In part of our garden I have a strip, which because of its sort of hidden
location, I used for a few vegetables. But repeated trips away meant I was
either unable to tend them or, even worse, to harvest them. What is more I
found they demanded a disproportionate amount of my gardening time.

So this strip has laid fallow for a few years. But it looks so untidy with
nothing growing in it that I have decided to give it over to flowers grown in
rows for cutting for the house. This means I shall be able to mulch them to
keep the weeds down.

My problem is that although I have a reasonably good gardening experience I
have never grown flowers for cutting. My first thoughts are sweet peas,
chrysanthemums and dahlias (things I don't currently grow in the rest of the
garden) - even though I have no specific knowledge of the best varieties of
these.

But there must be other things that I haven't thought of, so any suggestions
you can make would be most welcome. Clearly they should be things that are not
an enormous amount of trouble otherwise I shall be back where I started.

Derek Carver
Oxshott, Surrey

The message
from PAMBLOC (Derek Carver) contains these words:

But there must be other things that I haven't thought of, so any suggestions
you can make would be most welcome. Clearly they should be things
that are not
an enormous amount of trouble otherwise I shall be back where I started.

When I used to have an allotment, I used to grow a mixed row of HT
roses there, just for cutting.

Janet.

In article , Derek Carver
writes

My problem is that although I have a reasonably good gardening experience I
have never grown flowers for cutting. My first thoughts are sweet peas,
chrysanthemums and dahlias (things I don't currently grow in the rest of the
garden) - even though I have no specific knowledge of the best varieties of
these.

But there must be other things that I haven't thought of, so any suggestions
you can make would be most welcome. Clearly they should be things that are not
an enormous amount of trouble otherwise I shall be back where I started.

Cosmos, cornflower and sweet williams.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/garden/

"Derek Carver" wrote in message
...
snip
My problem is that although I have a reasonably good gardening experience
I
have never grown flowers for cutting. My first thoughts are sweet peas,
chrysanthemums and dahlias (things I don't currently grow in the rest of
the
garden) - even though I have no specific knowledge of the best varieties
of
these.

But there must be other things that I haven't thought of, so any
suggestions
you can make would be most welcome. Clearly they should be things that
are not
an enormous amount of trouble otherwise I shall be back where I started.

Derek Carver
Oxshott, Surrey

These are all good cut flowers -

Achillea
Aconitum
Allium (lots of varieties are good for cutting, also great seed heads)
Antirrhinum
Aster
Carthamus tinctoria (dries well)
Crocosmia
Delphiniums
Dianthus
Echinops
Eryngium (dries well)
Gladioli
Liatris
Lilies
Statice limonium (syn. Limonium sinuatum)
Matthiola incana
Peonies
Rudbeckia (annuals, biennials and perennials - all good for cutting)
Scabiosa
Solidago
Solidaster
- plus bulb(corm or tuber) flowers such as Daffodils, Ranunculus, Dutch
Iris, Tulips etc. I would suggest Chrysanths too, but they aren't very
hardy, and would probably be more trouble than you want.

HTH

--
Chrissie
A Flower Arranger's Garden
http://www.thegardener.btinternet.co.uk

But there must be other things that I haven't thought of, so any suggestions
you can make would be most welcome. Clearly they should be things
that are not
an enormous amount of trouble otherwise I shall be back where I started.

When I used to have an allotment, I used to grow a mixed row of HT
roses there, just for cutting.

Janet.

Thank you for the suggestion Janet but roses just don't like it here. We have
very light sandy soil - ideal for working, of course (in fact, I was out
digging it over yesterday despite all of the rain) - and by mid-summer the
roses look terrible with hardly a leaf in sight due to black spot.

So I now grow them as a shrub in a mixed border so that we get the early blooms
and it doesn't show when they are reduced to bare stalks!

Derek

"Derek Carver" wrote in message
...

But there must be other things that I haven't thought of, so any
suggestions
you can make would be most welcome. Clearly they should be things that
are not
an enormous amount of trouble otherwise I shall be back where I started.

Derek Carver
Oxshott, Surrey

Hi Derek

This is not quite a suggestion of plants per se but is on that theme. For a
long time I had been resisting the temptation to buy Sarah Raven's book
"Grow Your Own Cut Flowers" thinking that I was relatively experienced and
surely almost anything could be a cut flower. However, some kind soul gave
me the book for my birthday and now I wish that I hadn't resisted the
temptation for so long. Her plans aim to give you only 10 mins work a week,
other than cutting, and that's for a 3m x 4m plot. There are loads of tips
that she gives that save bags of space and time - and the best thing is that
she has spent years trialling all these things. The suggestions for
arrangements for indoors are wonderful if you want to go that far and she
gives you a good idea of vase life too. It's even just an enjoyable read!

Best of luck with your patch - I'm hoping to aquire an extra scrap of a
neighbouring field to dedicate to my cut flower patch.

--A

"Derek Carver" wrote in message
...
In part of our garden I have a strip, which because of its sort of
hidden
location, I used for a few vegetables. But repeated trips away
meant I was
either unable to tend them or, even worse, to harvest them. What is
more I
found they demanded a disproportionate amount of my gardening time.

So this strip has laid fallow for a few years. But it looks so
untidy with
nothing growing in it that I have decided to give it over to flowers
grown in
rows for cutting for the house. This means I shall be able to mulch
them to
keep the weeds down.

My problem is that although I have a reasonably good gardening
experience I
have never grown flowers for cutting. My first thoughts are sweet
peas,
chrysanthemums and dahlias (things I don't currently grow in the
rest of the
garden) - even though I have no specific knowledge of the best
varieties of
these.

But there must be other things that I haven't thought of, so any
suggestions
you can make would be most welcome. Clearly they should be things
that are not
an enormous amount of trouble otherwise I shall be back where I
started.
Derek Carver
Oxshott, Surrey

Personally I love marigolds and really smelly sweet peas :~))

Here are a few links that may be of interest:
http://www.sunset.com/sunset/Premium...Cuttinggarden0
202/Cuttinggarden02021.html

http://www.daisymoore.com/tip99-04.html

http://gardengal.net/page108.html

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/4754/49136

Jenny