I Love Bringing Flowers Into The Home
Sweet peas and leucanthemum daisies are just some of the fresh flowers you can grow easily in your garden.
Whilst
buying fresh flowers is something most of us do once in a while
it is not always part of the budget every week but if you have got a
garden it shouldn’t need to cost anything extra. Every season there is
something beautiful and free.
Flowers For Every Season
Throughout the winter months you will have to be more resourceful but catkins, berries and bark must not be forgotten and some of the evergreens firs and foliage we use at Christmas are indisputable simple yet fabulous.
I would start the year with hellebores in early spring. Floating the flowers in shallow bowls of water as a center piece can look so exquisite.
Early flowering and fragrant shrubs like sarcocococca and Daphne odora will simple lift your spirits if you can spare a few cutting for indoors.
There should always be fresh blooms and foliage to be harvested from the garden throughout the whole year
Summer Flowers
June onwards nothing is as delightful as a mixed bunch of sweet peas from your own garden.
I also find a little trim of lime green Alchemilla mollis which can be in plentiful at this time of year is a lovely rustic foliage to add to any collection of garden blooms a finishing touch. Always add some foliage of some sort and the flowers will look so much more delightful.
June, July and August are abundant with fresh flowers in these months we have a copious choice. We have roses we have perennials and we have shrubs on mass.
Why not enjoy a few minutes in your garden with a pair of scissors. A few choice perennials and perhaps a bit of foliage popped in a vase or country jug and you will find you have something pretty chic.
A very appealing summer annual perfect for cut flowers is cerinthe. It has stunning sweet flowers that hang like little purple bells. This is easy to grow. Why not add a few to your borders for summer. Tall lime green nicotiana or tobacco plants would be another easy annual to pop into your borders. It also has a lovely fragrance.
Flowers For Every Season
Throughout the winter months you will have to be more resourceful but catkins, berries and bark must not be forgotten and some of the evergreens firs and foliage we use at Christmas are indisputable simple yet fabulous.
I would start the year with hellebores in early spring. Floating the flowers in shallow bowls of water as a center piece can look so exquisite.
Early flowering and fragrant shrubs like sarcocococca and Daphne odora will simple lift your spirits if you can spare a few cutting for indoors.
 |
Sweet Peas and Leucanthemum Daisies Bulbs and Rhizomes Autumn planted bulbs such as daffodils and tulips could not be easier but how about putting in some camassia great for the late spring early summer. To bring in the house in Mid May I would definitely grow some alliums bulbs. The round purple heads in spring look very professional and for late summer I would suggest planting some gladiolus for cutting. |
 |
| Alchemillia molis |
There should always be fresh blooms and foliage to be harvested from the garden throughout the whole year
Summer Flowers
June onwards nothing is as delightful as a mixed bunch of sweet peas from your own garden.
I also find a little trim of lime green Alchemilla mollis which can be in plentiful at this time of year is a lovely rustic foliage to add to any collection of garden blooms a finishing touch. Always add some foliage of some sort and the flowers will look so much more delightful.
June, July and August are abundant with fresh flowers in these months we have a copious choice. We have roses we have perennials and we have shrubs on mass.
Why not enjoy a few minutes in your garden with a pair of scissors. A few choice perennials and perhaps a bit of foliage popped in a vase or country jug and you will find you have something pretty chic.
A very appealing summer annual perfect for cut flowers is cerinthe. It has stunning sweet flowers that hang like little purple bells. This is easy to grow. Why not add a few to your borders for summer. Tall lime green nicotiana or tobacco plants would be another easy annual to pop into your borders. It also has a lovely fragrance.
Perennials For Cutting
So many of the late summer perennials look wonderful in a vase and as long as you have a reasonable clump growing cutting a few flowers will probably invigorate the plant encouraging it to be more floriferous rather than going to seed.
So many of the late summer perennials look wonderful in a vase and as long as you have a reasonable clump growing cutting a few flowers will probably invigorate the plant encouraging it to be more floriferous rather than going to seed.
I love a vase full of Leucanthemum daisies. I just snip the stems and
strip the foliage off. They are all lovely from the yellow Broadway Lights to the Wirral types. I find the small headed varieties which can look very dainty and appealing but that’s personal choice and whether
you like the large bold daisy heads of Thomas Killen or the stringy
Wirral’s Pride or the shaggy Phyillis Smith its doesn’t really matter.
