Exactly What You Need for Cut Flower Gardening Success

by Team Triple Wren

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March 2, 2022

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business | Cut Flower Garden Planning | dahlia cutting garden | Plan for Gardening Success | Plan for Success

Today, I’m going to walk through a very specific and detailed plan that harmonizes everything taught in this Garden Planning for Success series.

Our Priority Goal was to grow flowers to create 15 bouquets a week from June to September. If I had only one 100’ by 4’ bed, knowing what I know about current popular color combinations, here is what I would do:

I’d buy 1,000 ProCut sunflower seeds and succession start 60 of them inside each week for the last two weeks of March and first two weeks of April. I’d plant those all out at a 4”x4” spacing the third week of April (after my last frost) and continue direct sowing succession plantings of sunflowers each week with plans to eventually fill about 25% of my bed.

Here are some tips for the sunflowers:

Use different varieties of Pro Cut (I recommend White Nite, Plum, and Gold Lite) for easy variety in bouquets + a reliable 60 day crop window.
Prepare your bed in March and cover any part you’re not planting right away with black plastic or thick paper to keep weeds at bay. Peel it back as you’re ready to succession your next batch of sunflowers.
Pull out and re-plant sunflowers in this 25% of your bed after harvest to maximize this space all season.

In mid-April, I’d plant 50 dahlias at 12”x12” spacing in a double row in another 50% of your flower bed. My first frost date is April 15. We tell our dahlia tuber customers to plant after their last frost date, but I’m going to tell you a secret. If you’re *sure* you won’t have a deep freeze, you can back up from your last frost date two weeks and plant your dahlias out early. Completely cover the tubers and any green sprouts with at least 1” of soil. Frost will not nip them underground, and by the time they emerge they’ll be safe. Because an April freeze is very unlikely for us, this is what we do. We plant our dahlias super early, so they bloom earlier. I’d use primarily waterlily, decorative, and ball form varieties in bouquets because they have the longest vase life and they hold up better in transport.

I’d choose 5-10 whites like Orsett Beauty/White Swan, 10 chocolates like Shadow Cat/Kenora Macop-B, 10 pale pinks like Sweet Nathalie/Silver Years, 10 peaches like Linda’s Baby/Rose Toscano, 5-10 mid-pinks like Gerrie Hoek/Rebecca Lynn, and 5-10 orange like Nicholas/Jowey Nicky.

In March (at the appropriate time, so they’re big enough to plant outside in the 2nd week of April), I’d start indoors 6-10 plants: white or pink cosmos (like white or bicolor pink Double Click or SnowPuff), celosia spicata or plumosa (like Flamingo Feathers or Celery Terracotta), Sunset mix or Apricot QIS statice, your favorite pastel snapdragons, a mix of Oklahoma zinnias, and annual phlox (Cherry Carmel or Blushing Bride).

When you’re safe from frost, I’d plant these in a triple row 9”x9” spacing in the next 20% of your bed. If you want to succession these annuals, try staggering the plantings and only adding 4-5 plants every month.

In late winter, I’d also start indoors 10-15 Dusty Miller “New Look” and/or Apple mint/Licorice Mint for foliage. Plant out (after danger of frost) at 4”x4” spacing, in the final five feet.

With these beauties you can make endless combos in a warm peachy pink/coral-golden yellow palette, a dramatic black & white palette, and a cool pastel palette.

This series has been a firehose of info, but I hope that you can take a moment and go back to the beginning, and remember that the foundational key to success in your planning is understanding what you’re trying to accomplish and why you’re committed to doing it. Then you can work out details, but first you have to commit to pushing past the fear, decide to make a plan, and then fight towards making it happen with all your might. Happy growing, flower friends!