Best Flowers for Cutting
Q. Ann writes: “I’ve recently fallen in love with having cut flowers in the house. I’ve also recently moved to southeast Wisconsin and am learning how to garden in a new climate. I was wondering if Mike could give me some suggestions for good flowers to plant this spring that will produce nice, colorful bouquets for the house in summer. I was hoping for suggestions that will keep producing flowers without replanting, though I’d love any suggestions. I’m an enthusiastic but average gardener.”
A: “Southeast Wisconsin” has Milwaukee in the Bull’s Eye, with Racine and Kenosha down at the bottom, and Chicago not far South, all on the lovely shores of Lake Michigan, where the winds are felt to be legendary. Having tried to walk through gales in different cities, I’ll call Chicago ‘the lesser windy city’ compared to Oklahoma City, where I once did a Dorothy imitation without the cyclone.
Yes, this is a digression, but it is also a warning to gardeners in such areas that the winter wind will try and kill you personally, while in the other seasons it will simply try and make your plants lie down, perhaps forever. So think about windbreaks. A lot.
Now, I always cut the flower stalks of my larger Spring bulbs, like daffodils and tulips, to bring color indoors early in the season, but I also learned years ago that you can’t mix and match. Daffodils must be vased alone or they will shorten the life of the other cuttings involved. Spring bulbs only bloom once a season, but daffodils meet Ann’s criteria of ‘plant them once and they will return every year’. Tulips not so much, but the basic big red ones are your best bet to come back; I have a clump of red tulips that has rebloomed reliably for over 40 years.
The other flowers I personally cut for indoors are my roses. They all promise at least one big flush for cutting, and many rebloom reliably throughout the season, even ones designated as one-timers. Just cut new flowers and deadhead faded ones promptly and you may get lucky.
If you wait to prune spring bloomers like forsythia and fruit trees until the blooms are open, you can bring the cuttings inside for a dramatic show—and you’ll be pruning at the ideal time.
Seed supplier and long-time flower lover Renee Shepherd suggests “Zinnias and Cosmos in different forms, colors and mixes for annual flowers from seed. Also: Coreopsis, Snapdragons, Clarkia, and Tithonia. One good perennial that Ann could grow easily would be echinacea.”
Then I realized that a cut flower pro lives about four miles from my house: Melanie DeVault who, together with husband George and son Don (the King of Kombucha), run Pheasant Hill Farm in Vera Cruz, PA. Melanie has been selling cut flowers at Farmer’s Markets for more years than I am allowed to reveal and also crafts seasonal bouquets and wedding flowers.
“Ornamental sunflowers” (not the huge oil and birdseed producers) are her first choice, and I could not agree more. “I’m always drawn to them when they’re displayed at florists and supermarkets”, she notes, adding, “They’re easy to grow; but for indoor display, stick with the pollen-free varieties or they’ll shed. There’s even a branded collection of ornamental sunflowers called the ‘Procut Series’ whose varieties are chosen for maximum cut flower impact. They’re ready to cut from planted seed in just 50 or 60 days and you can plant the seeds closely (as tight as four inches apart) to keep them at a nice ‘bouquet size’. Plant a new run every three weeks to keep a good supply handy.” I will add that ornamental sunflowers come in hundreds of different heights and colors.
Melanie adds that “Liatris is tall, dramatic and long-lasting in the vase, and “there’s a series of Zinnia varieties that are perfect for cutting collectively called ‘Bearny’s Giant; they’re repeat bloomers if cut and deadheaded regularly. Direct seed them in Spring and they’ll persist until Fall. Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) is also a great choice; keep harvesting the flowers and they’ll rebloom like mad.
Melanie says the vase itself should be “as clean as a teacup”, the flower stems should be stripped bare of anything other than the flowers and cleaned under running water to keep dirt out of the picture. Change the water daily (or as often as you can) and recut the stem every time the plants go into new water. No direct sun. In fact, the cooler the room the longer cut flowers will last.
Picking: Obviously, you want to pick just as the flowers are hitting their peak, but Melanie adds that you should also make sure they pass ‘the wiggle test’. “The stem has to be firm and upright”, she stresses. “If it wiggles, wait.”
