From the ground up: Plan your summer cutting garden now

Everyone loves bouquets of fresh flowers. They bring the beauty and scents of the garden indoors. One of the ongoing dilemmas for gardeners is to make the decision to give up blooms from established gardens for bouquets, or leave them to enhance the yard. Solution: Make plans for a cutting garden of annuals for an endless supply of blooms. Now is the perfect time to plan that cutting garden and select seeds or transplants to order for endless bouquets of fresh blooms. Besides bringing beauty inside, another plus to growing a cutting garden is to have extra plants on hand to transfer into your permanent beds later in the season when perennials are spent and a dose of color is needed.

An ideal location for placement of an annual cutting garden is on the end of the vegetable garden where sun, soil preparation and regularly fertilizing is already a requirement. Annuals should be planted in rows for easy maintenance. Because the garden is only for the summer season and not permanent such as a perennial garden, it isn't that critical to be concerned about garden design. However, height should be considered so that tall plants don't shade shorter varieties nor hide them from view so you can enjoy them outdoors as well.

There are countless options for annuals. It's safest to plant after the last frost but there are some annual seeds that can be directly sown outdoors in cooler weather such as larkspur, California poppies and bachelor buttons. The majority of annual seeds should be planted after the last frost has passed such as marigolds and zinnias. Other choices are annual baby's breath, bells of Ireland, sunflowers and gomphrena. But do follow the planting timelines for seeds either direct from the packages or the seed catalogs for our zone.

Another thing to consider is the length of time from when seeds are planted to when they will bloom. If you want cut flowers by mid-summer and don't want to start seeds indoors, it's best to buy starter packs of some annuals, like geraniums and snapdragons. When making your selections, be sure to incorporate plants that will provide not only a variety of blooms but also provide colorful foliage and fragrance. Good foliage choices are dusty miller and coleus. Choices for fragrance include heliotrope and nicotiana (flowering tobacco). Herbs such as sage, chives and basil also make excellent cuttings in arrangements. Consider planting enough to make dried bouquets and potpourris as well.

Annuals will continue to bloom when deadheaded, or cut for arrangements. Make sure to bring a container of tepid water to the garden and put cut stems in water right away. Then once inside, re-cut the stems when assembling your bouquet, which extends the life of blooms. You'll have beauty indoors and out all growing season.

l For questions, call the Linn County Extension Master Gardener Hotline at (319) 447-0647.