Autumn Plants for Flower Arranging

Home Gardening Center
Mae L. Wien Cutting Garden

A cutting garden is any area where you grow flowers and foliage to cut for indoor arrangements. Learn how to design your own cutting garden and grow, cut, and display beautiful fresh flowers, foliage, stems, and fruit for indoor flower arrangements. In the Mae L. Wien Cutting Garden in the Home Gardening Center, you'll see a formal design with central fan-shaped beds surrounded by brick paths. This small garden is full of ideas for your own cutting garden. Visit the Home Garden Center and learn more in our hands-on Gardening Demonstrations about how to grow, cut, and display beautiful fresh flowers, foliage, stems, and fruit for indoor arrangements. The plant list includes just a few of the varied trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, and bulbs that make for beautiful arrangements. Visit the Home Gardening Center in the spring for more exciting choices.

Design Tips
* Select a site close to your house with about 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight and a water source
* Create rows or narrow beds of plants with paths in between for ease of cutting.
* Grow flowers with long flowering periods for repeated cutting; this includes many annuals and perennials like phlox and asters.
* Don't forget leaves, stems, fruit, and branches: perennials such as hostas, ferns, and ornamental grasses and shrubs such as beautyberry and red and yellow twig dogwood are all excellent for cutting.
* Include flowers that are long lasting in a vase like lilies, zinnias, and dahlias.
* Enclose the cutting garden with a fence to protect from rabbits and others pests

Instead of a separate cutting garden, you can also plan and plant your whole garden to supply fresh and dried flowers, leaves, branches, and fruit for interesting arrangements year-round. Be creative: there are many shrubs, small trees, annuals, perennials, and bulbs to use in long-lasting arrangements.

Tips for Cutting Flowers and Foliage for Arrangements
* Cut flowers early in the day when temperatures are cool and stems are full of moisture.
* Cut flowers just as they are fully opened, or for flowers in spikes like snapdragons, when there are still a few closed buds.
* Use sharp pruners, floral scissors, or a knife to cut stems cleanly without crushing them.
* Put stems immediately after cutting into a bucket of cool water, and move to a cool, shady location until ready to use.
* Re-cut flower stems under cool water before arranging them in a vase.
* Remove extra leaves, especially those under the water level to keep water clear.
* Add floral preservative to help stems absorb water more easily. Use a packaged mix or mix your own: 1 teaspoon each of sugar and acidic lemon-lime soda or lemon juice (an aspirin will also work). Adding a drop of bleach to the water helps prevent bacteria from causing stem rot.
* To make arrangements last longer, change water frequently, remove old flowers, and re-cut stems to keep the flowers fresh.

Here are just a few of the beautiful and varied trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, and bulbs to plant and enjoy for flower arrangements.

monk's hood Aconitum carmichaelii 'Arendsii'
lady's mantle Alchemilla mollis
snapdragon Antirrhinum majus
snapdragon Antirrhinum majus
boxwood Buxus sempervirens 'Arborescens'
beautyberry Callicarpa dichotoma 'Early Amethyst'
clustered bellflower Campanula glomerata 'Joan Elliot'
chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum 'Bolero'
red twig dogwood Cornus sericea 'Baileyi'
yellow twig dogwood Cornus sericea 'Flaviramea''
croscosmia Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora 'Emily McKenzie''
carnation Dianthus Garden Spice Dark Red®
sea-holly Eryngium planum 'Blaukappe'
sunflower Helianthus 'Lemon Queen'
coral bells Heuchera 'Lime Rickey'
late-flowering panicle hydrangea Hydrangea paniculata 'Tardiva'
purple-leaved St. John's wort Hypericum androsaemum 'Albury Purple'
winterberry Ilex verticillata 'Winter Red''
red hot poker Kniphofia 'Flamenco'
lion's ear Leonotis leonurus
Goblin blazing star Liatris spicata 'Kobold'
Sargent crabapple Malus sargentii
garden phlox Phlox paniculata 'Bright Eyes'
garden phlox Phlox paniculata 'David'
floribunda rose Rosa 'Rainbow Sorbet'
large-flowered climbing rose Rosa 'Social Climber'
hybrid tea rose Rosa 'Tahitian Sunset'
mealy-cup sage Salvia farinacea 'Summer-Easy'
purple Japanese burnet Sanguisorba tenuifolia 'Purpurea'
bridalwreath spirea Spiraea prunifolia
spirea Spiraea x vanhouttei 'Renaissance'
lilac Syringa vulgaris 'Agincourt Beauty'
lilac Syringa vulgaris 'Yankee Doodle'
South American verbena Verbena bonariensis
strawflower Xerochrysum 'Summer Harvest Yellow'

Season: Fall