Bring the outdoors in! Growa cut flower garden and enjoy your blooms in vases throughout your home. With this list of the best cut flowers to grow, you can delight in floral beauty for the entire growing season!
A beautiful flower garden is an oasis – it’s a place you can go to find serenity in the midst of chaos. It’s also a place to enjoy nature’s beauty at its finest. Many people spend a ton of money buying flowers from a florist in order to create a similar experience inside their homes.
However, for anyone who wants to garden, a beautiful flower garden can also be enjoyed inside your home by growing a cut flower garden.
It’s important to know that not just any flower makes a good cut flower. Instead, you’ll need to choose flowers that stay beautiful and alive for a while after you cut them. Mixing in some of the best cut flowers on this list into your garden layout will not only yield a beautiful outdoor garden but also give you flowers to put together the most exquisite bouquets to enjoy indoors as well!
Planning the Layout for Your Cut Flower Garden
The key to a successful and enjoyable garden is planning the layout! When you plant cut flowers to grow in your garden, there are a few factors to consider as you plan.
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Flower Needs
Different types of flowers will have different needs when it comes to light, soil, and water. Group flowers with similar needs together to make it easier for you to give them what they need with less effort on your part.
Height
Some flowers naturally grow taller than others. Prevent unwanted shade problems by planting taller flowers in the back. Additionally, try to group similar-sized flowers together!
Layout
As you consider your cut flower garden layout, plan how you will grow your flowers. You’ll want to create wide rows of plants with walking rows in between to make it easier for you to weed, care for them, and cut stems.
Annual flowers likely won’t grow for as long of the season as perennials will, so keep some extra seeds on hand and re-seed when a batch of annual flowers starts to die off.
Best Flowers for a Cutting Garden
At this point, you may be wondering “what are the best flowers to grow for cutting?”
Look no further!
With so many options of cut flowers to grow, I decided to pull together a list of the best flowers for cutting to grow in your own garden.
I am breaking this list down into groupings of annual flowers and perennial flowers to help you quickly find what you’re looking for!
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Best Annual Cut Flowers to Grow
Annuals are hard to beat for their sheer blooming power. As a result, annuals are traditionally used as cut flowers. Here are the best annuals for your cut flower garden!
Cosmos
The combination of daisy-like flowers and fern-like foliage makes Cosmos a natural complement to many other flower garden essentials such as Zinnias, Dahlias, Sunflowers, and more. These small, cup-shaped flowers are easy to grow from seeds and bloom profusely. The more you cut cosmos the more they seem to bloom.
Colors: Pink, red, maroon, white, yellow
Height: 1-3 feet
Bloom time: Summer, fall
Vase life: 4-6 days
I absolutely love Double Click, Cupcake & Saucers, and Purity. Rubenenza is also a glorious red tall stemmed cosmos that you have to try in your garden.
Dahlias
Dahlias have large, elegant blooms that burst with color! They add just the right splash to any flower arrangement. Even in my very short growing season, I have had great success with Dahlias. They are one of my favorite flowers. They also make very impressive, very full, vibrant displays. I often dry dahlias for winter displays.
Dahlias are bulbs and can be used year after year if you dig up the bulbs after the first frost and store them over winter to replant in the spring.
It does not take long for one tuber to become 20-30. A Dahlia can produce anywhere from 5-12 tubers a year which will multiply your plantable stock very quickly!
Colours: Purple, orange, red, white, yellow, pink
Height: 1-3 feet
Bloom time: Summer, fall
Vase life: 4-6 days
I absolutely LOVE the dinner plate dahlias. Some of my favorite types are Cafe o Lait, Cafe o Lait Rose (I cannot find it anywhere this year, it’s glorious and a must add to your garden if you can find it), Islander, and Ottos Thrill. But there are hundreds of dahlias to try in bright jewel colors to light soft pastels. There really is something for everyone.
Lavateras
Want to add a romantic touch to your garden or vase? Grow Lavateras! The flowers look like mini hollyhock blooms. These grow very easily from seeds planted in spring and create bush-like plants with very sturdy blooms.
This is a taller plant that works well as a back border, or as a stand-alone hedge border.
Colours: white, purple, pink
Height: 3-8 feet
Bloom time: Summer, fall
Vase life: 7-10 days
I never see Lavatera mentioned for cut gardens but the flowers are always stunning, prolific, and last a long time. They are also incredibly easy to gather seeds from in the fall. It’s a wonderful flower you can plant once and reseed year after year.
