What I plan (hope) to grow this year
in my
cut flower garden–
+ cosmos*– Apricot Lemonade + some orange seeds a frend saved and sent me
+ Calendulas - cantaloupe
+ zinnias* – semi dwarf pumila mixed
colors, Oklahoma mix, Lilliput mixed colors
+ nasturtium – dwarf jewel mixed colors
& papaya cream mix – these are container
friendly & will likely be ones I plant in pots.
+ marigolds* – I saved seeds from last year and a friend sent me large
marigold seeds – traditional yellow / orange colors.
+ sunflowers* – I have mammoth, velvet
queen, ruby & lemon queen
+ coleus* – rainbow mix – this grows well in containers & makes for good foliage
in arrangements
+ strawflower – apricot, scarlet, silvery
rose
+ aster – apricot
+ dahlia – red skin
+ bachelor’s button – mixed color (perennial)
+ yarrow – berry mix (perennial)
+ amish cockscomb – a friend gave me a bloom from her garden and I saved seeds
from it.
+ amaranth – green, white globe, bleeding
heart
+ celosia – pampas plume mix, super crest,
+ poppy – breadseed (frosted salmon) &
giant peony mixed colors
all
of these from seed & * signifies flowers I grew in year one – many of these
are new to me.
This is a long list & it's likely I will not
be able to make room for it all. I’ll write another blog post as an update
later in the season to update on what I ended up planting. But, I wanted to
list them all out to help with your seed shopping + planning.
Where I’m growing my cut flowers –
In the same 4x16 raised bed I
used last year. But, this year, I’m expanding to grow in two raised beds. We
already have two made and I’ll be using our second one for cut flowers this
year as well, both are 4x16. I’ll probably grow in a few pots too and I have my
raised garden on the patio that will hold flowers and herbs as well.
My Garden Plan
I still have to map out what I
plan to plant where. You can look at the back of the seed packet (or online)
for seed planting specs – how to sow, how tall they will get, etc.
You’ll want to keep your
taller plants to the back of your space and your shorter plants to the front.
For me, the front of my beds is to the South, which is where my shortest height
flowers will get planted, then I’ll work my way back in the rows to the tallest
ones. Check the width too so that you don’t overpopulate one area.
I feel like it’s somewhat
tricky when starting by direct sowing seeds. You don’t fully know what is going
to come up..so I planted kind of heavy last year (again, equal parts planning +
winging it). So, where I had bare spots that seeds didn’t come up, I filled in
with plant starts. Which worked, but I overcrowded my bed and wasn’t able to
harvest certain plants for long. Example. I planted a dusty miller plant start
in a space where zinnias didn’t come up, but
as the season progressed the size of my zinnias greatly expanded and
then they fully covered my dusty miller plant next to them. Live and learn. I’ll
be mildly more aware of spacing this year.
STARTING SEEDS BY WINTER SOWING
One new method I learned of is
winter sowing – I saw this method on Lindy’s Instagram page a few week’s ago.
She tried it for the first time and had success. It seemed like an easy enough way
to start seeds, so I gave it a try this weekend. I started asters and
strawflowers – see the steps in my Instagram reel.
Here is a helpful chart explaining
the winter sowing process.
PINCHING PLANTS
Saving Seeds –
I was able to save seeds from my garden blooms last year
and I’ll be usng them this year. I also received some seeds from friends. So,
not all of these were purchased. Definitely a great way to save some money and
expand what you’re able to grow. There are a lot of tutorials on YouTube or
Instagram and the ones I saved (cosmo, zinnia, marigold, cockscomb) were all
very easy to do!
Helpful links -
Grow Zone Finder -- learn what grow zone you are by zipcode here
I'm in Missouri in grow zone 6A.
Frost Dates -- learn your first / last frost date by zipcode here
My zipcode has a frost risk through April 27th.
Here's a look at the Amish Cockscomb a friend gave me & why I love it so much!
A few questions I received on Instagram
Q – One flower you’d recommend growing
for a first year flower garden?
A - Zinnias! Easy
and they produce a lot of vibrant blooms.
Q - Is there one kind of sunflower that is easier to grow than others?
A - I don’t have enough personal experience on the topic to
answer but I found this
article from Midwest
Living on the best sunflower varieties. My friend Lindy said they all seem
to do equally well in her opinion! I listed
Q – How did you determine how many seeds to plant and where?
A- Once you determine what you want to grow, you can research
the growing specifics. The back of the seed pack holds tons of helpful info.
Seed spacing, depth to sow, where to plant (full sun, etc). It will often say
if they are container friendly or not, so if you plan to start a garden in pots
you can look for that!
GROWING KINDNESS
last year I signed up to be a gardener for the growing kindness project
"Grow flowers & give them away. That's it. It's humble. It's simple. It's powerful"
In the gardener role you do just that - simply grow flowers & share your bouquets within your community to spread kindness - here's the link if you'd like to sign up & learn more.
NEWSLETTER - want more content like this? Sign
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newsletter!
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