Growing Flowers for Beauty and Cutting: audio file (audio file opens new window)

To create your own flower garden, start with a sunny spot in your yard. A garden spot that gets 6 to 8 hours of direct sun a day is ideal. It should be within easy reach for watering, since a cut flower garden will need daily watering during any dry spells. You’ll also want to design it to make it easy for you to reach all the flowers in it, so a raised bed that can be approached on four sides is perfect. If you decide to plant against a fence or as a border, make sure that you can get to all the plants without stepping on others by putting in footpaths or trenches for walking.

The best way to start your garden is with bulbs planted in the autumn. Daffodils and tulips are among the most popular spring bouquet flowers. By getting them in the ground in the autumn, you’ll be able to start cutting early in the spring.

Naturalized bulbs look beautiful in a wooded setting. You can plant them and leave them to multiply. After the bulbs bloom the foliage will die down, but you can intersperse bulbs with ground covers and other perennials for a carefree and beautiful garden. For a natural look you should arrange your bulbs informally. If you toss them and plant them where they land, with small adjustments for spacing, it’ll look much better than if you arrange them.

Perennials are the basic flowers for any garden. Each year they die and renew themselves for the next growing season. They are long-lived and last for many seasons. Perennials are also, historically, among our oldest plants. They have been cultivated for centuries and often, as a result of breeding and crossbreeding, bear no resemblance to their wild forebears. In some of the perennials, the blossoms have become so specialized through centuries of cultivation that they no longer grow ’seeds.

Annuals are also of use as a filler between shrubs set some distance apart. This permits the shrub to grow, yet prevents too stark an appearance. The sowing of annuals, of course, depends upon the class to which they belong. The hardier flowers, such as larkspur, poppies and cornflowers, can be profitably planted in late fall. The ground preparation must be just as careful as for spring planting.

Flowers can add a perfume as well as a visual aspect to your outdoor area. You may choose climbing plants that flower each year. These will take several years to reach their full potential but once they do they will create climbing plants of color on a gazebo, a fence or even up the side of a house. If you are looking for a variety that will provide lots of color, try the blue trumpet vine. This climbing plant blooms from autumn through summer and has bright blue flowers on a twining stem.

There are a number of ways to solve the problems of short-flowering periods and the resultant unsightly spaces. One way is to intersperse perennials with annuals and other bulbs and flowering plants whose bloom occurs either later or earlier than that of the perennials. Some perennials are easy to transplant: chrysanthemums, for example, can be moved from one place to another with no noticeable effect on their vigor. This is another way to keep color and bloom throughout the growing season. A garden of perennials, either by themselves or mixed with annuals and other bulbs, should be placed along a path, or as a border, with a background of trees, shrubs, a wall or fence.

The background shows the brilliant coloring to best advantage. Some varieties can flourish in the shade, such as anemone, lily of the valley, day lilies, sweet pea, primrose, hollyhock, harebell and peonies, but these flowers must be chosen carefully and faced so that some sun reaches them every day.

Roses are an entire subject of their own, but they deserve special mention when discussing cut flower gardens. Rambling and climbing varieties of roses are especially suited to cut flower gardens, putting out masses of blooms and responding to cutting with even more flowers. Trail a rambling rose along a wooden fence rail and you’ll have sweet smelling roses for your bedroom dresser all summer long.

Bleeding Hearts – heart shaped, pink to rose flowers needing moist soil and partially shaded location.

Chrysanthemums – single, semi-double, and double flowers in all colors but blue. They need moist well drained soil and full sun location.

Crocus – blooms in early spring, though there are varieties that bloom through autumn

Delphiniums – very tall flowers of many colors, though, mostly blue needing moist, well drained soil and full sun location.

Geraniums – easy to grow flowers of many colors needing mostly any soil type and full sun or partial shade location.

Giant Flowering Onion – grows 3 to 4 feet tall, with huge purple blooms. Great as a back border in a cut flower garden. Blossoms from mid-spring through early summer

Hosta – showy flowers with bright foliage from 4 inches to 3 feet. They need moist well-drained soil and, partial to deep shady location.

Hyacinth – tall clusters of blossoms that are stunning in arrangements. Pink, blue, purple and white, they grow up to 12 inches tall. Bloom in early to midsummer from fall planting.

Lupine – large spiked 3 to 4 foot tall flowers of many colors needing a cool location.

