CUT-AND-COME-AGAIN FLOWERS

Centre your cut-flower patch around these four plants and you’ll have the basis of beautiful bouquets time after time while they are in bloom

1 SWEET PEAS These should be planted out, 10cm apart at the centre of your cut flower patch trained on a teepee of stakes. Water and feed them regularly. Sweet pea ‘Harlequin Mix’ is my favourite mix of sweet peas with rich colours and scent. Sow one seed at 2cm depth into its own pot; ideally a deep pot, as sweet peas thrive with a long root run.

2 COSMOS Many cosmos varieties grow to at least a metre, so will need a stake by their side. Cosmos ‘Purity’ is a pure white cut flower and border filler, which gives a big harvest per square metre. Sow where they are to flower in April or start a little earlier, sowing inside into individual pots. They’ll be in flower from July to October.

3 CLARY SAGE Salvia viridis ‘Blue’ has wonderful rich blue spires that are perfect for lining a path, or edging a flower bed. This is exceptional for picking, with a vase life of 10 days – it’s one of the first cut flowers I grew and I’d be bereft without it; its colour goes with everything. Sow seeds directly into the ground.

4 DAHLIAS These tender tubers can be mulched and left in the garden and will come again, like perennials, in the spring. If you love soft colours, then Dahlia ‘Labyrinth’, with its gently curving petals in peach, pink and cream, is for you. I also adore ‘Rip City’ for its rich chocolate crimson flowers and elegant curves. Both are excellent flower producers. Plant tubers in decent-sized pots in April to put out in the garden in May – they will need support. They look great arranged just as single stems or massed in a bowl.