IN THE GARDEN
Consider these plants that work well in bouquets
There are plenty of flowers to create beautiful bouquets.
This column covers the plants that I use to make a cheerful bouquet that stays fresh for about a week.
There are many other flowers that I will use for special occasions - bouquets that just need to look amazing for one or two days - but here I talk about longlasting blooms with long stems that work well in bouquets.
It is up to you to find the ones that will do well in your yard. You can talk to a gardener, or research in catalogues and on the internet. Most of these like lots of sun to flower, and are not too picky about their soil, but if you have a shady yard you’ll have to look specifically for shade-loving flowers.
Annuals are planted by seed and will flower in the same year. Many of them produce seeds that can’t survive the winter (although the seeds of some types can be saved indoors for next year’s planting). There are many, but my list of current favourites for larger bouquets include cosmos, strawflowers, calendula and zinnia (zinnia are tricky, but I always try).
Biennials sprout up leaves from a seed in the first year, die back in the fall and then survive to their second year, when they will produce their flower. The flower is needed in order to produce seeds and survive to the next year, so, if you cut down every single flower from a biennial, that will be the end
of it.
So pick some, but also leave some of the flowers of browneyed Susans, foxgloves, sweet William, and silver dollar to go to seed. The seeds will drop to the ground, or can be collected,
and they will keep seeding themselves, so they act like perennials.
Perennials will flower and then die back to the ground in the fall and survive from year to year by growing back from
their roots. Most have about a two-week blooming period, and I keep a variety of them that bloom at different times, so that there are flowers for the whole season. You can pick as many flowers as you like from a perennial, in fact, picking helps keep the plant strong.
My favourite bouquet perennials are shasta daisy, bee balm, coneflower, peony, astible, ladies’ mantle and fever few.
Other favourites are plants such as irises and day lilies whose flowers fade quickly but one stems has a few buds that keep producing new blooms in the vase so they still provide blooms for the week.
Of course old standards like tulips and daffodils can’t be beat.
You can also consider lilies and allium, and there are some other bulbs that require a little bit of work but are worthwhile for me, because they produce such beautiful, long lasting cut flowers. Dahlias and gladiolus are, technically, a tuber and a corm, that are planted in the spring, they flower and then need to be lifted in the fall. The bulbs are stored in a cool dry place, then replanted in late spring.
Consider going wild. Goldenrod and Queen Anne’s lace are wildflowers that both last well if picked young. If these grow in your yard, keep them.
One important consideration is the foliage that forms a backdrop for your bright blossoms. The native shrub called high bush cranberry wins handsdown, for foliage, flowers and fruit.
Peony leaves last well, and you can try just about anything you like the look of.