Cut flower garden update

Remember my cut flower garden plans last spring? I thought I would give you a cut flower garden update in the middle of the hottest week in Oklahoma this summer.

Gardening is hot sweaty work.

Why? Because we all need to see that gardening isn’t all rainbows, filmy dresses and unicorns. It is hot, sweaty, and quite dirty, and this time of year, the entire garden, including the cut flower beds, is full of disease and biting and stinging insects. The stinging ones usually won’t hurt you unless you accidentally squish them. They’re too busy trying to fill their tanks before fall.

The heat is making me cranky, I guess. Here’s a pretty zinnia flower to settle us all down.

Zi-nee-ah or zeenya? To-may-toe or to-mah-toe?

By the way, do you pronounce zinnia zi-nee-ah or zeenya? I say the latter because that’s how local people pronounce it in much of Oklahoma although I’m told the first pronunciation is more proper.

‘Meteor Mix’ zinnias are floral powerhouses.

No matter. We have more important things to discuss like ‘Meteor Mix’ zinnias which were the best thing that happened to my cut flower garden this year. In the center of each flower, the petals turn up slightly, and it gives them a fireworks or meteor effect. I bought my seeds from Eden Bros, and that’s an affiliate link.

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Now back to our cut flower garden update.

In spring, I detailed some new garden plans, complete with an actual garden plan, something I rarely do. I also decided to grow most of my annuals and some perennials from seed. I had seeds starting simply everywhere from the greenhouse to the basement. It was overwhelming to grow that many seeds indoors. I won’t do that again. Instead, I’ll only start things I really need and can’t readily find.

Stuff happens.

Then, the fire happened, and it upended all my plans. I tried to follow the drawn plan, but some plants I’d already transplanted outside were burned to the ground. For example, I ended up with only one apricot hollyhock, which actually hasn’t flowered yet. It probably will next year. However, a bunch of volunteer hollyhocks seeds came up, and I had the most beautiful hollyhocks ever including these pink ones.

My tomato pots were burned up in the center of the driveway, and I suddenly had to empty out all of this burned potting soil. I should have just put it in the compost pile, but I wasn’t thinking clearly.

In raised garden beds, you need to top them off every couple of years with compost or topsoil because the organic matter decays. I had room in my cut flower beds, and we put the potting soil there.

That was a huge mistake. If I’d been thinking clearly, I would have remembered that the organic matter would burn in the fire and that this potting soil was no long full of nutrients. All of my plants grew stunted, and it took me all spring to figure out why.

That’s the thing about gardening. We are always learning.

Once I discovered what was wrong, I top-dressed every plant with Happy Frog Soil Conditioner. That helped a lot. Celosia and other seeds planted later took off, and I’ve enjoyed them ever since. Overall, the plants were much happier.

Some of my seeds weren’t good at all, and others didn’t look anything like the catalog photos. ‘Oriole’ zinnias are a good example. They’re still pretty, but not what I expected.

Outside of the cut flower beds everything was so much happier. A good lesson for sure. I also use my pink passalong phlox in my bouquets because it’s so pretty. Phlox is easy to grow in Oklahoma if you water it.

Filler flowers in the cut flower garden.

In addition to the pink phlox, I also use ‘Mahogany Splendor’ tropical hibiscus, ‘Cheyenne Skies’ switchgrass and ‘Henry Eilers’ sweet coneflower. These three make great fillers along with the celosia. Celosia and amaranth are wonderful cut garden flowers.

‘Cheyenne Spirit’ echinacea lasts a very long time in the vase, and cosmos is another good addition. I’m still waiting on ‘Rubenza’ cosmos which has grown super tall, but hasn’t flowered. I still have ‘Apricot Lemonade’ cosmos. Just remember to cut cosmos regularly becausse it wants to simply produce seed.

I hope this cut flower garden update was helpful.

Tell me, do you grow your own cut flowers? If not, why not? There are some easy ones out there, and I can help you learn. Just shoot me an email, and I’ll be glad to help. Here’s a link to my garden coaching page.

Til next time,