Phlox – soft pastel flowers, some with a contrasting center, ranging from low lying to tall flowers needing moist soil and full sun or partial shade location.

Rudbeckia – yellow, daisy like flowers with contrasting centers needing any soil type and full sun location.

Windflower – also known as anemone, with daisy like deep pink and white flowers, booms through midsummer

Early in the spring, you can start planting gladiolus. These huge, showy blooms are a mainstay of cut flower arrangements, and come in just about every color imaginable. Gladiolus bulbs can be planted as early as two weeks before the last frost. If you plant a new set of gladiolus every two weeks, you’ll have cut flowers from early summer all the way through the first frost.

In early spring, you can also plant your annuals. Snapdragons, cosmos and zinnias all bloom at different times during the summer, which will extend your bouquet season into the fall. Don’t forget to include filler flowers in your cut flower garden. Foliage grasses and flowers like alyssum, baby’s breath, and Queen Ann’s Lace can fill spaces in your bouquets and add a lacy, delicate touch to a vase full of flowers.

These simple bits of advice can keep your garden in glorious bloom all summer long.

You might agree that changing the home interior could bring “new spirit” to you. Without having to spend a lot of money to do it, plus a bit of creativity to improvise from the things you already have, you could choose one particular spot to change, and….voila! The atmosphere is revived.

Color is influential in every aspect of our lives. It conveys a warm or cool feeling and can draw you in or divert attention. It can create feelings of cheerfulness, sadness, love or tranquility. In flower arranging knowing how to blend colors together can make or break your design so careful thought should go into your choice of colors before you start.

If you are new to arranging or still struggle with how to put color together, take heart, there is help in the form of what’s called the color wheel. It is made up of primary colors, secondary colors and intermediate colors. The first thing one needs to understand, is that the primary colors are only three colors, red, blue and yellow. All colors are made from combining these colors but you cannot make red, blue or yellow by combining any colors.

Combining primary colors together creates secondary colors. Red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple and yellow and blue make green.

Green is a universal color that goes with any color of arrangement. In nature all flowers spring up from greens so it is very natural to use them in all arrangements. In fact, I like to put together three different shades and textures of greens together before putting any flowers in my arrangement. It is very effective.

Blue is a cool color and creates a softer feeling like you may experience when looking at the sky in the summertime.

Purple is a vibrant color but unlike red and orange it has a calming effect. When you combine purple, blues, pinks and a bit of yellow together, you get this luscious vibrant and soothing arrangement.

Red is a very hot, passionate and strong color. It creates drama in an arrangement. Red can make you think of Christmas or valentines. Yellow is a happy color and evokes a feeling of anticipation like you experience when spring has arrived and the sun is shinning and things are coming back to life. Birthday arrangements or baby arrangements often have yellow as it does evoke that feeling of cheerfulness.

Orange is a dramatic color, not as hot as red but it still has impact. If you want an arrangement to have the autumn feel then you should combine colors such as browns, gold or a bit of yellow and red-orange together. It will make a bold statement.

You can take any of these color combinations and put them together in their lighter or darker shades depending on what mood you are trying to create. Also, you do not need to stick to just these color combinations. If you want drama, try mixing together dark red, purple, yellow and a bit of white. Contrast can make quite a bold statement.

Think of the blossoms as building blocks. Each has color, texture and form. They each have a personality and many have a tradition. The rose is elegant and says love. The carnation is sturdy and says you can count on me. The orchid is exotic and dares you to dream.

Designs such as oval, horizontal, triangular, and vertical are common ways of arranging flowers. A combination of fresh flowers arranged appropriately will produce nicely crafted finish product that you can be proud of.

Flowers in three sizes make beautiful and symmetrical arrangements. Adding greenery, berries, twigs, etc. add beauty and delight. Space flowers evenly inserting the largest variety first. Keep balance on all sides. Fill bare areas with small flowers. If using floral foam, soak foam in water containing flower food for 30 mins. Secure the foam with floral tape.

Ribbons add flair and distinction. A colorful ribbon with flowing tails can give character to your arrangement and using holiday colors is an added visual beauty. Using candlesticks on either side of your arrangement is also a Holiday decorating idea.

In decorating your home, be creative.

You may be too busy to go out to buy flowers on the streets or in the malls, so you can opt to just have your flowers delivered. It’s easy there are several flower shops online. Why not start decorating your home with flowers now. It doesn’t have to be stressful when you can buy flowers with just one click of a mouse.