I'll tell ya what I do. When its time to trim grasses I cut it neat on some of the more ornate ones cutting all the stems the same length and laid out nice and I fill these big handmade Native American pots I collected some time ago with the dried stems + seed heads. I have one really big pot and the late winter cuttings of an entire Rabbit Bush just filled it nice and snug with blue stems and dried seeds tops and its been sitting on the floor by a wooden bench since spring. Anything with artistic possibilities, namely texture, gets used during the big late winter trim then it gets switched out come next year, otherwise it goes in the trash.

As far as cut flowers. No. That would be considered foo foo here and I hate having to pour out the smelly water. Vases and such are not my thing. Besides, I don't have time to mess with such things.

Tex, that sounds lovely!

I consider a fresh bouquet of flowers to be one of the niceties of life. Being able to cut them from your own garden is one of the advantages of growing them. I enjoy having one or two bouquets somewhere in the house and also like using the vases I've collected over the years.
I do usually wait until a plant becomes a prolific bloomer before I cut very many for inside. But a single flower can look nice in a bud vase. Also, I'm in z5 so it's a special treat that I don't have for much of the year.

The downside would be unknowingly bringing bugs inside and making sure not to put a vase where it could do any damage if water spilled.

I haven't dried any flowers, but I have used dried seed heads from Alliums, Poppies and Lunaria to decorate.

Occasionally a bouquet of garden flowers is brought inside, usually when we are having company. I hate that the flowers wilt so quickly and need to be tended to, trimmed, water changed, thrown out. Much prefer to enjoy them in the garden.

I let flowers and seed heads dry naturally on the plants and cut them for my fall and winter entry pots. Have done as TXR does with grasses, though not on the same scale.

I do dry herbs and make an herb wreath to hang in the kitchen.

Another winter pot

Wow, Mnwsgal, those pots are fantastic! I've always admired winter pots like that, and they have such a big impact during that time of year when the landscape can be pretty bleak. Yours are especially pretty with the seed heads and dried flowers. Nice work!

Maybe someday I'll feel like I have enough evergreen boughs to try that.

I adore cut flowers and actually spent one summer selling flower bouquets at the farmer's market, followed by several summers of selling flowers and herbs to local restaurants. It was a fun little gig. Now I just supply weekly bouquets to 2 local businesses and the occasional wedding - just enough to keep me engaged on a hobby level.

I enjoy flowers in the house and as Sandyslopes mentioned I also love using family heirloom porcelain vases. My favorites these days are creative little bouquets for the guest bathroom, and a little row of fragrant things (roses, sweet peas) up on the kitchen bar so they can be easily sniffed while passing by. One of our cats enjoys knocking over anything that contains water, so I have to be careful where I put vases. :)

Thanks, Karin, for the compliments. The evergreen parts are mostly boughten or picked up from the local yard refuge site. Only have two evergreens in my yard, one fir and one white pine.

I am impressed with you who put together bouquets for sale. See many beautiful ones at our farmers market.

Sandy, I like your sentiment regarding flowers in the home!

Gal, thanks for sharing your Winter arrangements--very nice! You've inspired me!

Karin, your gig sounds like fun! Can you recommend some good cut flowers?

One thing I have done is keep a bouquet *outdoors* on a table in the shade--think refrigerated flowers. Works best, of course in Spring or Fall when temps are lower. No changing water constantly and no odor. They will last for an amazingly long time--in my experience, weeks at a time!

Thanks for your replies.

i am a bit mystified as to why this would be off topic ...

i am glad you went for it...

ken

Catkin, I agree that an outdoor, in the shade, bouquet is great to have. My favorite feature is that the bees continue to visit the flowers that way. I didn't know they'd last for weeks though, I have got to give that a try. Great tip!

My most reliable flowers for cutting are:
Rudbeckia hirta - these last for 2 weeks in a vase!
Scabiosa caucasica - good long stems, I cut it when the center hasn't opened yet, they last for 7-10 days.
Annual snapdragons, Rocket mix
Globe thistle - everyone seems to love this one. It's a PITA in the garden (reseeds) but I keep it due to popular demand.
Heuchera flower spikes - just adore the zing that these add, no matter what color you have.
tall phlox
Russian sage
Bennary's Giant zinnias
Catananche, aka Cupid's Dart - flower looks like chickory, and the seedpod dries into a little pearly sphere. Looks great either way!
Yarrow. Cut it right at the base and strip off all the foliage.
Lamb's ears flower spikes, but only if cut before they fully open.
Shasta daisies
Rocky mountain penstemon
Pasqueflower seedheads (fuzzy little puffs - I deliver flower to a hair salon and they go wild over the frizzy hair look)
Allium 'purple sensation'
Hosta leaves
Lady fern fronds
Statice - I haven't grown this one in awhile, but it comes in some great, vibrant colors and is pretty fun to grow. It looks like a weed at first though, so don't pull it!
Lavender
Culinary sage leaves, sometimes flowers too
for a bride's bouquet, a trailing vine of clematis is pretty neat.
Tulips
Daffodils
Hyacinth
Fringed bleeding heart (dicentra eximia)

For my own bouquets were a week + of vase life is not expected, I also use roses, sweet peas, and peonies.

