Grow Your Own Bouquets Part 2

Zinnias

 Last week, I wrote about the basics and benefits of growing your own bouquets. This week, I want to give you lots of ideas for which flowers to grow. There are so many to choose from that this week will be all about annuals - plants that complete their life cycle in one season and need to be reseeded each spring. For those of you who don't know, aside form my love of gardening, I have several years experience as a florist so this is really a fun combination of the two. Here are some suggestions to get you started. Keep in mind that all these flowers need full sun and be sure to get the tall varieties (at LEAST 18 inches high). 

Focal Flowers: Traditional bouquets will have at least one really eye catching flower that grabs your attention and is quite often larger that the other flowers. Here are some ideas...

1. Zinnias and colorful and easy to grow. I recommend the Benary's Giant Mix for cut flowers.

2. Sunflowers are also easy and popular. Be sure to select a variety with smaller heads. 

3. Gerbera Daisies are beautiful but are trickier to work with due to their fragile stems. I recommend buyin plants instead of starting from seeds. 

4. Marigolds. Very easy and lovely to grow. Again, be sure to get a taller variety. 

Line Flowers. These are flowers that add height and dimension to an arrangement. Think tall and thin. 

1. Snap dragons. SO PRETTY! Again, be sure to get a tall variety. 

2. Larkspur

3. You can, in fact, grow your own Molucella or Bells of Ireland if you want to do something different and fun. 

Snap Dragons

Secondary Flowers or filler flowers. These are usually smaller than the focal flower but serve to add a lot of interest and fullness. 

1. Baby's Breath. Yup the stuff in the store can be grown in your garden. 

2. Alstromeria. Another common florist flower than you can grow yourself. 

3. Asters. There are tons of Asters to choose from. They're all great. 

4. Celosia. You may not recognize the name but you've seen the flowers. They're especially popular in the fall. Speaking of which....

5. Straw Flowers. The texture of these is just crazy. Easy to grow too. 

6. Sweet William

7. Bachelor Buttons

8. Statis

Greens. These are always under appreciated but so helpful in putting together bouquets. Unfortunately, most greens I would use are perennial so they don't go in this post. However, I have found it fun to experiment and think outside the box when it comes to greens. Here are a few ideas.

Alstromeria. 

1. In high summer I actually like to use vegetable greens with bouquets. Beets, Swiss Chard and even Carrot greens work great in cut arrangements. 

2. Herbs like basil, dill and lemon balm will work and add a little scent too. 

3. Because you're using incredibly fresh flowers, you can often use the foliage on the flowers instead of stripping it off and that will add greenery. (Always strip of the foliage that will be under water). 

So, pick a few things from each category and plan out your garden! Also, stay tuned for next week when I'll talk about useful perennial plants.