Colorful floral arrangements brighten foyers and enhance dinner tables. But if you’re hesitant to cut the flowers in your landscape to bring indoors because it may leave your yard less colorful, the answer is to plant a Cutting Garden. Then you can enjoy the best of both worlds — beautiful landscape plantings plus a separate garden for cut flowers — so you can snip to your heart’s content!

What Exactly is a Cutting Garden?

Think of your cutting garden as a separate section in your yard where you only plant flowers that you plan to cut and bring indoors to make floral arrangements. Although you can certainly cut flowers from your landscape plants to fill vases and make centerpieces, your landscape plants won’t be as showy if you’re constantly removing their blooms.

Where and How to Plant a Cutting Garden

Choose a spot in your yard that may be a tad off the beaten path — an inconspicuous location that won’t detract from your landscape design. A cutting garden is not typically the focal point in your yard; it serves more of a utilitarian purpose. So think more toward a garden that you can lay out in rows, similar to a vegetable garden, with paths between the rows that are wide enough for you to navigate. Instead of harvesting vegetables, you’ll be harvesting cut flowers!

Tall, Sturdy Stems

Any dramatic floral arrangement needs height. Sunflowers, glads and dahlias are flowers with tall, sturdy stems that hold up well in vases. Some flowers are so large that one bloom can fill a vase; for example, “dinner plate” dahlias. Avignon (white flowers with violet and burgundy splashes and stripes), Babylon Red (fiery red blossoms) and Moonlight Sonata (coral and peach-pink blooms) are a few showstopper dahlias.

Hydrangeas

You may not think of planting hydrangeas in your cutting garden, but there are numerous hydrangea species and cultivars that add great diversity and impact to cut-flower arrangements.

Round Flowers: Nikko Blue and Endless Summer are two hydrangeas with huge, “mophead”-type flowers. The color of these hydrangeas can range from pink to blue (or even purple), depending on the pH of your garden soil. Annabelle also has oversized round flower heads — but in brilliant white!

Cone-Shaped Flowers: Did you know that all hydrangea flowers aren’t round? Some species, such as Limelight and Oakleaf, have panicle flowers, which are cone-shaped. Pair these cone-shaped flowers with round flower specimens for a geometrically diverse arrangement.

Roses

A cutting garden wouldn’t be complete without roses. With a rainbow of colors from which to choose, select shades of roses that complement your home’s décor. Although some roses are a bit finicky — and some have sporadic bloom times — if you plant Knock Out roses, you’ll be sure to have a never-ending supply of colorful flowers. Sunny Knock Out brightens up any room in your home with its cheerful yellow flowers. Choose Red Knock Out roses for vivid color or Pink Knock Out roses for a softer touch.

Ornamental Grasses

Although flowers are certainly the prominent features of any floral arrangement, what really puts the finishing touches on any bouquet are dramatic non-flowering stems, such as ornamental grasses. Not to be confused with their turfgrass cousins, ornamental grasses come in a rainbow of dazzling colors, straight or arching stems and varying textures. Purple Fountain Grass adds a striking touch to bold centerpieces with its arching purple foliage and fluffy flower spikes, and Pink Muhly Grass lends softness to bouquets with its soft-pink flower plumes.

Remove Pollen

Messy flower pollen can stain your tablecloths or furniture. As you’re arranging the flowers in your vase or flower bowl, remove the stamens — these are the structures that hold the pollen. Not only will you keep pollen from falling and staining your tablecloth, you’ll keep it from becoming airborne and aggravating any allergies!

Keep Stems Fresh Longer

To extend the vase life of your cut flowers, use a powdered floral preservative that you can find at nurseries or flower shops. Simply dissolve the powder in water and place your flowers in this treated water so they’ll stay fresh longer.

DIY Tip: Many university websites recommend making your own floral preservative for cut flowers. Mix 1 part regular (non-diet) lemon-lime soda and 3 parts water plus ¼ teaspoon of household bleach per 1 quart of the mixture.

Whether you use a purchased floral preservative or you make your own, replace the solution every few days to keep the water clean.

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