I can hardly imagine a summer without cut flowers.
If you’re dreaming of popping bouquets into every corner of your home, then welcome!
This is your all-in-one-guide to growing flowers for cutting, whehter you’ve got raised beds, a small in-ground border garden, or just a few sun-drenched pots on the patio.
I’ve pulled together some of my best posts on growing beginner-friendly flowers, tips for designing a flower garden, and practical advice for harvesting and arranging flowers so that you can enjoy or give them away.
Choose the section that fits wherever you are in your cut flower journey.
Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through my links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
01
Start Here: Cut Flower Basics
If you’re ready to start growing flowers, but don’t have a garden yet, these posts are for you.
You’ll find simple cut flower garden plans, decide whether to grow in raised beds or in the ground, and learn what you really need for growing flowers.
Cut Flower Basics
How to Start the Cut Flower Garden of Your Dreams
Learn everything from site selection to soil prep to planting. This post walks you through the whole thing from start to finish.
Cut Flower Basics
Raised Beds vs In-Ground Beds: Pros & Cons of Each
Will you garden in raised beds or in the ground? Both have distinct advantages and disadvantages. I use both. Read my honest opinion on each one and use my simple flow chart to help you decide.
Cut Flower Basics
How to Sheet Mulch Lawns with Cardboard
Use cardboard to turn a grassy lawn into a new garden bed without digging or tilling. Low-effort and quick to do.
Cut Flower Basics
7 Essential Garden Tools for Cut Flower Gardening
My favorite garden tools that make growing, cutting, maintaining a cut flower garden easier.
Cut Flower Basics
How to Find the Right Spot For Your Garden
Learn to how to evaluate your land for 5 key elements to find the best spot to place your new garden.
From the Shop
The Magic 7 Cut Flower Garden Plan
Grow cut flowers without second guessing what to plant, when to plant, or what colors to choose. It’s the easiest way to start growing beautiful bouquets in your own backyard.
02
Choosing Flowers to Grow
A balanced cutting garden includes focal flowers, filler flowers, foliage, and accent flowers.
Before you start planting, decide which flowers you need to grow in your garden. These roundups include my favorite focal flowers, filler flowers, foliage, and accent flowers for arranging.
Include some of each. This way you get bouquets that are balanced and beautiful.
Flowers to Grow
10 Easy Cut Flowers for Beginners
My top 10 easy-to-grow cut flowers for beginners. Most are cut-and-come again as well, which means you’ll only plant once and harvest over and over.
Flowers to Grow
Best Sunflowers for Cut Flowers: Which Varieties to Grow
Not all sunflowers are meant for the vase. Learn which varieties to grow for arranging and how to choose between single-stem and branching sunflowers.
Flowers to Grow
10 Filler Flowers to Grow for Lush Bouquets
Filler flowers provide volume and a sturdy base to support focal flowers. See my favorites in this post.
Flowers to Grow
9 Herbs for Flower Arranging to Add Fragrance and Texture
Plenty of foliage and filler flower options and, as an added bonus, everything is edible and wonderfully scented!
Flowers to Grow
21 Best Perennial Flowers and Shrubs for Cut Flower Gardens
Plant perennials and shrubs once and they’ll come back year after year. Great for a low-maintenance garden.
03
Growing & Caring for Cut Flowers
Tips on growing and caring for specific cut flowers in your garden.
Learn to grow your own cut flowers from seed and maintain a healthy and productive cut flower garden.
Growing Guides
How to Grow Incredible Zinnias from Seed
Zinnias are the workhorse of the cutting garden. They’re fast-growing, prolific, colorful, and can function as a focal or filler. Learning to grow them well will keep you elbow-deep in flowers all summer.
Growing Guides
How to Grow and Harvest Cosmos Cut Flowers
Airy, romantic, and incredibly prolific. Harvesting cosmos at the right stage makes all the difference for vase life.
Growing Guides
How to Prune Every Type of Hydrangea
Not every sunflower is good for the vase. Find out which to grow, plus best branching varieties, harvesting timing, and vase life tips.
Growing Guides
8 Tips for Growing Better Zinnias in Your Garden
Longer stems, bigger blooms, more cuts per plant. Once your zinnias are established, these tips make a real difference.
Growing Guides
Pinching Flowers for Longer Stems and More Blooms
Pinching flower seedlings early on will help your plants grow longer stems and give you more blooms. Learn how, when, and which flowers to pinch.
RecommendAtions
Where to Buy Seeds
The seed companies below are places I’ve ordered from and trust.
TIP: If a listing you’re interested in doesn’t specifically say the variety is good for cut flowers, look at the height of the plant. Choose plants that get over 20″ tall for long stems.
