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Episode 29: Planning Your Annual Cut Flower Garden, Part 1

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There are many similarities between growing annual vegetables and annual flowers. Just like a vegetable garden, a great annual cut flower garden takes a little planning. This week we discuss general planting considerations and take a look at some of our favorite and most reliable direct seeded annual flowers for cutting.

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In this episode, we discuss:

  • How to prepare for planting flowers

  • Direct seeding vs. transplanting

  • Species and varieties we love

For scale, Hilary in a patch of comos

NIgella ‘Deflt Blue’

Important Take-aways:

  • Some species will thrive when direct seeded into the garden, and some need to be transplanted.

  • As with an annual vegetable garden, I highly recommend planting your annual cut flowers in a bed that has specifically been set aside for annual crop production. Remember that annual plants are those which complete their life cycle in a single season and need to be replanted every year.

  • It is important to plant your flowers into a bed that has been properly prepared. The soil should be nice and loose, fertilized, and the bed should be set up for some type of regular irrigation. From my experience, all of the species that we will discuss today will thrive in a bed that has been prepared (soil tilth, pH and nutrient wise) for vegetable production.

  • Direct-seeded types:

    • Comos

      • Unique

      • Double Click

      • Sensation

    • Dill

      • Mammoth

      • Vierling

    • Nasturtiums

      • Empress of India

      • Trailing types

      • Alaska Apricot

    • Nigella

      • Love In The Mist

      • Delft Blue

    • Sunflowers

    • Zinnias

      • Benary’s Giants

      • Oklahoma

      • Cactus-types

      • Queen Red Lime

      • Queen Lime With Blush

For more information on growing these flowers and photos, check out the blog post I created a few years ago that inspired this episode: Planning Your Annual Cut Flower Garden

You don't need a ton of space! This 2x8 foot bed along a house was ample space to grow flowers.


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