Do you have a cutting garden?
Comments (20)
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Comments (22)Well, the party line answer is clearly both, and obviously for me too, there is enjoyment of the process and the results. I think that must be true for any gardener who is involved in the making of their own garden space and who isn't getting paid for doing it. But I find that as I get older and farther down the garden path, I would like to enjoy the results more, and I find that the process itself can sometimes be tedious, expensive, require too much patience, and overwhelming. So I am going to be brutally honest here -- while I enjoy the work of gardening to some extent, if I could hire more people to do more things for me and just enjoy the results myself, I would do it. The problem is that, for the most part, if you are a real plant geek like I am (and a whole lot of others who responded above), you can't really hire people to arrange plants for you in the way you want them. So there is a certain amount that you have to be involved with yourself. Being involved again in the creation of a new garden, and having left a mature one, I have to say that so far, I enjoyed the mature one more. The last few years I spent there I did work a lot in the garden still, of course, but the proportion of time spent just enjoying the garden was greater. That doesn't mean that I was sitting when I enjoyed it. It doesn't mean that I didn't pull a weed or two when I walked with a glass of wine in the evening. But after 20 years working on that space, the garden felt "finished" to a great extent. That doesn't mean that there would never be anything new. But the garden had a certain cohesiveness that is certainly lacking in my new garden. It also had as much seasonal interest as I could pack into 2/3 acre in my rotten climate. So, weather permitting, the garden always had moments of great beauty and enjoyment for me. But then again, I know that one of the reasons the garden meant so much to me is that I had spent 20 years making it. I had watched the trees, shrubs, perennials that I had planted get moved from one place to anohter (NAY he says, "I MOVED them from one place to another"...) until they finally found a place that they (and I) liked. Still garden making takes patience, and it is hard in the early stages not to want more results, with less work at garden making. I think that's one reason why, relatively speaking, I did not take many pictures of the new garden this year -- in the last year I was at my old place I took over a thousand, this year less than 100. A reflection that the garden was more about process than results, so far. One of the greatest times of garden enjoyment I ever remember in my old garden was after a big garden tour. The weeds were all pulled, the plants all relatively pristine (it was mid-June), the crowds were gone, my family and the dog were gone, the walks and drives all neat and clean, no cars or other distractions to be seen. Then I walked through and enjoyed my own garden, for a couple of hours, nobody but me and the hummingbirds and butterflies. One of the best times of garden enjoyment I ever had, along with very early foggy mornings and late summer evenings. Give me more of those, and less back-breaking work, any day.......See MoreDoes anyone do a cutting garden and what do you grow?
Comments (19)Last year I started my first cutting garden. I planted: several types of zinnia asters larkspur bachelor's buttons veronica foxglove ammi majus nicotiana stock delphinium cosmos coreopsis yarrow mexican hats sunflowers sweet peas verbena bonarensis lavendar carnations echinacea bellfower shasta daisy rudbeckia dahlias & glads Everything was from seed/bulb & I had mixed success. This year I'm doing a lot of the same plants, but wintersowing. My flower garden is in a 15' x 12' bed which gets morning shade on one side & some afternoon shade on the other. I had pretty good germination on my seeds. Most of my dahlias came up, but I didn't notice any blooms. Almost none of my sweet peas came up, & although most of my glads came up my mix from Lowes gave me only two colors (& not the ones I was hoping for). I'm a west-coaster still getting used to an east-coast garden. I saw plans from gardner's supply for a small cutting garden with the plants pretty tightly packed & thought that would work here, but we have a much longer season & more heat. Some things didn't do so well, & toward the end I had a lot of mold on my plants. The stand-outs were the zinnias, cosmos & the sunflowers. I'm hoping that the perennials that survived make a showing this year. Actually, the stock already is - it just started blooming last week! I thought the nicotiana was lovely in the garden but not good for the vase & I ended pulling it out. I'm not sorry I did, because not only did it re-seed like crazy, it spread by its roots & I'm still finding it poking up all over from little bits I left behind. Around Christmas I pulled out all the bulbs & moved some of the perennials. Then I planted a bunch of bulbs I got at Lowes at 75% off. They are coming up now & I love to go out in the morning & see if any new ones have poked their heads up. So far the dutch irises, freesias, paper whites, & ranunculas are up. The daffodils, tulips, bearded irises & glads are just starting to show. I filled in some empty space with two discounted flats (one dianthus & one violas) while I wait for my seedlings to be ready to plant out. I have some sweet peas up this year, & will be starting more this month. I read a post here on the gw about surface sowing, & I'm hoping that will help my germination rate with sweet peas. Currently I have I think all of the above mentioned plants sown in milk jugs, along with calendula, lupine, love-in-a-mist, bells of Ireland, snaps, & ballonflower. I don't really have enough space! I wish I had more friends here who like gardening. The thing that I enjoyed most was sharing the flowers with my dd. We were constantly filling little vases (made by my mother when she was a girl) for her & she loved having her "flowies." Next I loved seeing all the butterflies & birds, & even a hummingbird from time to time. The garden was full of butterflies - mostly black swallowtails. They then flew to the other side of the house & laid eggs on my parsley, & when the caterpillars had eaten all that they ate the leaves off my pepper plants. This year I am trying to plant some cat food in its own spot. We couldn't believe the number of cats crawling all over that small bed! I've read up a little on the butterfly forum to figure out what to provide, & will do my best, but boy - they show some dedication over there! I wish I were a better gardener, but I tend to go in fits & spurts, with other areas of life taking over my attention at different times. I'm great at planning & getting things started, not so good at the tending over the long haul. I envy all the lush gardens I see in photos on gw. However, I'll keep at it. One day you'll see my lush garden in photos here! :)...See MoreHow do you know when your cuttings have failed?
