I thought I had written about the cut flowers beds in May but checking back I only wrote about growing perennials from seed. It was April 28th when I last wrote about the cut flowers and as you can imagine they have grown hugely since then despite some cold nights the soil is warm and with lots of rain you can almost watch some things grow.
This is how the new cut flower beds in the Secret garden looked on 28th April and below how they look now.
Dahlias are through and growing well, several have buds already
The small annual dahlias in the front of the bed have flowers, but I haven’t used any of these in a vase yet. As you can see I’ve put up canes with pea netting stretched horizontally a two levels to support the dahlias and Thithonia as they grow.
The sunflowers have reached the top of their canes!
The large sunflowers at the back put on a spurt of growth and I swear they grew about 4o cm in a week!
Larkspur and various ‘cow parsley like plants, Ami (both kinds) and Daucus carrota
There are also Antirrhinums and Cleome in this bed. Just one level of support for this bed.
The other bed is mainly planted with various varieties of Zinnia
Various Zinnias on May 5th
The same bed on May 24th
and now they have grown through the first level of support net and some have buds.
Sweet William are still flowering but because they don’t have the perfume I wanted I have hardly used these in vases at all and even though I am sure they would flower again next year I have decided to remove them to make way for other things
These are the green carnations I used in the vase yesterday, they do sprawl, I’m not sure what is the best way to support them as the flower heads are quite heavy and often there are several blooms per stem
Ever lasting flower
Any ideas how I go about drying them? Help needed please.
The original cut flower bed, created in 2014
I have planted out some of the Chrysanthemums that I had in the greenhouse over winter, small pieces that had been left in the ground over winter have also grown back. I will take cuttings as insurance against a cold winter but I’ll leave the parent plants in the ground and mulch them as I do the Dahlias.
The Cosmos flowering are my sowing from this year; the study taller plants are the self seeders
Looking at this bed I need to pick a lot very soon, soon the house will be filled with flowers.
Echinacea, when they are fully open the petals hang down and are very long. I have some in a vase in the kitchen
This is the small Dahlia I used yesterday in my vase, there are still lots more flowers to come. Behind them you can see that the dahlias from last year, all white, are taller than the new ones planted this spring
Mixed Antirrhinums were sown in autumn 2014 and planted out spring 2015, they are producing better flowers this year than they did last
If you would like to post about your cut flower beds please feel free to leave a link with your comment here so that we can all see what progress is being made in your gardens. No need to link to this post unless you think your readers would be interested in joining in too.
Creating my own garden of the Hesperides 
Your cosmos are stunning and I have sunflower envy since mine got demolished by slugs.
There are some huge striped slugs here but there are also toads even if I don’t often see them. I’m sure that following other bloggers’ advice and sowing the Cosmos in individual modules has made for stronger plants but I’m also convinced that sowing directly into the ground would be even better.
I love all your infrastructure supporting the cutting beds almost as much as the flowers. Too bad about the Sweet Williams, but makes sense to focus on the plants that bring your the most joy. I have yet to plant my zinnia seeds. Better get to it.
Yes, you should, they flower for so long and are such wonderful colours you don’t want to be without them!
Hi Christina, what a difference in one month. Your cutting garden is inspiring. When I grew everlasting flowers years ago, I cut when they were perfect, in the early morning but with no dew -as dry as possible – then dry in small bunches, hung upside down – strip the close narrow leaves too. Allow as much air as possible between bunches. I had ceiling racks in a dark garage – the enemy is moisture, which can attract back to the dried flowers if stored to closely. I expect in your climate its going to be a great deal easier than it was here! I guess if they are stored in too light a place the flowers may bleach, so maybe a cellar would be good. Love that you are doing this and very much looking forward to seeing your results.
That confirms what I found on line after I wrote the post. It’s always nice to hear from someone who’s done it. It should be dry here!
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The Monday vase exercise is certainly going to be no problem for you, Christina. My own sunflowers are less than a quarter the size of yours and struggled with our last heatwave, even though it wasn’t particularly intense here.
With the rain (another thunderstorm this afternoon) but now warm days you can watch some things grow infringement of your eyes!
Wow! Your cutting garden looks amazing already Christina. I’m looking forward to seeing your Sunflowers in particular… I seem to remember you had gorgeous plants last year.
I’ve grown some different varieties this year Gillian, but the ones I really loved Earthwalker didn’t germinate, I’ll sow some more as they were the best.
Christina magnificent and well organized flower beds for cutting. It has a variety of rare flowers. All are beautiful. Sunflowers are a marvel of growth. And small Dahlias are beautiful. Thank you very much for showing us the variety of beautiful flowers you have in all colors. Greetings from Margarita.
