2022 Cut Flower Garden: Which Seed Varieties I am Growing
The flower seeds I bought and will be growing for a cut flower garden that’s packed with colour and great to make farm fresh bouquets.
For the past 20 years, I’ve worked alongside my husband on the farm where he grew up. Over that time, I’ve gotten my hands dirty and helped plant, harvest, and distribute crops.
Working on the farm, I saw the potential to indulge my creative side while creating a space uniquely my own to make something beautiful.
My husband is incredibly supportive, encouraging me to chase my dreams and fill a field with flowers for cut-flower bouquets.
And I have dived wholeheartedly into flower farming, and I am very excited to take you on this journey with me!
I’ve spent hours researching flowers, seeds, growing systems.
Dreaming and anticipating of the possibilities of the upcoming season has made late this cold late winter bearable.
I even purchased a giant metal shelf and transformed it into a DIY Grow Light Shelving System.
How I Ordered My Seeds
I purchased my seeds from Johnny’s Seeds, Harris Seeds, Floret Farms, and Eden Brother’s.
Harris and Johnny’s Seeds are well known among small and commercial farms and are well prepared to handle large bulk seeds orders, but they do offer smaller quantities of seeds for a backyard gardener. Floret is a small family operation with a massive following, thanks to an Instagram aesthetic always on point. A recent 4-part documentary, Growing Floret, features Erin and Chris Benzakein’s journey building their family-run flower business. Eden Brother’s is one of the largest online retailers of seeds and bulbs in the United States and carries many seeds.
Planning My Cut Flower Garden
I am referring to my cut flower area as a “garden,” but I will be using a section of a farm field. Because I have a large area to work with, I am not limited by space constraints.
I mention this because I know many of my friends who garden have to carefully make good use of their space and often spend a lot of time calculating space requirements for each plant and figuring out how much their space will accommodate.
Because I wasn’t “forced” to plan my planting, I didn’t.
How this approach works out for me remains to be seen.
Even though I didn’t actually “plan out my garden,” I did try to be thoughtful about the varieties and how many seeds I ordered.
I want to grow flowers to create bouquets, so I tried to create a color palette that would allow me to mix and match flowers throughout the season. I am a visual person, so I created vision boards to help me visualize what my cut flower garden will be producing.
I’ve grown zinnia’s from seed before, and I knew I wanted to focus heavily on them. I selected several varieties of zinnia’s in a color palette I found appealing. For no other reason than it sounded like a good number, I decided to go with 500 zinnia plants total.
I wanted this year to be a learning year, so all the other flowers were ordered in much smaller quantities. I figured this would allow me to try quite a few different things and see which works well on our farm and what I can do without.
The Flower Varieties I am Growing
These are the flower seeds I bought and will be growing for a cut flower garden that’s packed with colour and great to make farm fresh bouquets. Some of the varieties have sold out, but plenty are still available if you see something you like!
- Dahlia Bulbs (Dinnerplate) – Country Fair Mix
- Cosmos Seeds – Pastel Mix
- Ivory Princess Calendula
- Zinnia Seeds – Isn’t This Romantic Mix
- Terra Cotta Celosia
- Madame Butterfly Pink Snapdragons
- Persian Cress
- Raspberry Cream Gomphrena
- Zinnia Seeds – Queen Lime Blush
- White Dill
- Benary’s Giant Mix Zinnia
- Flamingo Feather Celosia Seed
- King Size Apricot China Aster
- Dahlia Bulbs (Ball & Decorative) – Madeline Mix
- Cactus Pink Zinnia
- Sunflower Ruby Eclipse
- Goldy Double Sunflower- My daughter’s request
- Strawflower Apricot Mix
- Zinnia Queeny Lime Mix
- Mrs. Burns’ Lemon Basil
- Statice Sunset Mix
I am just now getting to the point where I am planting my seeds, but I will be posting updates on my thoughts and progress along the way!
What are you planting this year?