Comments (4)Propagating is a sit around and wait sort of thing but if you give the branch a slight tug and it doesn't come out of the dirt easily I just leave it. I have cuttings in my garden right now that were placed at the same time and one is growing new leaves everday and is nice and green. but the other four are almost all brown but the branches are nice and firm without wrinkles and they are very tight in the ground. Just remember till there are roots which takes a long time they won't be needing any fertilizer. I still can only get cuttings to grow with a mixture of cactus supersoil and regular supersoil potting mix. Didn't have any cactus mix left and those cuttings just in potting soil and perlite aren't doing as well and yet one where it was a nice branch with four nice arms a perfect purchased rose and still; a cutting is still sitting there green after a couple of weeks. So you see that propigating is a matter of trial and error.. debbysunshine@hotmail.com...See Moreeastautumn
3 years ago
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3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoAs far as zinnia, while I like the Magellan (which are listed as a bit shorter, but tend to overgrow their genetic "maximum" by a mile in my gardens), the taller ones will tend to produce longer stems, of course--if perhaps slightly fewer and later blossoms. I use those as well.
I also use the Profusion zinnia (in that pot atop the pedestal by the staircase) for show. They do cut well, but the stems are only a few inches long. Still, they do look good in a bud vase.
White marigold (really a faint yellow, but the whites are a creamy off-white these days, they've gotten so good) and white zinnia are also favorites. They offset the hot tones of the other flowers beautifully and, used singly, make a gorgeous bouquet of their own.
And seriously, don't ignore the dahlia. Figaro and Harlequin are easy to grow from seed, and shorter varieties. You can also buy tubers of larger varieties (3' tall and upward) that will produce larger flowers through the season. This year, I'm using 48 Figaro.
They almost look hand-painted, with fluted, more delicate flowers, in a variety (and randomly-distributed) colors:
This is a Duet, not a Figaro, but same concept. They...don't usually bloom this well.
eastautumn thanked Userdiggerdee zone 6 CT
3 years agoeastautumn
3 years agoKen_Adrian (I think I recognize your name from the tree forum), I'm in Colorado in zone 5, where the sun is so bright I think 6 hours is considered "full sun." The bed I'm planning to turn into a cutting garden gets sun in the morning and bright shade in the afternoon. It's the mulched area that's just in front of the ornamental grass in the center of the photo below. The photo was taken facing south, standing between our garage (to the east/left of photo) and house (to the west/right of photo). The garage doesn't extend that far south, so the bed gets full sun until the sun moves so far west that our breakfast nook shades it.
There are a bunch of ugly utility boxes to the right of our side door, so I've dragged my feet planting that area wondering if I could find something to sort of cover up the ugly. I might plant a tall boxwood to screen the utility boxes a bit, and then fill in the rest of the bed with a variety of flowers for cutting. I've planted some snapdragon seeds inside that are so old I'm not sure if they'll come up, but figured it's worth a try. I saw some bare root dahlias at Lowe's and was tempted to get some, but they looked too dried out. I have mixed flower seeds to sow later in the spring, so will give them a try as well. I'm excited to have some more color this summer!
eastautumn thanked Artist-FKA-Novice Zone 7B GAzen_man
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoI have two zinnia gardens, a North Garden and a South Garden. Both of those might appear to be cutting gardens (they are full of butterflies and bees), but in actuality both are zinnia breeder gardens, and I do cuttings only to harvest green seeds from selected "breeder" specimens. My breeder zinnias are uniquely different from commercial zinnia varieties. This one is an example of a breeder zinnia. You can click on the photo to see a larger version.
That zinnia flower form is not available commercially. Zinnias are capable of a lot of forms that are not in the marketplace. I find breeding zinnias as an amateur to be interesting and fun.
ZM
eastautumn thanked zen_manken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 years ago
gardenchloe
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoI agree that some tall spikey flowers are great addition to cut flower arrangements. Here are some I put together in the past.
eastautumn thanked gardenchloe
popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoeastautumn thanked popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)eastautumn
3 years ago
mmmm12COzone5
3 years agoHi Eastautumn,
Wow, your yard is so lush. When I first saw the picture I didn't think you were in the Denver area but then you said Erie so I thought I'd chime in. We don't have a cutting garden but I do love cut flower arrangements.
These are June arrangements. The first one is chives and Golden Wings rose. The second is peony, chives and yellow broom. The third is purple salvia, peony and yellow broom. The forth is one of my red roses and yellow broom. The last is lilac and a lighter pink peony.
These are Oct. arrangements. They are mostly roses with some of the other fall flowers thrown in like aster and orange mango red hot pokers.
This year I am going to be attempting to grow some Polar Bear Zinnia from seed and David Phlox from seed. I also sowed some Blue Boy Bachelor's Buttons in the garden so will have to see if any of them come up. I bought Bachelor's Button plants last year and the rabbits promptly ate them so this year I'm trying them as free sown in the garden to see if some of them can make it by the bunnies.
We have several beds that went through 3 or 4 iterations of plants until we figured out what would survive there. Sometimes it takes trial and error to work it out. If you can come to our plant swap in May. It is a great place to find new plants that thrive in the area.
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