Introduction

Gardens can have many purposes: from supplying food, to being used as a playground, from providing privacy from prying eyes, to growing flowers and foliage suitable for picking and arranging.

I`ve had many questions about planting for cut flower gardens recently, so I thought it was timely to put a couple of articles together. The information is split into two parts:

	What to plant and how to encourage the plants to produce good cut flowers. (Covered in this article.)
	Harvest and post harvest techniques. (Please refer to next week`s article titled Cut Flowers 2 - Harvesting.)

Growing your own cut flowers need not be as hard as it sounds, given a little thought about planting and care of the stems, once cut. Do not be restricted to basic flower types either, seed pods and dried flowers are just as interesting in an arrangement or as a longer term display of dried flowers.

Growing flowers for cutting needn`t produce a `functional` look in a garden. With careful arrangement of plantings, suitable types of plants for cut flowers can still produce an attractive garden. Remember that foliage is also a central part of a flower arrangement and planting suitable or favourite types of these plants is also important.

Choosing The Right Plants

Best bulbs for cut flowers

Some bulbs are great for cut flower arrangements; a few are listed below:

Other Suggestions

Some suggestions for cut flowers / foliage are listed below:

Aster Astrantias Alstroemeria Azalea Calendula Camellia Canterbury Bells Carnations & Dianthus Chrysanthemum Cornflower Daisy (Marguerite & Shasta) Delphinium Foxglove (Digitalis) Gardenia Geranium Hydrangea Honesty - seed pods Larkspur Lupin

Leucadendron Lophomyrtus species Pansy Phlox Poppy Proteas Rose Some waterlilies Sea holly -Eryngium Snapdragon Stock Sweet pea Teucrium fruticans Viola Violet Wallflower Zinnia

Encouraging Growth of Flowers for Cutting

Encouraging a plant to grow flowers that are suitable for picking is only slightly different to growing the plant as a normal shrub or plant in the garden.

Good gardening techniques still apply in that good drainage and sunlight, regular watering and fertiliser are as important as ever. Liquid feeding can also help top up the plant requirements on top of normal fertiliser applications.

Keeping the plants healthy and strong is also an important point in growing plants for cut flowers. Where insects e.g. aphids are on the plants outdoors, on an arrangement inside, they can prove even more unsightly and unpleasant, often leaving a sticky residue underneath the flowers that you never noticed outdoors.

A good cut flower can be influenced by pruning and bud removal. Where a flower is formed in a bunch, removal of the side buds will encourage the main central flower to grow straighter and stronger, providing a better stem for a cut flower.

Often, pruning can encourage thicker, bushier plants, with short stems. When pruning shrubs e.g. Teucrium, bear in mind that you will want longer stems for picking, and prune or tidy up the plant by thinning it out, and allowing the stems to gain some length.

Harvest and post harvest techniques will be discussed in a separate article. (Please refer to article titled Cut Flowers 2 - Harvesting.)

Written by Katherine Winson