You will have flowers for vases all summer with that lovely array of flowers! The sunflowers are amazing! I just planted out some tiny seedlings as they were getting too warm and rather leggy in my provisional ‘seedhouse’. They have to go into containers though, due to snails, which limits what I can grow really. By the way, that white flower in my vase was Ground Elder – Eliza guessed it, with its American name Goutweed. I hope you never get it in your garden Christina. It is sooo invasive!
I’ve been very fortunate to not have it in any of my gardens, but I do know what it’s like. Using it in a vase seems like a great way of getting your own back.
So much potential! An exciting thing to see – it’s like the ‘Preview of Coming Attractions!’
That’s a great way to see it, Eliza let’s hope nothing happens to stop the potential flowers.
Gosh, these photos show how quickly plants progress in your climate, or certainly with irrigation as well as the warmth. It makes me wonder how much difference daily watering would make here when the weather is dry like it has been, although I try to avoid tap water wherever possible – something to experiment with, I guess. All your plants are really bushy – which ones do you pinch out? That’s something I need to keep a record of as I keep having to check to find out what is recommended. Certainly nothing of mine apart from dahlias and perhaps ammi was tall or bushy enough to require support last year but you add it as a matter of course do you? It’s so useful to share cutting beds experience, so thank you for prompting us this year.
There are a few weeks in spring and autumn when you can almost watch things grow, I was weeding the cut flower beds yesterday and it is amazing how much things have grown since last weekend when I took the photos for the post. The Larkspur and Zinnias are flowering and the sunflowers have grown another 20 or 30 cms! I don’t pinch things out but I do cut the first flowers long, cutting off several other buds or potential buds which is the same thing as pinching out really but you get one or two flowers straight away. I haven’t had to irrigate about from watering when the plants were first planted out because we’ve had so much rain. It seems to be set to rain all day today again! This is so unusual for June; Tuesday was really hot 25°C. I did notice, though, even when I was planting things out in early April that the soil was really warm, I don’t remember that happening in the UK until summer. I think that makes a lot of difference.
That really is amazing in only a week – I look forward to seeing your zinnias and larkspur soon. Interesting about pinching out – something I never used to do and invariably ended up with leggy plants so know better these days. And I guess you might be right about the warm soil, so warm and damp is even better! I wonder if you will see the back of your rain soon…
The forecast threatens that from Wednesday the temperatures will jump from 18 to 28 degrees! With no rain. But as they have been wrong so many times lately I’ll believe it when it happens.
Looking good Christina! I really liked your idea with the canes and the mesh for plants to grow through and be supported. I was thinking of trying something like that this year but I made it too complicated (in my head) and didn’t do it in the end. Looking forward to your vases – sad that the Earthwalker didn’t germinate. I have not done my cut flower review – there have been various unpleasant happenings this week – but I shall try to do it in the next day or so. Meanwhile – thanks for sharing your promises of things to come!
You can make the supports look prettier by topping the canes with something interesting, the mesh disappears incredibly quickly as the plants grow through, the trick is to do it before the plants need it!
They do this at Anglesey Abbey with their big herbaceous borders. A cat’s cradle of supports and string in April – eh voila, now you see it, now you don’t! Thanks for your post!
…and at Cliveden; there they even have taller canes at the back grading down to much lower ones at the front. I used the same method last year and it worked really well.
It’s a great method – stupidly I never thought to use canes, thought I would have to buy expensive posts!
I’m lucky to have bamboo growing by an irrigation ditch on our property but outside the gate so I have a free supply.
Oh yes – what a gift!
What a wonderful selection of flowers. I am a huge fan of Zinnias although I grow shorter varieties – not so good for cutting. Look at all those sunflowers – they will be glorious. I think what you call Everlasting has the common name Straw Flower here.
You’re right I saw the name Straw Flower when I was looking at them on the net. I am a new enthusiast for Zinnias, last year was the first year I ever grew them and now I can’t imagine not growing them.
You weren’t kidding about how much growth things have put on! I love this time of year when everything is so fresh and new, and your care and attention will surely keep it that way. I can already imagine armloads of blooms!
I see Julie has already chimed in on the drying process. It really is easy for something like strawflowers. Strip leaves, hang upside down and even I was able to do it successfully 🙂
The sunflowers have grown even more since I wrote the post on Tuesday, I estimate about 80 cm in 10 days! Thanks for the encouragement for drying the Straw Flowers, and I can understand why they’re called that they look just like they’re made of straw.
Amazing to see how much growth there’s been between the end of April and now Christina. Here things seemed to go into suspended animation for a while but then took off towards the end of May. The only time I’ve dried everlasting flowers I hung them in small bunches from an overhead clothes drier in our utility room. It worked well but I had to find somewhere else for the washing for a while.
Thanks for the info on the everlasting flowers. I’m going to pick the first bunch tomorrow.
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I just did a little tour to see how direct seeded things are doing (not very well, I’m sad to report). Every year I vow to be more organized but it never seems to happen. You are an inspiration that I hope to emulate one day.