Growing beautiful, seasonal flowers doesn’t have to mean acres of space or endless time. Here you’ll find practical guides to the plants I grow (from reliable cut flower favourites to the occasional experiment) with simple advice on sowing, spacing, harvesting and keeping things productive. Whether you’re planting a small bed or filling a few pots, this is where you’ll find inspiration for what to grow and how to make it thrive.
How to grow Cerinthe Major. Cerinthe major forms a staple in flower arranging acting both as a filler or foliage. It has fleshy, blue-green leaves with drooping purple bell shaped flowers with yellow stamens. If they like their location they will easily self-seed and flower year after year.
How to grow cornflower. Cornflowers are a quintessential summer meadow flowers, also known as billy buttons or Centaurea cyanus. This cornflower mixture contains shades of pink, blue, mauve, violet and pure white, and is particularly fine for cutting.
How To Grow Ammi Visnaga (Queen Anne’s Lace). Similar to Ammi majus but flowers slightly later and with lovely feathery foliage and tightly packed, large flowers that start lime green and gradually open to greenish-white. The heads become more domed as the flowers open.
How To Grow Corncockle. This is a dreamy mixture of clean white, purple and mauve corn cockle flowers. Corncockle is a lovely wild flower, which is easy to grow, good for cutting and withstands typical English summers. Flowers freely all summer long.
How To Grow Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena Globosa) Gomphrena makes a superb cut flower with its unusual spherical heads of papery petals that also dry exceptionally well. This is a pink and white mix.
Learn How to grow scabiosa. There are many varieties of scabious/ scabiosa/ Pincushion. Some are tall large flowers in a wide range of whites, pinks to deep red. Some grown specifically for their dried seed heads.
How To Grow Achillea. If seed is sown early in the season, achillea will flower in its first year. Blooms come in shades of raspberry, peach, coral, blush, rose, and buttercream. This is a vigorous perennial that will keep you with filler material for your floral arrangements for months.
How to grow feverfew. Feverfew is true garden workhorse in the cutting patch. Just one plant is loaded with sprays small daisy-like flowers. These long lasting blooms flower all summer long. Cut back hard and new shoots and flowers will emerge. This easy grower has a upright, branching habit and makes a wonderful bouquet filler. Once grown it will happily self seed throughout your garden.
Daucus carota is the flowering version of a carrot, perfect for a cut flower. Learn how to grow Daucus in this post. with large red umbels of flowers that fade to pink. They add height and interest to flower borders and they are attractive to bees and butterflies. Similar in form to ammi majus.
Learn how to grow wallflowers. Wallflowers are very easy to grow. A mid-August sowing will provide an abundance of flowers the following April-May. Perfect as a cut flower.