I love fresh cut flowers, but they're expensive and I can't afford to buy a fresh bunch every week. So I started growing my own a few years ago so that I can have fresh flowers for at least the spring and summer months! In the beginning, I just bought a variety of bulbs and seeds to try out what worked and what didn't. After a few years of trial and error, I've figured out what works best in my climate (the Pacific Northwest), which ones make the best cut flowers, and most importantly, which ones are the easiest to grow.
Yes, you do have to put in the extra work, but it's so satisfying to be able to go out in the morning, pick a bunch of flowers that are in bloom and put them in a pretty vase to admire inside. Trust me, it's worth it!
1. Tulips (bulbs)
Nothing screams spring more than tulips! They come in so many varieties, and the bright colors make me happy and brighten my mood instantly. I prefer to plant mine in containers, but there's no reason why you can't plant yours in the ground. Just remember though – squirrels and raccoons may come and dig them up!
The hardest thing for me is to remember to actually plant them in the fall. They need that shot of cold weather to bloom so by the time you see tulips popping up everywhere, it's usually too late to plant them for that season. I just put an annual reminder in my calendar so that I won't forget.
2. Sweet peas (seeds)
I love sweet peas because of their strong scent and frilly petals. But there's plenty of varieties that have a milder scent or even no scent at all if that's what you prefer.
The hardest thing about growing sweet peas is that you need to give them something to climb as they grow and the varieties I bought (Matucana and Royal Family White) both grew to around 7 feet. I ended up MacGyvering a makeshift trellis using bamboo poles and netting that I bought from the dollar store. Not the prettiest, but it got the job done and by the time the flowers were blooming, you could barely see it because they were covered by the leaves and vines.
Just remember to pick them frequently, as that encourages more flowers to bloom. Otherwise, they might think their job is done and they'll start forming seed pods. You don't want that to happen until later in the season near the end of summer.
3. Gladiolus (bulbs)
I purchased this pink Zamora variety last year and it's my new favorite! I'm definitely going to purchase more this year.
I personally think that gladioli make excellent cut flowers even though they require a bit more trimming. I've never had any where the entire stalk was in bloom at the same time. Usually what ends up happening is that the flowers start opening from the bottom up. By the time the blooming has reached the top, the bottom flowers have faded and gotten all droopy. I simply cut off all the droopy ones and treat the bottom part like a stem. It's actually easier to display that way because the bouquet ends up being much shorter and there's a lesser chance of the vase tipping over if it's not tall enough.
4. Sunflowers (seeds)
Sunflowers make me happy! I've grown mammoth sunflowers before and one was at least 10 feet tall! Super fun to grow, but definitely not a variety you can cut and bring indoors. I found the best for growing cut flowers is a variety called Sunrich that only reaches a few feet tall. There's different subvarieties and I think the one here at the front is Sunrich Orange.
The only bad part about this variety is that each stem only produced one flower, so once it's cut, it's done. So what I did was to stagger the flowering by planting a few seeds every week or so. That way, I had sunflowers continually blooming for the whole summer (which is why the photo shows sunflowers in various stages of growth).
5. Dahlias (tubers)
I almost feel sheepish when I get so many compliments for my dahlia when all I did was to water and deadhead it (which means removing dead flower heads to encourage more blooming). It was a super prolific bloomer and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of cut stems that I got from just one dahlia plant. Definitely going to buy a few more colors this year!
Honestly, considering the number of hours I put into growing cut flowers myself, am I really saving that much money? Probably not! But am I patting myself on the back every time I see a few stems in a vase and thinking how they literally went from garden to table? You bet!
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