Confidence Building Flowers You Can Grow at Home
My 5 Favorite Cut Flowers You Can Grow at Home
My first job in the horticulture industry was at a local garden center. I heard lots of stories about your Cactus-killing black thumbs. I am here to assure you there are plenty of flowers you can grow with a little guidance. Our top two customer requests were for ‘Low Maintenance’ and ‘Deer Resistant’ plants. Coming from a person who wants to buy one of everything in the garden center I had to accept that not all plants would work for my shade-covered, deer-infested garden. I have killed a lot of plants trying to make plants work in the wrong location.
Before buying any plant, tree, or bulb it is important to understand your planting site.
How much sun does this area get? Plant tags can be helpful if you know what information they are asking for. Sun requirements are typically broken down into Full Sun, Part Sun/Part Shade, or Shade. Well, what exactly does this mean?
Full sun plants require more than 6 hours of direct sunlight each day. These are the plants that love the hot afternoon heat.
Part sun/Part shade is interchangeable in the plant world: 3-6 hours of sun each day. Typically means it prefers the cooler hours of the day, morning, early afternoon, or evening. If the plant is listed as partial sun, the greater emphasis is put on it receiving at least the minimal sun requirements. If the plant is listed as partial shade, the plant will need some relief from the intense heat of late afternoon sun.
Shade-loving plants (this is what I would be if I was a plant) like less than 3 hours of sun per day.
Full Shade gardening, I suggest JoAnn Fabric’s silk department or maybe a rock garden. Good luck.
How much space do you really have to plant in? It is easy to be fooled by the size of the cute little plants in the garden center. I am a visual person so reading 5’x5’ on a tag means nothing to me until I can see a 5’ tall shrub.
What type of soil do you have? Here in SE Ohio even in our Mid-Ohio Valley region we have many different types of soil. The soil actually varies greatly even on our farm from the upper planting fields to the lower. If you have specific questions about your soil, visit your County Extension agent or local garden center for more information.
Zinnias
These beautiful blooms produce flowers all summer long. They are easy enough to start from seed; sow into your garden or landscape after the last frost. Seeds can be planted 1/4 inch deep and watered in well. Once seeds sprout, thin seedlings to 6-9” apart.
We call Zinnias our work-horse flower here on the farm. It is one of the first flowers to bloom and the last flower we pull from our fields. They love full sun and have a long vase life of 7-10 days once it has been cut. There are so many varieties to choose from but some of our favorites are ‘Jazzy Mix’, ‘Cactus Mix’, and ‘Oklahoma’.
Zinnias can be prone to powdery mildew in humid climates like ours. Powdery mildew can be minimized with good air circulation between the plants and not watering directly on the foliage.
We also have pesky Japanese beetles that love to munch on the leaves. Simply picking the beetles off and dropping them in a bucket of soapy water will reduce the damage. It is best to do this in the early mornings, as the dew restricts the beetles from flying away.
Sunflowers
When I first started growing flowers, Sunflowers were near the bottom of my list. There were so many new types of flowers I wanted to grow I didn’t want to fuss with boring Sunflowers. But, the more I grew, the more I was drawn to their cheerfulness and incredibly long vase life. Hard to not like a flower that blooms for 10 days. If you want to try your hand at starting seeds indoors sunflowers are a great flower to start with. They can be directly sown into the garden or easily started indoors on a window sill. When planted outside sunflowers require full sun and will do well in most soil types. They can also be started every couple of weeks for continuous blooms throughout the entire summer. If you don’t cut all the stems for flowers (like we do) you can leave the flower heads on for the wildlife to enjoy.
In my first year growing sunflowers I followed the directions on the seed packet and spaced my seeds 12-18” apart. By the time the flowers were ready to harvest they had 4” diameter stems and were 12’ tall. My very own Jack and the Beanstalk. I needed a ladder to cut these flowers and the flower heads were certainly not going in any bouquet. I did learn a lesson from my gigantic sunflowers, they are like goldfish - the closer you plant the seeds the smaller the plants and flower head. For us here on the farm, we like single stems varieties but for the home gardener, you might try branching sunflowers for a longer bloom time. Some of our favorite varieties are ‘Sonja’, ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Teddy Bear’.
Snapdragons
I think of Snapdragons as an old-fashion flower, they often invoke childhood memories of a grandparents’ garden just as Peony and Zinnias do. Snapdragons have wonderful color and texture in the garden and are also great pollinator habitat. We love snaps (as we call them on the farm) because they are very pest and disease tolerant.
These flowers can be grown indoors from seed however, we recommend for the beginning gardener to buy these plants from your local garden centers. One of our summer favorites is the ‘Rocket’ variety.
Ageratum
Ageratum or common name Floss Flower is an airy, whimsical addition to any summer bouquet. We receive lots of requests for the coveted blue flowers and Ageratum is the perfect match. It also is available in white, pink, and red and is another friend to our pollinators.
These fuzzy little flower puffs bloom from early summer through fall without too many pests. It is also another great option for full sun or part-sun. My favorite part is these beauties can be enjoyed fresh or dried.
Cosmos
We have over 100 varieties of flowers we grow on our farm so I am always on the lookout for those flowers that bloom with just a little neglect. You have to be tough to make the cut around here! God bless Cosmos. I sometimes feel I owe these quintessential cottage garden flowers an apology, I give their demanding sister the dahlia all my attention during the summer. These plants can handle drought, poor soil conditions, humidity, and full sun.
Cosmos are another easy choice for direct seeding into your garden. Seeds germinate quickly and occasionally will self sow. Great to mix with Zinnias for a summer full of color. Try growing ‘Sensation Mix’ for a beautiful burst of lavender, pink and white in your garden.
We would love to see your success stories. Be sure to email us your photos at hello@wildrootflowerco.com for a chance to appear in our newsletter.
Best,
Lyndsay
