If you plant edible sunflowers then all the squirrels in your neighborhood will go delirious with joy.

Anonymous wrote:I did some experimenting a few years ago with fall sowing and it went great. I had masses of Nigella, which I think would fizzle out in the heat if planted in Spring. It reseeded for a year or two and then disappeared I think because of a colder winter. To get consistent results you might have to help the seedlings overwinter more than I did.

The easiest and most consistent annual flowers for us imo are zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers. So not a lot to cut before August. For dahlias, I try to buy varieties recommended by Southern gardeners because mine poop out when it’s too hot, so my blooming season doesn’t get going on many of them until September even if it’s way past the “days to bloom.”

Try any dahlia regardless of what the books say. I’ve had great luck growing all kinds in Silver Spring and have them blooming right from midsummer. Mine are planted with plenty of morning and early afternoon sun and bright shade later in the day.

I did some experimenting a few years ago with fall sowing and it went great. I had masses of Nigella, which I think would fizzle out in the heat if planted in Spring. It reseeded for a year or two and then disappeared I think because of a colder winter. To get consistent results you might have to help the seedlings overwinter more than I did.

The easiest and most consistent annual flowers for us imo are zinnias, cosmos and sunflowers. So not a lot to cut before August. For dahlias, I try to buy varieties recommended by Southern gardeners because mine poop out when it’s too hot, so my blooming season doesn’t get going on many of them until September even if it’s way past the “days to bloom.”

On the johnny's site, and probably others, you can select "cut flowers" as one of your search categories.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this older thread bc it's seed catalog/garden planning time.

OP, what did you end up planting?

Np, but also someone who would like a cut flower garden. Is it really time to plant seeds now???

Depends on the seeds! Most can wait until February or March. Last year in my cut flower garden, I had zinnias, nicotiana (flowering tobacco), feverfew, Dara, snapdragons, poppies, cosmos, and dahlias. I think I started all my seeds in mid February. The snapdragons should have been started earlier, I didn’t get a bloom in the spring but they actually held on through the summer and bloomed in the fall. Dahlias went into the ground much later (April or May? Don’t remember) and they did great.

I’ve also had a lot of success with direct seeding fast-growing plants like zinnias and cosmos in the spring, like April to May. But I do my cut flowers in raised beds that are a little warmer than in-ground soil, so YMMV.

Have fun!!! This was my second year growing flowers just for cutting and it’s so fun and rewarding. Other favorites to start from seed include celosia, gomphrena, sunflowers . I like to order from Floret and Johnny Seeds.

Anonymous wrote:Bumping this older thread bc it's seed catalog/garden planning time.

OP, what did you end up planting?

Np, but also someone who would like a cut flower garden. Is it really time to plant seeds now???

Mexican sunflower are pretty. Zinnias do well here.

Bumping this older thread bc it's seed catalog/garden planning time.

OP, what did you end up planting?

You kind of have to plant what you like in a cutting garden, OP. Start from there. If you do like perennials like peonies, figure out how to put them in their own space so that you don’t have to mess around around their roots all the time.

Select Seeds, Annie’s Annuals, Hayefield Seeds, Seed Savers, Baker Creek… there are many options!

My favorite and easy cut flowers are: roses (I don't fuss with them), rudbekia, peonies, echinacea, annual zinnia, all kinds of bulbs, hellebores, dahlias, sunflowers, lilies, lily of the valley, iris, bachelor button, toad lily, etc.

Just for looks, or do you want them to have a good scent?

If smell, tuberoses are amazing. Also look for the older peonies, like Festiva maxima.

There are lots of different kinds of daffodils. Deer will generally not chomp on them.

What types of flowers do you want to grow?

Zinnias from seed work well too.

Try spring tubers. Dahlias would be great. Peonies too. Maybe coneflower?

I have a lot of natives etc but I'd like to dedicate a larger portion of my gardent to cut flowers. Do I need to start from seed?