden planted for cut flowers can be set up like a vegetable patch with rows of blossoms grown for harvest. Or, the garden may look more, well, like a flower garden. Just bear in mind that this place may not be one of your showiest plantings. As soon as the flowers look good, it’s time to cut them. Perhaps we should call this naked gardening.

Most cutting gardens rely on annuals, bulbs, and perennials. Flowers should have long stems and last well after cutting. Just as for a vegetable garden, plant the varieties that you really like and not just things that sound appealing in the catalog. If you don’t want red salvia in every room of your house, don’t plant them. If the scent of marigolds bothers you, leave that out. (I like their aroma.) Include plants with attractive foliage, like hostas, dusty miller, and even feathery asparagus and bold kale.

I contend that an arrangement of cut flowers can be made from just about every garden on just about every day of the year. Just think of holly, ivy, and other berried or evergreen plants; those that dry well such as grasses; and plants with attractive seed heads. Throughout the rest of the year, you can always cut enough stems for a bouquet or two, if not enough to fill the entire house with vases. If you have the space, include a few extras of your favorites. These plants can be in their own special small bed or right in among their cousins in the mixed border.

Not all plants are what might be called “cut and come again” flowers, but many are. If it bothers you to cut them, just think of it as regenerative pruning.

Annuals and tender perennials for cutting include lovelies-bleeding, Ammi majus, bells of Ireland, calendula, feather celosia, Bachelor’s buttons or cornflower, cleome, cosmos, lisianthus (Eustoma hybrids), globe amaranth, annual baby’s breath, marigold, stock, salpiglossis, Salvia farinacea, scabiosa, snapdragon, statice, sunflower, sweet pea, and zinnia.

Hardy perennial flowers for cutting could be achillea, aster, carnation, chrysanthemum, foxglove, purple cone-flower, echinops, eryngium, goldenrod, baby’s breath, lavender, lupine, phlox, and rudbeckia.

Flowers for cutting include pink and red dahlias and white hydrangeas.