Cutting Garden Adds Color Inside Your Home And Out

Many gardeners who like flowers like having them in the house.

But cutting the blooms means sacrificing color in the garden.

A cutting garden can solve this problem. You can tuck it into an unused, even unseen, spot, provided some sunlight hits the area. The garden doesn’t have to be big or elaborately designed.

A simple, raised bed 2 feet wide and 12 feet long is large enough. Fill it with an organically enriched soil to ensure good drainage and nutrients for the plants.

A cutting garden doesn’t have to be all neat and tidy either. Plant every inch of the garden, so you’ll have plenty of blooms. Cut the blooms regularly to encourage production of even more.

Plant annuals and perennials, including bulbs. Consider some shrubs, too, if they are not planted elsewhere in your garden. The silvery cast of eleagnus, the deep green of boxwood, the full-headed flowers of hydrangeas and the purple berries of beauty berry work well in a vase.

And don’t forget roses. Full, softly colored antique roses are especially beautiful with eleagnus.

White is the social mixer in the garden and in bouquets. Shasta daisies bring a fresh approach to any arrangement.

To extend the vase life of cut flowers, gather the blooms early in the morning. As I work, I like to put flowers I’ve already cut in a container of lukewarm water.

Among the spring annuals that make great cut flowers are cosmos, snapdragons, calendulas and larkspur as well as Johnny jump-ups for small vases. Summer-to-fall annuals include sun-loving zinnias and sunflowers.

Gerbera daisies are a colorful bunch. Given a half day of sun and a fertile, well-draining soil, they will provide plenty of flowers from late winter to early summer, then again in the fall.

Perennial blue salvias are beautiful when paired with white.

Plant white and red salvias, too. Yarrow makes a fine cut flower. This perennial has lacy foliage, too.

Plant summer phlox - both white and magenta - for height as well as fragrance. Black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers bloom all summer and make long-lasting cut flowers. Asters are fall-flowering perennials worth considering.