Gardening for Cut Flowers

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Any garden can yield a surprising quantity of material for flower arrangers with regular jobs decorating churches, or supplying material for flower clubs. I am not a skilled flower arranger, but I do make up little posies of what’s in bloom for a small vase on my desk, so that I can enjoy the essence of my garden while I am working. Grander arrangements seem to require a framework of shrubby material, fleshed out with fillers of foliage and small flowers, with larger, more sumptuous blooms carefully placed to provide the main impact. The latter can be bought or grown, but gardens come into their own as providers of foliage and fillers. Skeins of ivy, fern fronds, hosta leaves, the long sword-like foliage of New Zealand flax (Phormium) (8-10), and stems from shrubs such as Elaeagnus and Pittosporum are all useful. For pretty posies and tight, domed tussie mussies, Brachyglottisgreyi (9-10), bay, hyssop, rosemary, and lavender are ideal.
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For flowering filler material, members of the cow parsley or carrot family come in useful. Fry growing bishop’s flower (Ammi majus) or dill (Anethumgraveolens) as annuals. Spurges, too, are useful, such as caper spurge (Euphorbia lalhyris) (6-9), sun spurge (A. cyparissias) (4-9), and E. oblongata (6-9). Colorful fillers might include biennial sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis) and tobacco plants (Nicotiana) grown as annuals from spring-sown seed. Don’t be afraid to use the kitchen garden to raise plants specifically for cutting. Try Iceland poppies (Papavcr nudicale) (2-8), dahlias, and rudbeckias.
The flowered tulips should be lifted from borders and removed from the equation before they can spoil next season’s color combinations. Give them a good six weeks in leaf before lifting and drying the bulbs off. Replant in late autumn, about 5 inches apart into rows in rich soil. They will then yield excellent cut flowers the following spring.

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