Seed Companies
- Botanical Interests: good variety of flowers, good info, and they often run sales or specials
- High Mowing Organic Seeds: great company and source for organic flower seeds
- Johnny’s Selected Seeds: great source for cut flower seeds; you can get very specific varieties here
- The Gardener’s Workshop: good selection of specific cut flower varieties sold by a cut flower farmer
- Pinetree Garden Seeds: excellent variety of flowers, reasonable pricing and good germination
- Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: specializes in unusual and heirloom varieties; always free shipping
04
Growing Dahlias
Dahlias are the crown jewel of the cutting garden.
Dramatic, long-blooming, and colorful. They require a little more knowledge and skill to grow than typical cutting garden annuals, which is why I’m featuring them separately here.
Dahlias
How to Plant and Grow Dahlia Tubers (Tips for Earlier Blooms)
My complete guide to planting and growing dahlia tubers. Learn to identify eyes and healthy tubers, as well as manage common pests. You’ll also learn how to get dahlias to flower up to a month sooner.
Dahlias
How to Divide Dahlia Tubers to Get More Plants
Dividing is the core skill of growing dahlias as a long-term cutting garden plant. Learn to do it well and you’ll multiply your collection for free every year.
Dahlias
How to Overwinter Dahlia Tubers to Grow Next Year
Dahlias won’t survive a hard frost in the ground in most climates. This walks through digging, cleaning, and storing tubers safely through winter.
Dahlias
Propagating Dahlias with Cuttings
The fastest way to multiply a dahlia variety you love. A slightly advanced technique, but very satisfying once you get it.
Recommendations
Dahlia Tuber Sources
- Hudson Valley Seed Co: They grow their own tubers on their farm in new York and sell dahlia and other flower seeds.
- Longfield Gardens: Another source I’ve used for dahlias. Not my favorite as I’ve gotten the wrong tubers before and they’re not always packed well.
- Costco: If you have a membership, visit often in the spring to get dahlias before they sell out.
- Park Seed: Find dahlia tubers and seeds (seeds grow differently, but are a cost-effective way to get lots of dahlias if you’re not too picky)
- White Flower Farm: Plenty of dahlia tubers to choose from
05
Arranging Cut Flowers
Arranging cut flowers is why we grow them after all.
These are all the tips and tricks I really wish I would’ve known when I’d first started. Flower arranging doesn’t require formal training or expensive supplies to make a bouquet worth displaying. You just need to know a few basic principles and be willing to experiment and have fun with it.
Arranging flowers
Easy Mason Jar Bouquets Straight from the Garden
The most beginner-friendly arranging post on NQH. No floral foam required. These flower recipes contain only a few types of floral stems and can be displayed in a jar.
Arranging flowers
Tips for Making Cut Flowers Last in the Vase
Doing a few extra things will extend the life of your fresh cut flowers.
Arranging flowers
Tips and Tricks for Fall Flower Arrangements
How to arrange with late-season flowers, foliage, seedheads, and the unexpected textures fall brings to the garden.
Arranging flowers
Peachy Pink Cut Flower Bouquet
Color-focused inspiration for mixing summer garden flowers.
Arranging flowers
How to Make a Spring Flower Arrangement
A seasonal guide to arranging with the soft, delicate flowers of early spring.
Garden Notes
My Best and Worst Bouquets (Try Not to Cringe)
Every year I rank a selection of my homegrown arrangements from the season. These definitely aren’t tutorials. They’re a collection of my favorite bouquets and most embarrassing failures. This is what it looks like to learn flower arranging one season at a time.
06
Beyond the Vase
Playing with flowers doesn’t stop with the vase.
Pressed flowers, herb wreaths, seasonal planters, and floral crafts are all fun ways to make the most of a cutting garden. Here are my favorite floral crafts and DIYs.
Floral DIYs
How to Make Flower Resin Charms with Garden Flowers
How to press flowers from your garden and preserve them in resin charms. A satisfying project that captures a specific flower or season in the garden and transforms it into something you can keep or gift.
07
Cut Flowers in the Vegetable Garden
You don’t need a dedicated cutting garden to grow flowers for the vase.
The most rewarding way to grow cut flowers is actually in your vegetable beds! There, they pull double duty as companion plants, attracting pollinators, deterring pests, and making the whole garden more beautiful and productive.
This is actually how I started. A handful of zinnias tucked between the tomatoes. If you’re a vegetable gardener who wants to dip your toes into flowers, start here.
In the Vegetable Garden
Why I Grow Flowers in My Vegetable Garden—9 Practical Reasons
Mixing flowers and vegetables has practical benefits beyond just “looking pretty.” See 9 reasons why you should companion plant flowers with vegetables.
In the Vegetable Garden
18 Great Companion Flowers for Vegetables
A complete guide to the best flowers to plant with your vegetables, how each one helps, and how to incorporate them in your beds.
In the Vegetable Garden
10 Companion Planting Combinations for a Beautiful Cottage Vegetable Garden
How to pair cut flowers and vegetables strategically for best growth and beauty.
Growing flowers and vegetables together is central to how I garden. Head over to this page for more on the cottage vegetable garden approach.
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