Also: “pick early in the morning or late in the evening; never in the heat of the day or the flowers won’t last. Put the cut stems in a bucket of water immediately after cutting, bring them into your work space, strip off everything below the flower, rinse the stem well, cut another inch off the bottom and drop them immediately into that clean vase filled with clean water; no city tap water!
A: “Southeast Wisconsin” has Milwaukee in the Bull’s Eye, with Racine and Kenosha down at the bottom, and Chicago not far South, all on the lovely shores of Lake Michigan, where the winds are felt to be legendary. Having tried to walk through gales in different cities, I’ll call Chicago ‘the lesser windy city’ compared to Oklahoma City, where I once did a Dorothy imitation without the cyclone.
Yes, this is a digression, but it is also a warning to gardeners in such areas that the winter wind will try and kill you personally, while in the other seasons it will simply try and make your plants lie down, perhaps forever. So think about windbreaks. A lot.
Now, I always cut the flower stalks of my larger Spring bulbs, like daffodils and tulips, to bring color indoors early in the season, but I also learned years ago that you can’t mix and match. Daffodils must be vased alone or they will shorten the life of the other cuttings involved. Spring bulbs only bloom once a season, but daffodils meet Ann’s criteria of ‘plant them once and they will return every year’. Tulips not so much, but the basic big red ones are your best bet to come back; I have a clump of red tulips that has rebloomed reliably for over 40 years.
The other flowers I personally cut for indoors are my roses. They all promise at least one big flush for cutting, and many rebloom reliably throughout the season, even ones designated as one-timers. Just cut new flowers and deadhead faded ones promptly and you may get lucky.
If you wait to prune spring bloomers like forsythia and fruit trees until the blooms are open, you can bring the cuttings inside for a dramatic show—and you’ll be pruning at the ideal time.
Seed supplier and long-time flower lover Renee Shepherd suggests “Zinnias and Cosmos in different forms, colors and mixes for annual flowers from seed. Also: Coreopsis, Snapdragons, Clarkia, and Tithonia. One good perennial that Ann could grow easily would be echinacea.”
Then I realized that a cut flower pro lives about four miles from my house: Melanie DeVault who, together with husband George and son Don (the King of Kombucha), run Pheasant Hill Farm in Vera Cruz, PA. Melanie has been selling cut flowers at Farmer’s Markets for more years than I am allowed to reveal and also crafts seasonal bouquets and wedding flowers.
“Ornamental sunflowers” (not the huge oil and birdseed producers) are her first choice, and I could not agree more. “I’m always drawn to them when they’re displayed at florists and supermarkets”, she notes, adding, “They’re easy to grow; but for indoor display, stick with the pollen-free varieties or they’ll shed. There’s even a branded collection of ornamental sunflowers called the ‘Procut Series’ whose varieties are chosen for maximum cut flower impact. They’re ready to cut from planted seed in just 50 or 60 days and you can plant the seeds closely (as tight as four inches apart) to keep them at a nice ‘bouquet size’. Plant a new run every three weeks to keep a good supply handy.” I will add that ornamental sunflowers come in hundreds of different heights and colors.
Melanie adds that “Liatris is tall, dramatic and long-lasting in the vase, and “there’s a series of Zinnia varieties that are perfect for cutting collectively called ‘Bearny’s Giant; they’re repeat bloomers if cut and deadheaded regularly. Direct seed them in Spring and they’ll persist until Fall. Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) is also a great choice; keep harvesting the flowers and they’ll rebloom like mad.
Melanie says the vase itself should be “as clean as a teacup”, the flower stems should be stripped bare of anything other than the flowers and cleaned under running water to keep dirt out of the picture. Change the water daily (or as often as you can) and recut the stem every time the plants go into new water. No direct sun. In fact, the cooler the room the longer cut flowers will last.
Picking: Obviously, you want to pick just as the flowers are hitting their peak, but Melanie adds that you should also make sure they pass ‘the wiggle test’. “The stem has to be firm and upright”, she stresses. “If it wiggles, wait.”
Also: “pick early in the morning or late in the evening; never in the heat of the day or the flowers won’t last. Put the cut stems in a bucket of water immediately after cutting, bring them into your work space, strip off everything below the flower, rinse the stem well, cut another inch off the bottom and drop them immediately into that clean vase filled with clean water; no city tap water!
