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cut flowers
I was thinking of planting a smallish bed for cut flowers on clay soil - aspect negotiable.
Can anyone recommend seeds or better still shrubs?
I would like something unusual but tolerant of benign neglect but will also go for one or two of the usual suspects.
Also some advice on how to bring myself to harvest them would be appreciated!
In London. Keen but lazy.
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I grow cut flowers in the veg patch. I don't see it from the house.
Sweet peas are favourite but quite a lot of w o rk and they need picking every other day or they set seed and stop flowering
gladioli are set them and forget bulbs, as are daffodils., followed by tulips.
Hellebores flower early in the year, I float the flower heads in a shallow bowl. They need little maintenance apart from a couple of trims, early on to get rid of last years leaves, later to remove dead flowers.
I have relatively few bulbs in the rest of my garden because I tend to dig them up accidently and because I don't like tatty foliage after flowering.
However, a dedicated cut flower bed will allow me to plant tulips hyacinths and various narcissi in tidy rows ( & close together) where they can remain undisturbed and allow for nice early pickings.
I will sow other annuals / perrenials for planting out between the rows of bulbs for summer & autumn picking. Thinking of antirhinums, cornflower, ammi majus, coreopsis, rubeckia, marigolds, stocks. These are all easy to grow & should nicely supplement greenery, roses etc I can pick in the rest of the garden.
enjoy
Didn't know you could use helibores as cut flowers,F
Love single calendula officianalis topbird. Have loads of roses but can't bear to pick them.
Veg patch type arrangement is a good idea. Then it will be more like a crop,fidget. Planting where I can't see them from the house seems a good idea too. Will also try to plant things that don't go together like pink and orange then I won't want to leave them.
My cut flower patch will be laid out in regimented rows - exactly the same as a vegetable border and very different to how I would set them in a regular flower border. As you say the flowers can be regarded as a crop & the usual rules of aesthetics etc don't apply.
Mine is going to be in the old strawberry bed 3m x 1.2m - nice and sunny and out of sight of the house
Yesterday I picked what will probably be the last cut flowers out the garden for this year. Two double dahlias and a couple of crocosmia. Total colour clash.
I find double dahlias are best for picking, single ones best for the bees.
My mum has been picking crysanths since July. She bought young plants as a collection from Woolmans and grew them between the rows of runner beans. They have been lifted for the winter and are still flowering in a cold greenhouse that is used in the summer for tomatoes.
Alstromeria go on and on and on....... Great value.
i grew my first cut flower patch this year. There is a thread about it somewhere on here. Ami majus are a must. They complement everything.
Never heard of them . Will Google tootles - try saying that after the sun is over the yard arm
Hellebore flowers floating in water. I pick them with about an inch of stem and then they last abouta week to ten days in water.