I am too stingy to cut things like Siberian Irises or delphinium because they seem too fleeting and rare to cut.

Those are my favorites. What are yours?

I grow a lot of African violets. Bringing things in from outside will guarantee you will have thrip on your violets. I love flowers in the house, but they are all silk.

Pretty MNWS!!

I cut bouquets on occasion and think flower arranging is kind of relaxing. There is nothing like several vases full of lush peonies or lilacs to make the house smell nice in the Spring. I also like cutting flowers for other people, who maybe don't have so many flowers in their yard.

Mostly I look at the flowers out in the gardens, and leave them for the bugs and birds.

LOL Ken! I've mystified you. My work here is done! Thanks!

I brought this up because my non-gardening friends, despite an explanation, don't understand why I rarely cut flowers. I was curious what others did. Glad to know I'm not alone in the low-cutting!

Hopefully with the soil amendments, etc. that I'll be applying soon, my blooms will multiply and I may cut them more often.

I give them for birthdays, etc. on occasion more than I put in my home...but Karin has inspired me! I'm going to try some of those you mentioned.

I love peonies, sweet peas, Astilbe, Lady's Mantle, ornamental grasses, Euphorbia foliage/flowers, fern fronds, Campanula persicifolia and others in arrangements. Never really grew anything for cutting!

Flowergirl, I don't have much luck with house plants unless they're the tough standbys--Pothos, ZZ, etc. What makes your violets thrive more than anything? Mine always croak.

Terrene, I agree! When I actually do it, I really enjoy it! :~)

This post was edited by catkin on Sun, Sep 28, 14 at 22:52

One thing that might help you take the leap Catkin, is to allocate a small part of your veggie garden (if you have one) for cutting flowers. It feels less like you are robbing your beds if you cut them from a designated spot.

Thanks, terrene. Agree that bringing the fragrance of lilacs inside is a must. I also cut flowers for bouquets for other people. Love to share just don't personally want to deal with the mess.

Huh, as I think more about the bouquets I make I realize that I make more than I originally thought. Tulips, daffodils, pansies in the early spring and later a snip of this and that, maybe accidentally cut a good bloom while deadheading so behind my ear or inside it comes. And so it goes throughout the gardening cycle; a mixed bouquet of iris, lilies that need to be saved before the deer get them, peonies that are drooping from a recent rain shower, dianthus that fill a tiny vase by my desk, phlox, delphiniums (notoriously short lived and messy, but so lovely) that the wind has bent the stem because I didn't get them staked, hydrangea blooms because they are just so interesting, clematis, daylilies, dahlia, etc.

Too fragrant blooms stay outside on my back patio.

Catkin, making fall/winter pots is fun and, for me, easier than making ones with other plants. Each is different as I never know what is available in the yard or how much effort I am willing to put into gathering and bundling the goodies.

Great thought, Karin! I have a weedy spot behind the shed that would do well for that. I've been thinking what to put there. Seeds sort of intimidate me if you can believe that! I like the ones you could just throw on the ground and forget a about...so many things I need to take a leap into!

gal, I think I might do a windowbox this Fall/Winter--thanks to you!

Sounds like a plan Catkin! You can usually buy Rocket snaps (they are nice and tall for cutting) and various zinnias at most nurseries too. A dedicated spot is a very fun way to add cutting flowers.

I'm also scheming up ways to copy MNSWGal's winter pots for our front door. I was wondering if a fall hike through the woods might produce some trimmings that I could use in an arrangement. Fun to think about!

I start off with a few spring posies and winter-blooming honeysuckles or wintersweet, with great enthusiasm...but by the time the roses are blooming, the house has become filled with forgotten (ignored) pots and jamjars with flowers in various stages of decay....which end up as whiffy dust-gatherers.

I am looking at a pot of dessicated achilleas right this moment...but doing zilch to actually lever my fat arse off my chair and deal with it. Shameless slattern, that I am.

Thanks for the encouragement, Karin!

Camp, you paint a pretty picture! Another reason to keep bouquets in the cool outdoors!