CHOOSING FLOWERS FOR A CUTTING GARDEN
Designer Amelia Bouquet’s RHS show garden at the Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival illustrated the importance of green spaces for wellbeing. Here, she explains all about picking the right plants
SELECT FLOWERS THAT WORK FOR YOUR SPACE
If you’re limited by the size of your garden, create a perennial cut flower bed within your borders. It means you don’t have to section off areas of ground when space is already tight.
MIX UP YOUR BLOOMS
Intersperse flowers for cutting with shrubs and herbaceous perennials. The general rule for cut flower gardens is to grow the plants in lines, which requires lots of space. Instead, combine cutting flowers in looser groups among other planting. Choose flowers that look good in both garden borders and indoor arrangements.
WHAT TO GO FOR IF YOU HAVE A SUNNY GARDEN
Try Verbena bonariensis for graceful structure. Coreopsis adds punchy colour, while Phlox paniculata has gorgeous fragrant flowers. Floaty silk-petalled cosmos add an ethereal touch and erysimum bring masses of mauve spires to the mix. Fill your vase with stems of pittosporum, perfect as a foliage backdrop, plus a great filler shrub for sunny borders. Sweet peas are perfect for a container.
WHAT TO PICK IF YOU HAVE A SHADY GARDEN
During summer, astilbe is the star of the cutting garden with its plumes of feathery flowers and ferny foliage, while star-shaped astrantia blooms are perfect for creating lacy drifts. Alchemilla mollis is one of the prettiest foliage plants around. The velvety soft, fan-shaped leaves can be used to add detail to a delicate arrangement, too.
For containers, try orange calendula (marigolds).
“IF YOU CAN GROW YOUR OWN RATHER THAN BUYING FLOWERS GROWN ABROAD, IT CAN ONLY BE A GOOD THING
FOR THE ENVIRONMENT” AMELIA BOUQUET, garden designer