Best Plants for Cut Flowers

Earl Nickel,
Curious Plantsman

Although we love our flower gardens and take pride in their fullness and beauty, sometimes you want to ‘steal’ some of that splendor to bring indoors. Nearly every flower could make a welcome addition to a bowl or vase but here I want to highlight those flowers whose stems have some height to them. These are blooms ideal for fashioning fantastic mixed flower vase arrangements. You don’t need to be Martha Stewart to make wondrous bouquets but some advance planning is in order. Step one is planting a selection of these taller flowers, be they annuals or perennials. Here then are nine flowers that we have out on our tables, ready to find a home in your corner of paradise.

Cosmos & Bachelor’s Buttons

I think of these two colorful annuals together because they feature tall stately flowering stems, they both offer a range of colors and they both bloom so prolifically that bringing in a few cut flowers will barely make a dint in their outside floral show. Common Cosmos (C. bipinnatus) produce 3′ tall stems of daisy-like flowers in a variety of pleasing colors. There’s the delicious variety simply called ‘Apricot’; the hot pink of ‘Dazzler’; the saturated cherry hue of ‘Versailles Red’; the semi-double pinks of ‘Fizzy Pink’ and the rich coral-pink ‘Xsenia’ as well as two white-flowering varieties, the single ‘Versailles White’ and the fully double ‘Fizzy White.’ Each variety features an endless parade of 3” wide flowers and complementary ferny foliage.

Centaurea cyanus (Bachelor’s Buttons) meanwhile offers 3 varieties – the dazzling Blue Diadem, the rich burgundy Black Gem and the royal red of Red Boy. One feel of the ‘live’ flowers, where their papery texture is apparent, and you just know that the cut flowers will last forever. They do. They too sit atop 30-36” tall stems.

Corncockle & German Catchfly

Two other tall, wave-in-the-breeze annuals make excellent cut flowers. Corncockle (Agrostemma) produces masses of open-faced, 3” pink or white flowers, each with spotted lines radiating out from the center. ‘Milas‘ offers the richest pink, offset by a white center, while ‘Ocean Pearls’ showcases pure white flowers and those hypnotic dotted lines that seem to disappear into the center as if into a black hole. A classic English garden flower, it brings a touch of class to any floral arrangement.

German Catchfly (Viscaria) offers up delicate five-petaled, inch and a half flowers in a lavender blue (‘Blue Pearl’) or vibrant red (‘Tall Red’). Swaying in the breeze on delicate 2′ high stems, it too produces an endless parade of whimsical blooms over a two month period.

Snapdragons & Sneezeweed

Like many plants that have been hybridized, the much smaller-sized snapdragons found in garden shops are a pale imitation of the original tall and vigorous species. Annie’s has introduced two wonderful snapdragon series – Chantilly and Double Azalea. The former sports 3′ tall stems of varieties with descriptive names – ‘Bronze’, ‘Peach’, ‘Pink’ and ‘Purple.’ The Double Azalea group includes Bronze and Red selections. Larger flowers, sturdier stems plus a much longer bloom season all make these time-tested flowers the far superior choice.

Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale ‘Red Shades’) may have a funny name but this cousin to Echinacea and Rudbeckia makes a sturdy clump of foliage in early spring. It then sends up a never ending collection of 3′ tall stems, each laden with many-petaled flowers in hues of red and/or gold. Like their cousins, they possess centers dense in pollen and thus attract endless bees and butterflies. As a cut flower, they add a blaze of color that lasts a surprisingly long time.

Delphiniums & Marigolds

What was true for Snapdragons is also true for the Delphinium elatum hybrids. They are much taller, more vigorous and longer blooming than their garden center cousins. We love ’em so much, we grow a bunch of them. There are the vivid blues of ‘Blue Lace’, ‘Sunny Skies’ and ‘Cobalt Dreams.’ If purple pleases you, we have you covered, with the mauve ‘Morning Lights’ and the saturated deep purple ‘Purple Passion.’ Add in the rose pink ‘Dusky Maidens’ and the white with dark eye ‘Black-Eyed Angels’ and you have a dazzling array of choices. All bloom profusely, with sturdy stems covered in 3” flowers.

Not to repeat myself but the tall Marigolds that we sell seem like they’ve arrived from the land of giants! Whether it’s the two M. ‘Day of the Dead’ varieties – choose between ‘Golden Yellow’ or ‘Orange’ – or the dazzling bi-colored ‘Harlequin‘ or the burnt orange

‘Villandry’, these are tall and vigorous plants that produce dozens upon dozens of large colorful flowers. The ‘Dead’ flowers bear fully double 4” flowers while the other two selections have slightly smaller but especially vivid flowers. They all dry very nicely.

Butterfly Bush

Finally, I step outside my stated criteria to recommend one of the very best cut flowers for your kitchen or living room. Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii) produces 8” long cones of sweetly fragrant flowers that only seem to get more intense when you bring them indoors. These blooms are comprised of hundreds of tiny fragrant flowers, magnets not only to butterflies but to bees and hummingbirds as well. Though they don’t possess long stems, the bulk of their cones easily stay aloft in a mixed flower bouquet. Whether it’s the vivid purple of ‘Ellen’s Blue’ or the pure white bliss of ‘White Profusion’, these blooms fill the whole room with their delicious scent.

Fashioning a Bouquet

Once you have harvested your favorite cut flowers, you might want to add a bit of texture or greenery to your vase. Ferns add a frothy and verdant green complement. For a companion with a silvery hue, use Eucalyptus or Olive branches. The herb Bay offers a sturdy, darker green backdrop. And don’t forget to add a tablespoon of sugar to your vase water. That will extend the life of your cut flowers.

Availability

Just so everyone knows, some of the Annie’s Annual plants mentioned here might not be available on the week that you’re reading this blog article. A quick look at that plant’s page will let you know if it’s available. If not, just click the Add to Wishlist button and we’ll notify you when that plant is ready to take home.