This is my favorite time of year.
The garden centers are stocking up with gorgeous plants and the seed catalogs are going gangbusters in my mailbox.
Friends and family are posting photos on social media of all the glorious things they are planting, and my Pinterest feed is an incessant stream of stunning photos of dreamy flower gardens.
It’s as if the whole world is screaming, “It’s Spring! Time to get planting!”
And I’m here for it.
But maybe you are a new gardener, and you are finding this information-overload completely overwhelming.
Or maybe you haven’t had much success in the garden, and you are torn between wanting to grow a beautiful garden and not wanting to put in the effort to see it fail again.
Or maybe you’ve never gardened at all and feel that urge deep inside to go for it. (I like your spirit!)
With all the information out there, it is stunningly difficult to know where to start sometimes. It’d be much easier if someone just told you what to plant, right?
While half of the fun of gardening is figuring out for yourself what should go in your garden, sometimes it’s nice to have someone guide you in what to do next.
Below I’ve listed 5 easy cut flowers for beginners (including one that is a secret weapon).
These flowers love full-sun locations, can handle most kinds of soil and are relatively low-maintenance. You can plant these varieties as seedlings from your local garden center or you can sow them as seeds directly into your garden. They are also annuals, which means they will not take a permanent place in your garden so you can try something new again next year!
The best part? They will yield waves of colorful blooms all summer long and you will have more than enough flowers to fill your favorite vase in your home.
What’s not to love about that? Let’s get inspired!
Zinnias
Zinnias are the QUEENS of the summer cutting garden. They come in a large range of colors, from bright and bold, to soft and feminine. Zinnias love hot, dry weather. In fact, they put on their best show when the season is at its hottest peak (but they do appreciate being watered at least three times a week). They are prolific bloomers, too. In fact, the more you cut them, the more blooms they will produce. With this abundance of blooms, I’d recommend you start with around 5-7 zinnia plants.
Quick Tip: Look for varieties that grow at least 18-24 inches tall to ensure you have long enough stems to place them in a standard vase. There are dwarf varieties, that while beautiful, will be too short for you to enjoy in the vase.
Cosmos
When you want a whimsical, romantic flower, cosmos are a great choice. The most common colors you will see are pinks, whites and reds, but yellow and even apricot varieties are available now! These sweet flowers not only add beautiful interest to your garden, but birds and beneficial insects love them. Their fern-like foliage and bright, cheerful blooms add something special to hand-cut bouquets that is hard to imitate with other flowers. Their only downside is that cosmos blooms will only last about 5 days in the vase. However, the plants rebloom so quickly, they make up for it.
Quick Tip: Cosmos can grow pretty tall and bulky, so you will need to support them with tomato or peony cages or garden netting strung between stakes or t-posts.
Marigold
Marigolds are often overlooked as a cut flower, but they are an incredible asset to your cutting garden. Not only do they bloom abundantly and look great in bouquets, but they can be your secret weapon against pests in the garden, as most “bad bugs” are repelled by their strong smell. If you don’t favor the traditional bold gold color, new breeding programs have developed paler buttery yellow varieties as well as white cultivars.
Quick Tip: Plant marigolds in clumps of 3-5 throughout your cutting garden to keep “bad bugs” at bay.
Plume Celosia
Celosia is an easy-to-find cut flower, yet most new growers aren’t aware of it. We love it on our farm because it is both versatile and beautiful. Available in an abundance of colors, celosia can be both an accent flower and foliage filler for your hand-cut bouquets. There are many varieties of celosia, but the plume variety is best for the new gardener because it reblooms quickly after cutting and offers incredible beauty and variety to your garden.
Quick Tip: Celosia can grow tall, so plant several plants closely together to offer stability and support. I would suggest planting 8-10 celosia plants.
Sunflower
While these flowers aren’t considered cut-and-come-again plants like the ones listed above, we consider them a must-grow in the summer garden. Sunflowers come in both the single-stem and branching varieties in a multitude of colors, including yellow, orange, white, plum, pink, brown and even red. Sunflowers will last in the vase 1-2 weeks if cut fresh.
Also, look for varieties that don’t grow taller than 75-80 inches. A common mistake new growers make is planting mammoth sunflowers that end up growing much too tall for cutting and growing. The ProCut series of sunflowers are always an excellent choice for cutting gardens. (ProCut White Lite is one of our favorites!)
Quick Tip: A good way to keep sunflowers blooming all season in your garden is to buy extra seeds and plant them out into your garden every 2-4 weeks (this is called succession planting). Just make sure you set aside dedicated space for the additions, or quickly remove the plants that have been cut for the vase. We would suggest planting 12-15 seeds for each succession.
When to Plant Easy Cut Flowers
The best time to start your cutting garden is just after the last predicted frost for your region as none of the varieties we listed will survive freezing temperatures. You can find your growing zone on the USDA site and your last frost date here. Or simply search “last frost dates” for your growing zone. Our farm is located in Zone 7b, so we usually plan to get summer flowers into the ground between April 15 and May 1st.
We hope this list inspires you to try out these 5 easy cut flowers in your garden. Let us know if you have any questions and share your garden photos with us on social media!
Thank you for choosing to join our family on this grand adventure, as we grow something beautiful, meaningful and good. If we haven't met yet, we are Sara and Teddy Wilson and we own Oklahoma Cut Flower Company in Norman, Oklahoma. We are a micro-farm that grows specialty cut flowers to educate and inspire our local flower-loving community. We are members of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers.
You can learn more about us and join our adventures by subscribing to our email list and following us on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.
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