PLANNING A CUT FLOWER GARDEN

Expert advice on growing your own blooms

THINK ABOUT THE LOOK AND THE SPACE Decide on a look, using flowers you love or a favourite colour palette. Tap into your inner Vita by working up a signature style. Keep up the momentum, too. ‘Think in terms of successional flowering,’ says Carien van Boxtel, who designed a cut flower garden at this year’s RHS Hampton Court show. ‘Use space as economically as possible, with one bed for multiple crops. Once spring bulbs have finished flowering, replace them with plants grown from seed, like cosmos and sweet peas.’ Remember, everyone’s space is different, so pick the right flowers for you and make sure they keep coming.

PICKING THE PERFECT FLOWERS The key to a productive cut flower garden is to choose plants with many flowers that bloom for a long period. ‘My favourites are sweet peas, dahlias, Mexican sunflowers and cosmos,’ says stylist Selina Lake, whose new book Shed Style is out now. ‘These are great as picking the flowers regularly encourages more flowers, giving you a constant supply for cutting.’ Choose plants in colour combinations you like. ‘I mix vibrant pink cosmos and dahlias and dusky pink zinnias with pops of orange from Mexican sunflowers and crocosmia.’

COMBINING COLOUR AND TEXTURE Every cutting garden needs a good rose. ‘I find that ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ and ‘Constance Spry’, with their hugely scented pink rosettes, work well with stems of nigella, whose lime-green feathery leaves top the purply blue flower like the ring-setting for a glamorous jewel,’ says Jane Cumberbatch, author of Pure Style in the Garden. ‘The pink/blue/lime-green combination is a favourite. I don’t go for elaborate vases. A simple, utilitarian look tends to be my choice: glass jam jars, rounded pudding basins, enamelled jugs.’ For a regular supply of blooms, dead-head repeat-flowering shrub roses throughout the season.

GETTING THE FOLIAGE RIGHT Foliage works the same way in the garden as in arrangements. Use it as a filler and to add interesting shapes. ‘The more leafy stuff you use, the more your arrangement will look nicely home-made rather than florist-bought,’ says plant expert Sarah Raven. ‘I often use Euphorbia oblongata. Its brilliant acid-green colour adds brightness and contrast, and it’s one of the best foliage plants because it has a robust, upstanding structure. It also has a generous horizontal top, so you don’t need huge quantities to create the right effect.’ You can also achieve this with interesting grasses or seed pods, or vertical leaf spikes such as bells of Ireland.

HARVESTING FLOWERS THE CORRECT WAY Cut flowers when they’re about to show some colour. For best results, collect flowers in the morning when stems are fully turgid (filled with water) and avoid picking if it’s hot or sunny. Put stems straight into water. Many annuals, such as sweet peas, as well as some perennials will bloom over a longer period if picked regularly. Follow the stem you want to pick until you reach the main stem and cut at this intersection. Do not leave parts of the stem behind. Multiply your stock by collecting seed. Wait until a dry day towards the end of summer to pick the dry seeds of a plant. Shake the stem to let seeds fall in a container or put a paper bag around the seed head and cut the stem. Hang it upside down to dry. Don’t forget to label.

“IN TERMS OF PRACTICALITIES, REMEMBER THAT CUTTING BEDS SHOULD BE EASILY ACCESSIBLE, AND YOUR COMPOST HEAP AND WATER SUPPLY SHOULD BE NEARBY”

CARIEN VAN BOXTEL, garden designer