7 Best Flowers to Cut for Bouquets

These flowers create a fiesta of color and texture in a flower bed. Zinnias bloom in shades of yellow, orange, pink and red on sturdy stems. As cut flowers, zinnias can be the bold blossom that grabs your eye or the complementary fillers for a bouquet. Either way, they delight.

Easy-growing daisies are drought-tolerant plants in the summer garden. They adapt well to rock gardens and containers. As cut flowers, daisies add classic simplicity to a garden-fresh bouquet.

Beautiful sunflowers can be directly sown in spring for summertime harvesting. Plant the seeds in a place that gets between six and eight hours of sun a day. Annual seedlings are available, too, if you don’t want to try growing sunflowers from seeds.

As cut flowers, sunflowers are a bouquet unto themselves. Still, you can mix in some zinnias and daisies if they’re available.

Brilliant spikes of gladiolus are thrillers in any cut flower arrangement. These flowers grow from corms, which are similar to bulbs. They should be planted in an area with well-drained soil that gets between 6 and 8 hours of sun.

Stagger planting the cormst in spring for waves of gladiolus blooms in summer. Plant the first group of corms after the last frost in your area. Wait about 10 days and put another batch of them in the ground. Plant a third batch and even a fourth every 10 days afterward.

Dahlias fall into the category of “almost too pretty to cut.” As pretty as they are in your garden, they’ll look even better in your house. These colorful blooms are long-lasting cut flowers, so you can enjoy them for a while.

In the garden, make sure you plant dahlias in a sunny location. The flowers do well in a rich, well-draining soil.

The beauty of these perennials can make you forget their diva-like nature. Roses do need pruning and regular insecticidal soap treatments. But the rewards far exceed the effort.

Roses are versatile garden performers. They grow equally well in containers or in mass
plantings. Roses need at least six hours of sun a day. The more rays they get, the more they’ll bloom. Roses hate having wet roots, so don’t plant them in areas that drain slowly. Prune rosebushes to remove dead areas to help clear the way for new growth.

Remember to give your roses time to thrive. Like other perennials, roses can take up to two years before they really begin to prosper.

You may have seen peonies showcased at a wedding, but these big showy blooms also work well for everyday bouquets. Plant them in your cutting garden to enjoy in late spring and early summer.

Lovely peonies are long-lived bulbs that grow best in USDA hardiness zones 2 to 8. There are tree peonies, too, but these instructions are for herbaceous peonies

Plan ahead for the prettiest peonies. The bulbs should be planted in the fall for best results.

Choose a site for peonies with plenty of sun and well-drained soil. Shade in late afternoon protects the blooms in the hottest days of summer. Plant the bulbs “eyes up” no deeper than two inches from the surface.

In spring, work plenty of organic compost and a slow-release fertilizer into the planting bed. When the plants are three to four inches high, fertilize again with a balanced fertilizer.

When you cut flowers the right way, you can extend the life of the blooms. Here’s a few tips for getting the most out of your cutting garden:

• Gather flowers in the cool of the day. Flowers are more fragrant in the morning.
• Take a sharp knife or pruning snips and a bucket of water with you into the garden.
• Cut flower on a slant to expose more stem surface area. Immediately submerge the stem in the bucket of water.
• As you arrange flowers in a vase, remove any leaves that will be under the water. Keep thorns on roses.
• Change the water in the vase every other day.