Sunflowers
Cheery Sunflowers bring smiles to faces and are known for their tall stems and giant flower heads. But, what many people don’t know about sunflowers is that there are slightly smaller varieties that are a cinch to grow and make wonderful cut flowers. Sunflowers are easy to grow and make a wonderful addition to any garden.
There are many new sunflowers that have been cultivated for their blooms, but the pollen has been removed or reduced. Although these particular types of sunflowers make great cut flowers, they are not great for your garden, or for pollinators like bees. Be sure any sunflower seeds you buy to grow have not been cultivated to remove the pollen.
Yes, the pollen-less sunflowers are bred to be pretty and tidy, but we need to feed the bees and we need to do better.
Colours: Yellow, orange, red
Height: 1-3 feet
Bloom time: Summer & Early Fall
Vase life: 7-10 days
Zinnias
Zinnias are easy to grow and make some of the best cut flowers to decorate your home. They are tall, colourful, grow quickly, and provide plentiful blooms – an easy choice for any cut flower garden!
Zinnias are a cinch to grow from seed too! Toss down a few seed packets in a sunny spot and you will be graced with beautiful blooms that go all summer long straight until the first frost of winter.
Colours: Purple, orange, red, green, pink, white, yellow
Height: 3-8 feet
Bloom time: Summer, fall
Vase life: 7-12 days
We love the Benary’s Giant series, Queen Lime, Liliput,and Zinderella. But there are SO many beautiful Zinnias that it is difficult to just name a few.
Best Perennials For Your Cut Flower Garden
Many cut flower gardens feature annual flowers due to their showy blooms that replenish themselves throughout the growing season. However, also including perennials in your cutting garden will add a seasonal flair to your cut flower arrangements since not all perennials bloom at the same time.
Coneflowers
Coneflowers (also called Echinacea) are native to North America and a staple for any cut flower garden. They are deer-resistant, drought-tolerant, and their colorful blooms are available from summer to fall. They are also one of the fastest blooming flowers in your summer garden.
With large, cone-shaped blooms on single stems, coneflowers make some of the best cut flowers! They also attract bees and butterflies! They spread very well and make a beautiful addition to any garden. The cut flowers also make a beautiful bouquet that lasts for weeks.
Coneflowers are also hardy. In my zone two short seasons, where the winter temperatures dip well below -30 C, they survive and thrive.
Colours: Purple, orange, red, green, pink, white, yellow
Height: 1-3 feet
Bloom time: Summer, fall
Vase life: Up to 14 days
Lilies
The large, showy blooms of Lilies add elegance and beauty to any garden or cut flower arrangement. With seemingly endless varieties of their distinctive trumpet-shaped flowers, the Lily can be added to a cut flower arrangement for long-lasting enjoyment.
Lily’s are also strongly scented and are a great flower if you love flowers with a heady scent.
Colours: Orange, red, blue, white, pink
Height: 3-8 feet
Bloom time: Summer
Vase life: 8-10 days
Roses
The champion of all cut flowers, roses are not only a treat for the eyes but they are also one of the best smelling flowers as well! They look amazing in almost any garden as well as in cut flower arrangements. Their stiff stems help them stay vibrant and look fresh for days after you cut them.
Homegrown roses also have a heavier scent, and old-fashioned bush roses have beautifully ruffly petals that fill displays and look gorgeous as centerpieces.
Colours: Purple, orange, red, green, pink, white, yellow
Height: 3-8 feet
Bloom time: Summer
Vase life: 4-7 days
My favorite rose is Boscobel. It’s anEnglish Shrub RoseBred By David Austin. The scent is unreal, and the flowers are incredibly well-formed, tight, and unique.
- Related: See our guide for keeping cut roses fresh for as long as possible.
- Related: See our guide for drying rose petals in under 2 minutes!
Tulips
Among the first flowers to bloom in the spring, Tulips come in a large variety of colour options and work really well as cut flowers. Tulips drink a lot of water, so keep their stems in water to prevent air from getting in them.
I love the ruffled tulips for cut flowers. I mean any tulip will do, but the ruffled tulips add a lot of pretty texture to cut flower bouquets.
Colours: Blue, red, green, orange, white, pink
Height: 10-20 inches
Bloom time: Spring
Vase life: Up to 7 days
The prettiest Tulips for me are the double-flowered tulips like
You can’t go wrong growing any of these flowers for a cut flower garden. With this list of the best cut flowers to grow, you’ll have gorgeous indoor flower arrangements all season long!
Having access to your own flower cutting garden (especially if you are obsessed with flowers like I am) means fresh blooms every week, in every room. It also means beautiful cut flower displays to give away to brighten someone else’s day. A win-win gardening situation if you ask me.
