Flowers in My New Cutting Garden

July 17, 2024

Colorful summertime blooms are now growing beautifully in the beds of a new cutting garden.

Earlier this year, I began developing a more formal cutting garden down by my chicken coops. It had been my vegetable garden for several years, but now that I have a giant half-acre vegetable garden closer to my home, I decided the former space would be dedicated to flowers, where varieties would be organized in sections by size, color, and bloom time. It has come through quite a transformation. Many of the flower seeds are from Johnny's Selected Seeds, Bakers Creek Heirloom Seed Company, and Vilmorin.

Enjoy these photos.

: Once the ground was warm enough, the entire enclosure was cleared, cleaned, rototilled, and fed.

: By spring, Fernando started creating the raised garden beds. Landscape twine was used as a guide, so every bed and footpath was perfectly straight.

: After all the beds were completed, it was time to plant the flowers, which were started from seed in my greenhouse.

: And now, many of the beds are bursting with blossoms.

: One of the big showers right now is the zinnia, a member of the aster family and native to Mexico and Central America.

: Zinnias prefer full sun and well-drained soil. They are highly attractive to pollinators, particularly butterflies.

: The leaves of the zinnia are lanceolate, ovate, or oblong in shape, dark green, with prominent veins.

: Zinnias have a wide range of heights, growth habits, and flower colors. Colors include yellow, orange, white, pink, purple, lavender, red, and rust.

: The best time to cut zinnias is in the morning or evening when it’s cooler and when the stems are stiff and upright.

: Delphinium flowers have showy, spiky blooms on tall stems. Blue is the most common color, but delphiniums also grow in shades of pink, lavender, red, white, and yellow.

: Also known as cornflower, Bachelor’s Buttons are wonderful grown en masse. Once established, Bachelor’s Buttons sprout in the same spot year after year and produce lots of seeds, which attract small birds.

: This is the tall foxglove plant, Digitalis purpurea. These add lovely vertical interest to any garden. Foxglove flowers grow on stems which may reach up to six feet in height, depending on the variety. The downward-facing, tapered, tubular flowers are spotted inside with dark purple edged in white on the lower lip, which serves as a landing platform for pollinators.

: This is Alcea rosea, also known as the hollyhock. These plants can reach five to eight-feet tall. The flowers are large and are borne up and down a single tall stem.

: Hollyhock leaves are large with a rounded heart-shape.

: I have long loved snapdragons, Antirrhinum majus, and have a bed of these growing in the garden. Snapdragons are available in most colors except blue and coordinate well with other garden bloomers.

: Snapdragons are known for wispy jaw-like upper and lower petals. A single stem averages 10 to 15 of these unique blooms, grouped closely together.

: The snapdragon’s alternate, lanceolate leaves are arranged in a spiral around the stem.

: Scabiosa, also known as Pincushion Flower, is a versatile cut flower. With its spiky ball center and strong wiry stems, it is popularly used fresh and dried.

: I also have my potted figs in this garden and this season, there are so many fruits! Figs, Ficus carica, are members of the mulberry family and are indigenous to Asiatic Turkey, northern India, and warm Mediterranean climates, where they thrive in full sun.

: The fig tree has been sought out and cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world, both for its fruit and as an ornamental plant.