Cut Flower Garden Beds
This year I finally decided to start a cut flower garden. We moved to a new house 2 years ago and I still have not decided what to plant around the house, but I knew I wanted to start a cut flower garden. I have been dreaming of a cut flower garden for many years and I was inspired to get started by Floret. I have always had a love for gardening and wanted to try something new. I have been obsessed with Floret for about 3 years and have watched multiple mini course videos. Since I was able to purchase Floret seeds this year (which can be a struggle). I decided to give it a try and could not be happier 6 months later. It’s hard to believe it has only been 6 months since I started growing these seeds.
I ended up planting celosia, zinnias, stock, and snapdragons. I tried to keep in my mind that this was going to be a test to see how I do as well as the plants. I also tried to be aware of my zone, I live in West Texas zone 8A. We have high heat in the summer as well as freezes into March -April. We also have quite a bit of wind and hail. I wanted to try zinnias and celosia due to their heat tolerance. But I also wanted to try snapdragons and stock because of their cold tolerance. I also just love foxgloves and knew I was going to be trying these for a few years since they are biennials and would take time for me to learn how they will tolerate my area. I planted the celosia and zinnias together and the stock and snapdragons together in the other bed. I planted 12 celosia and 15 zinnias 9 inches apart in one bed. In the other bed 12 stock 6 inches apart and 15 snapdragons 9 inches apart.
I started out thinking I was going to use this netting to stake the plants up. However, I think I purchased a type of netting with too large of squares and the plants would blow out of them with the wind. I ended up cutting cedar pickets down to little stakes for each plant and held them in place with plant Velcro.
After watching many Floret videos and reading Floret Farms Cut Flower Garden book, I decided to pinch the celosia, zinnias, and snapdragons when they were right around a foot tall. After watching their growth pattern after pinching I can see how it did encourage more outward growth and produced more branches for cutting.
The stock has yet to bloom, I think it is because I planted them outside too late. However, with just the snapdragons, celosia, and zinnias I have been able to get enough cut flowers to keep 5 vases full of blooms every week for the past 4 months. I change out the flowers in each vase every 4-5 days when the blooms start looking spent. I am very happy with the amount of cut flowers I have been able to get out of these 2 beds this year.
Lessons Learned
Start earlier in year!
On the plus side though I did avoid some major hail by not having them planted sooner.
Since I have enjoyed this so much this year my goal is to make two more for next year. I would like the zinnia and celosia to be in their own bed. Next time I will also plant the snapdragons closer together.
