Gardening Terms & Concepts
First things first: there are three main categories of flowers.
Perennial plants are put in the ground one time, and with proper care will return year after year. Examples of common perennial cut flowers are echinacea (coneflower), yarrow, peonies, and roses.
Annuals plants are those that complete their lifecycle within a year, from sprouted seed to setting seed and dying. After an annual flower blooms, the flower will fade away and, assuming the flower was not cut, the plant will produce a seedhead in its place. Most of us have seen this happen to a dandelion: if the yellow flowers are left alone, they turn into those puff balls of seed that can be blown away in the wind. This means these varieties need to be replanted every year; the plant you put in the ground in the spring will not be returning next year although sometimes a plant will form a seedhead and the seeds will drop to the ground and germinate, eventually forming a new plant of the same variety (known as self-seeding or self-sowing).
Annual plants usually make up the majority of a cut flower garden. From a scientific perspective, annual plants need to produce a lot of seed to stand a chance at their variety making a comeback the next season. For this reason, they flower more prolifically, and are more productive for a cut flower garden. Perennial plants, in contrast, require less work but generally are not as productive.
The third category of flowers are biennials, which put on growth in the first year but flower and set seed in their second season. Most home gardens do not include biennials, but many flower farmers will grow them to fill gaps in their growing season between early and later flowering annuals. Examples of biennial cut flowers are foxglove, sweet william, and varieties of dianthus (carnations).
How to read a seed packet
Seed packages give you a lot of technical details in a small amount of space. Knowing exactly what it’s telling you will help you be the most successful when it comes to choosing your plants’ location, starting method, and flowering timeline.
Where to Plant
The seed packet will list the light requirements for the plant. Full sun varieties need 6+ hours of sunlight a day, part-sun need 4-6 hours, and shade plants will need less than 4 hours of sunlight a day.
Adjust to your climate - if your summer afternoons consistently reach high temperatures, having 3 hours of intense sunlight will be too much for your shaded plants, even though the technical light requirements are fulfilled.
Spacing refers to how far apart the plants should be at planting so they don’t crowd each other, but are close enough to encourage upward growth.
Height refers to how tall the plant will be a maturity. The actual height may vary depending on growing factors like sunlight amounts and intensity, heat units, watering, and soil composition. Because of how the sun moves across the sky, it is a good rule of thumb to place your tallest plants toward the north end of your garden and the shortest toward the south to prevent larger plants from shading out the shorter ones.
A more detailed post on how to plan your garden space will be coming later in this series, so make sure to come back to make the most efficient plan!
How to Plant
Direct seeding is exactly what it sounds like: planting the seed directly in the ground. In contrast, seeds recommended to be transplanted are planted in a container or tray indoors and planted outside at a later date. Plants that are transplanted are more prone to be shocked by the transplanting process, which direct seeded ones avoid, but transplanting might be necessary to get the head start needed for the plant to flower before it freezes in the fall. Some growers might also opt to both transplant and direct seed a variety to succession sow (succession plant). This technique allows for an extended flowering time for a variety. After a few weeks of flowering, a plant grows tired and will not produce high quality blooms. By planting the same variety a few weeks apart, the later planted variety will be blooming well as the first is fading. Succession planting can also be done by direct seeding early in the season and directing seeding another series 2-3 weeks later.
Adjust to your climate - if your growing season is short, succession planting may not be advantageous as your second (or third) succession might not even make it to flowering before it freezes. Make sure the length of your growing season can support succession planting before going through the stress of scheduling successions!
A seed’s days to maturity will tell you how long it takes from a seed germinating (breaking the seed coat and beginning growth) to a mature plant, which is a full bloom in the case of cut flowers. If a plant’s days to maturity is longer than your anticipated growing season, it will need to be started indoors and transplanted to give it enough time to flower before frost. If days to maturity are shorter, it can be direct seeded or both transplanted AND direct seeded for succession planting.
Adjust to your climate - if your growing season is short, and a particular variety has a LONG days to maturity AND recommends direct seeding, consider simply opting out. Some battles are not worth fighting, and nothing is more frustrating than planting something that doesn’t even bloom before the frost wipes it out!
Want some surefire varieties that will work in nearly EVERY garden plan? Come back for the next post in the series to discover the easiest annuals and most productive perennials to plant for your personal cutting garden.
