How to Plan a Cut Flower Garden for a Summer Full of Bouquets

There’s something that changes in a house where flowers from the garden appear regularly on the table. Bouquets don’t need to be fancy or arranged—just a few stems in a jar on the kitchen counter, changed every week, makes a home feel different.

A cutting garden—a dedicated area grown specifically for harvesting—makes this possible without raiding your ornamental beds. January is exactly the right time to plan one, because many of the best cutting flowers need to be started from seed well before planting time.

The Logic of a Cutting Garden

In a regular ornamental border, you hesitate before cutting flowers because removing them disrupts the display. A cutting garden removes that hesitation entirely. You grow flowers specifically to cut, in rows or blocks optimized for production rather than appearance.

This separation is liberating. You can plant in whatever configuration makes harvesting easy. You don’t worry about height, layering, or visual balance. You optimize for stem length, vase life, and succession of bloom.

The cutting garden can be anywhere it gets sun—alongside a vegetable garden, in a utility area, along a fence line. It doesn’t need to be beautiful from a distance; it needs to produce.

Choosing What to Grow

The best cutting flowers combine long stems, long vase life, high production, and interesting form. Here are the essentials:

Summer Annuals (Start from Seed in Winter/Spring)

Zinnias: The backbone of a summer cutting garden. Extraordinarily easy to grow, produce abundantly from midsummer until frost, and come in an enormous range of colors. Plant ‘Benary’s Giant’ series for large-flowered types or ‘Queen Lime’ for sophisticated green-and-blush colorways. Direct sow after frost or start indoors 4-6 weeks before last frost.

Cosmos: Feathery, romantic, prolific. ‘Double Dutch’ or ‘Double Click’ series for fuller flowers. ‘Cupcakes’ for a cupped petal form. Extremely easy from direct sow after frost; often reseeds.

Sunflowers: Pollen-free varieties (like ‘Pro Cut’ series) are better for vases—they don’t drop yellow pollen on tables. Succession plant every 2-3 weeks for staggered harvest. Direct sow in warm soil.

Lisianthus: One of the best cut flowers, resembling roses or poppies, with exceptional vase life (up to 2 weeks). Notoriously tricky to start from seed; purchase transplants or start seeds under strict conditions (heat mat, humidity dome, patience). Worth the effort.

Celosia: Unusual plume or brain-like cockscomb forms that add texture. ‘Coral Garden’ and ‘Sunday’ series produce long stems.

Bachelor’s buttons (Centaurea cyanus): Cool-season annual that thrives in spring and fall. Direct sow very early—these want cold to germinate.

Larkspur (Consolida): Tall spikes in blue, pink, and white for early summer cutting. Direct sow in fall (they need winter cold) or very early spring.

Cool-Season Annuals (Early Spring or Fall)

Sweet peas: The most fragrant cut flower. Start indoors in February or direct sow in early spring; they need cool weather to flourish and stop producing in summer heat. Well worth growing for their scent alone.

Ranunculus: Stunning, multi-petaled flowers in the softest colors. Plant corms in fall (in warm climates) or very early spring. Needs cool weather to mature; produces before summer heat arrives.

Anemones: Similar growing requirements to ranunculus. ‘Meron’ series for large flowers in deep jewel tones.

Perennials Worth Including

Peonies: Spectacular cut flowers with superb fragrance. Long-lived perennials; plant dormant roots in fall or early spring. Won’t bloom the first year after transplanting, but reliable every year thereafter.

Dahlias: Technically tender tubers in most climates (store over winter). Dahlia tubers planted in May produce flowers from midsummer until frost. Dinner-plate types are showstopping; café au lait dahlias are sophisticated. Enormous selection.

Liatris (blazing star): Vertical purple spikes that add line to arrangements. Easy, drought-tolerant perennial from corms.

Hardy geraniums (Cranesbill): Airy filler material with long stems and lovely leaves; fills the role baby’s breath plays in bouquets.

Succession Planting for Continuous Bloom

A single planting of annuals gives you a big flush and then decline. Succession planting—making multiple small sowings at intervals—extends production dramatically.

For zinnias and sunflowers, make three plantings 3 weeks apart: the first as transplants set out at last frost, the second by direct sowing 3 weeks later, the third 3 weeks after that. The first flush arrives in early summer; the last extends into September or October.

For cool-season flowers, plant in earliest spring (or even late winter under cover) and again in late summer for fall cutting.

Bed Design for a Cutting Garden

Rows work best for cutting gardens. A 4-foot-wide bed with rows running the length allows easy access from both sides.

Spacing: Give annuals more space than the packet suggests for cutting garden use—more airspace means longer stems and better disease resistance. Zinnias at 18 inches apart, cosmos at 12-15 inches, sunflowers at 12-18 inches depending on variety.

Support tall plants with a horizontal netting system: run strings or netting 12-18 inches above the bed, then again at 30 inches, to support tall stems without staking each plant individually. Commercial “grow-through” support grids work well.

January Planning Tasks

For a productive cutting garden this season, use January to:

1. Select your flower mix: Aim for a mix of forms (daisy shapes, vertical spikes, rounded globes, airy fillers) and colors. Think about whether you want a specific palette or prefer abundant variety.

2. Order seeds: Many specialty cutting flower varieties sell out early. Lisianthus especially should be ordered now.

3. Plan succession sowings: Map out when each crop goes in, from earliest spring sowings of sweet peas and larkspur through fall succession plantings of zinnias.

4. Order any tubers or corms: Dahlia tubers, ranunculus corms, anemone corms are best sourced early from specialist suppliers.

5. Decide on bed location and dimensions: Sun is non-negotiable; estimate how much space you need based on what you want to grow.

Gardenly  is useful if you’re incorporating the cutting garden into a broader garden redesign—visualizing how a production area fits with ornamental areas and structures helps plan the whole space coherently.

The first bouquets are still months away, but the planning starts now.