It’s not a week after the last blooms are cut that I’m back to planning next year’s cut flower garden. No rest for the wicked! When I’m planning, I think about cut flowers in a few ways:
- What worked great and I want to do again
- What missed the mark and I’ll totally pass on
- Experiments with new flowers
- Seed crops
Category 1 - Worked great, and do again
This is the easy question to answer, but hard to control myself.
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Salpiglossis Superbissima was #1 on this list, and I’ll be adding another couple other varieties.
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Zinnias - I have LOTS of varieties I want to grow - probably too many. I plan on adding Zinderella Pink, Golden Hour (Floret), and Dawn Creek Honey to the already planned Alpenglow, and Precious Metals - some of my open-pollinated seeds (to see what I get) and some original seeds. I’ve also just purchased some more Benary’s Giants and Cupcake Pink.
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Celosia - I have to remember celosia matures late - the same time as Dahlias in the PNW, so it’s dedicated space for the whole growing season. I loved Spun Sugar (Floret), and I now also have Glowing Embers (Floret) and Raspberry Lemonade (Floret). I’m not sure I need a two red feathery flowers - since Amaranthus Red Spike grows really well here, maybe the Amaranthus will take a break next year, while I play with Celosia (or I’ll do much less).
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Sunflowers - Ah, so much fun, and so easy and long lasting. Black Beauty and Terracotta were my favorites last year! Of course the ProCuts for consistent single blooms that you can plant super tight together.
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Sweet Peas! - WOW so fun and smelled so good! I am doubling down on these next year. I’ve bought some winners that should be great for flower bouquets, super long stems, and highly fragrant. I’ll tell you more next year when they bloom!
Category 2 - Missed the mark, and I’ll pass on
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Clary Sage tri-color mix - I seemed to always pass by the patch of them, never picking them - I don’t really do market bouquets, and they didn’t fit in with the dahlia bouquets I was making.
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Gomphrena - Ah, they were ok. Took a while to bloom, were rather common looking - like really big clover. The Carmine color was more useful than the light pink, that looked like disappeared into bouquets, also smaller blooms.
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Strawflowers - I did a “few” too many of 3 varieties, I very rarely used them in bouquets. I did dry quite a few and may use them in holiday arrangements.
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Bells of Ireland - They were interesting to look at in the garden, more difficult than I anticipated fitting into arrangements. Short lived too.
Category 3 - Experiments with flowers (new to me)
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Forget-me-not Ms. Marilyn - variety created by 3 Porch Farm, smokey lavender flowers on long stems.
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Shirley Poppy, Amazing Grey - I grew these a couple of years ago, and I found the seeds I had misplaced. I’ll try these as cut flowers.
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Ranunculus - I’ve bought enough to see how they are. Still questioning if I have enough spring flowers to do real sales, or if it’s for me and friends.
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Anemones - I plan on buying a few of these as well to try them out.
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New Sunflower: Cherry Chocolate - they caught my eye while I was shopping at Baker Creek sees.
Category 4 - Seed crops
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Sunflower Steve - seeds from solo parents - this was fun, and the Merle varieties were good sellers. I’ll plant more and save more heads from these sunflowers.
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Zinnias - Some more fun seed/pollen mixes with Zinderella Pink, Golden Hour, Dawn Creek Blush in the mix
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Salpiglossis - easy to save seed, and so beautiful.
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Celosia - easy to save seed, will isolate some and cross-pollinate others.
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Sweet peas - the planting scheme really matters if you plan on saving seeds, I will do this very systematically to ensure I harvest seeds from a single variety at a time (not mixed up).
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Dahlia seed - I saved a bunch this year, we’ll see how they germinate and whether I offer seeds for sale next. I was deadheading frequently, so I waited quite a while to start collecting, probably a mistake to fix next year.
This list is in flux, I’ll share other flowers I find and can’t live without.
