CUT OUT AND KEEP

Plantswoman Sarah Raven explains how to create a cut flower patch and fill your house with homegrown blooms throughout the year

If you want to grow cut flowers in a small garden, or even a window box, there is one characteristic each plant needs to share. It should be cut-and-come-again – you cut a handful of flowers and within days they grow back. It’s like an ever-filling cup; the more you pick, the more flowers form, right until the end of their season. Harvested correctly, just above a pair of leaves, within days an axillary bud will start to grow (in the angle between the stem and leaf) that will develop into another bloom. This is gardening for the optimist and for the person who loves their garden to be full of colour and their house full of flowers. That’s me!

CUT AND KEEP

There’s a great range of cut-and-come-again plants. Sweet peas are famous for it, and you can add all annuals (plants that form roots, leaves, flowers and set seed within a few months), lots of biennials (which form roots and leaves in one year and flower the next), as well as dahlias. The annual group contains many cottage-garden favourites — scabious, cornflowers, marigolds, snapdragons, cosmos and zinnias. They make the world a brighter, cheerier place. Almost all these plants need sun and shelter; it’s from the sun they make their food.

Half of your plants should be ‘filler-flowers’, which are lovely to use as foliage. The other half, which I call ‘bloomy-blooms’, are showy flowers with pizazz that can be used in mixed arrangements, or on their own.

Acid-green euphorbia oblongata is the best foliage base for a small arrangement and you only need three to five stems for even a large vase. The one downside is you need to protect yourself against the sticky milky sap. Wear gloves and take care not to wipe your face or eyes. Sear the stem end in boiling water to seal the sap in.

CONDITIONING

Pick your flowers in the morning or evening and put them into water. Then plunge the bottom 10 per cent of the stem into a coffee mug of boiling water and then into cold water. Like blanching veg, you don’t want them to continue cooking.

If the stem is soft (like cosmos or snapdragons) leave them in the boiling water for only 5 seconds. If it’s woody (like lilac or a rose), give it 20 seconds. This partially destroys the outer cell wall, allowing plentiful water uptake to supply the flower.