One of the best things about these daisies is they mix very well with other
flowers and look perfect in a vase alone as do most perennials in the daisy
family.
Orangey red heleniums are quiet abundant late summer and make a good splash of bold colour as are things like blue asters, achillea, echinacea , astrantias, veronicas, veronicastrum, campanula, salvias, striking orange or red crocosmia, commonly known as montbretia its quiet an endless list as we move into late summer and autumn.
Its a creative opportunity. All you need is a vase or a jug a pair of scissors and a bit of imagination.
How about a vase of steely blue eryngium (Sea Holly) and a few deep blue Cardoons. I love blue or blue and silver. Lavender could not be more simple to grow and is lovely in a vase.
Shrubs For Cutting
Lots of the summer flowering shrubs can spare a few blooms for the house. The mop head hydrangea are out and the heads look fabulous in the garden but also very classy in a vase, even when fading and the long paniculata heads of creamy white Limelight or Phantom look particularly impressive. Hypericum can look great especial the small headed varieties in the magic series. There is certainly lots of buddleja (butterfly bushes) to cut and probably quiet a few roses. I'll remind you again don't forget to collect some foliage, its as important as flowers and their are plenty of colourful foliage plants or grasses. In small arrangements the smaller leaved foliage such as pittosporum look less heavy and clumsy, but also look at the feathery textures like bronze leaved fennel, eucaliptus and I have mentioned the fresh limey alchemillia mollis. Euphorbia varieties are also exceptionally useful foliage plants for flower arranging.
 |
| Helenium |
Orangey red heleniums are quiet abundant late summer and make a good splash of bold colour as are things like blue asters, achillea, echinacea , astrantias, veronicas, veronicastrum, campanula, salvias, striking orange or red crocosmia, commonly known as montbretia its quiet an endless list as we move into late summer and autumn.
 |
| Eryngium |
How about a vase of steely blue eryngium (Sea Holly) and a few deep blue Cardoons. I love blue or blue and silver. Lavender could not be more simple to grow and is lovely in a vase.
Lots of the summer flowering shrubs can spare a few blooms for the house. The mop head hydrangea are out and the heads look fabulous in the garden but also very classy in a vase, even when fading and the long paniculata heads of creamy white Limelight or Phantom look particularly impressive. Hypericum can look great especial the small headed varieties in the magic series. There is certainly lots of buddleja (butterfly bushes) to cut and probably quiet a few roses. I'll remind you again don't forget to collect some foliage, its as important as flowers and their are plenty of colourful foliage plants or grasses. In small arrangements the smaller leaved foliage such as pittosporum look less heavy and clumsy, but also look at the feathery textures like bronze leaved fennel, eucaliptus and I have mentioned the fresh limey alchemillia mollis. Euphorbia varieties are also exceptionally useful foliage plants for flower arranging.
 |
| Nigella |
If you don’t want to cut flowers from your garden borders how about growing a few rows of flowers just for cutting with your vegetables. It will also benefit the your vegetable plants encouraging bees and beneficial insects to the satellite or tasty flowers!. If you have a little space it’s the perfect opportunity to seed some sweet peas in the Autumn or spring so you will be cutting probably the best beautiful fragrant blooms for the house from May to late summer. All they need is a reasonably rich bit of ground. If there really is no room at least find a pot and something for sweet peas to grow up because you really can not be without them!
In a cutting garden I would also suggest seeding a row of Nigella (love in the Mist) a very pretty seed head. Its definitely one of my top 10 easy to grow cut flowers. I have often sprinkled the seeds in my borders so they appear like a random mist amongst my mauve and pink perennials. Larkspur also seeds well and is very pretty, with a spiky flower appearing like a miniature delphinium, in pinks and blues. It makes a sophisticated vase. perennial alstroemerias are alway recommended for cutting gardens, flowering in the summer. Sweet williams are lovely in the spring, mine over winter and carnations or pinks are very easy sweet scented little perennials to plant in well drained soil.
 |
| Hypericum, berberis and fennel |
I recommend you have cut flower bed for fresh flowers perhaps along side your vegetables and then you won't feel guilty cutting them. If you are limited for space integrate some of the best perennials for cutting into your borders and enjoy free fresh flowers in the home all year round.
