Bring Mother Nature’s Beauty Indoors: Plant a Cutting Garden
May 14, 2013
There is something very special about hand selecting the flowers that go into your garden. Creating a beautiful and custom garden outside is wonderful; but, wouldn’t it be even better if your could bring some of that beauty indoors? That is exactly what you can do by planting a cutting garden. There are a wide variety of flowers, plants, and shrubs that are perfect for creating beautiful bouquets that can be brought indoors and enjoyed. Best of all, most cutting variety of plants and flowers will actually benefit from the trim. They will continue to bloom and remain healthy for many bouquets to come.
Starting Your Cutting Garden
There are no hard and fast rules to creating a cutting garden, but deciding which of your blooms to cut can be difficult. You don’t want to mess up your exterior landscape, but you also want the beautiful flowers indoors. If you are going to struggle with chopping up the look of your landscape, you may consider creating a separate cutting garden away from your landscaped yard. This garden will be specifically for cutting and is typically setup in vegetable garden format with rows of your favorite flowers. Or you can plant flowers any way you’d like, since it is for the expressed purpose of cutting for beautiful indoor flowers.
If you want to keep your garden together, or don’t have the space, one option is to color coordinate your gardens. Plant in similar tones (cool colors, dark, light, etc). Then, even when blooms are cut, there are plenty of the same or similar colors left. This also prevents the garden from looking messy or confetti like.
Caring for Your Garden
Your cutting garden will be maintained in the same fashion as your standard landscaping garden. Knowing what plants, shrubs, or flowers grow best in your is key. Speak with your local garden center to f ind out which blooming varieties will be best set for your soil type and climate.
Creating Your Bouquet
Now come the fun part: creating your bouquet. Bouquets can be simple, elegant, or a single
flower nicely packaged. Regardless of what is in your bouquet, there are a few tricks to keeping your bouquet fresher for longer.
Follow these simple tips:
- Cut your flowers when it is coolest outside (typically early morning).
- Place the stems directly into water after
cutting. - Freshly cut the stems when you bring them inside.
- Add floral preservative to the water for extended life.
Creating a beautiful cutting garden is easy and rewarding. What is your favorite fresh-cut flower?
