I’m not a florist or a professional flower grower I just grow on a small scale and just for me (and my family and friends) but its become a bit of a passion. There is nothing nicer than going out and picking a bunch of flowers for yourself from your garden. I know its a real privilege and feel very lucky to have a garden. I don’t have a very big garden, there are lots of photos of it on Instagram if you want to have a peek, but I love it and its big enough and manageable enough for me. But is also just shows that you don’t need a big space to grow, you could even just grow in a small raised bed or just find a sunny spot in the garden, clear a space and grow some flowers. If you want some hints on starting a new cutting patch have a read here. I just want to have a varied range of flowers so that I can have beautiful seasonal arrangement from flowers and foliage in my garden. I’m hoping in my small way to inspire you to grow your own flowers too. But what should I grow in my cutting patch?
Well firstly grow what you love. I will always have a wigwam or teepee of Sweet peas as they are just one of my favourite flowers for cutting. These are a must have for me and I know that summer has arrived when I pick my first big bunch of Sweet peas. They are just the best for scent as far as I am concerned. Look at the colour range they are great for adding into your mixed bouquets too. More info on sweet peas here, and you can sow them now too.
So look through seed catalogues and have a browse of the Higgledy garden seed shop and get dreaming of what you want in your patch. You might want to start off with some easier to grow varieties and there are definitely some that are tough and reliable, have a look at this blog for some easy wins. Cosmos are just so easy, have a long season for harvesting and such long flowering, its one that I always recommend, I will always have them in my cutting garden. Likewise Cornflowers they are pretty tough cookies and look beautiful in arrangements. But its also good to think about how you might arrange your flowers. I’m very much a novice when it comes to arranging, there are some brilliant flower growing and arranging books out there and there is so much available on social media, I’ve done some courses and these are great to get hands on advice and help. I do recommend if you want to learn from the experts then there are lots of brilliant tutors out there who do great courses. But after that the best thing to do is just have a go. See what you have in the garden and see what looks good together in an arrangement. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but its just so much fun to try. But there is some general advice that can be helpful when putting together a bouquet and thus helpful when deciding what to grow in your cutting patch.
Its good to think about a number of different categories of flowers. The showstoppers, the supporting cast and the fillers and foliage. If you get a good balance of these in your cut flower garden you can’t go too far wrong.
Firstly there are the stars of the show, the focal flowers, these are things like Ranunculus, Tulips, Dahlias and Roses. Usually large flowers, bright and eye-catching. The showstoppers are the flowers that your eyes are drawn to the most in the bouquet. I don’t tend to use the really big flowers in my arrangements, I find them really tricky unless you really have lots of other flowers for scale. For example, I love the huge dinnerplate Dahlias like Cafe au lait but gosh I find them really tricky to arrange. They need to be in really big showstopper arrangements for weddings and events and thats not the feel that I’m going for. But by all means go for those if you want a super special arrangement. I tend to go for smaller flowered dahlias that are good to grow in containers and the flowers are easier to place in arrangements. Many of these showstopper flowers can be a bit more expensive to grow and so you may not have so many at a time but thats fine, a little goes a long way. Many would be an investment in your garden (but a good one) but I’d say you don’t need loads of them. There are also many annuals and biennials that can be real stars in your bouquet Zinnias, Sunflowers, Cosmos, Amaranthus and Foxgloves. These are much cheaper and easier to grow and good for when you are getting started with your cutting patch. Click on the links for individual blogs about these fabulous flowers.
In this arrangement below the Rose ‘Munstead Wood’ is the star of the show. The supporting cast is the Ranunculus, Canterbury Bells and Knautia macedonica. The filler support is Sweet William ‘Nigricans’ and Corncockle. 
However you need a supporting cast and these tend to be a bit smaller but compliment the focal flowers, these can be daisy-like flowers of Cornflowers, Rudbeckia, Corncockle, Calendula, or some of the ‘spiky’ flowers like Wallflowers, Larkspur and Snapdragons. All beautiful in their own way but smaller and less showy, you need plenty of these. These bring out the best in your showstoppers.
This has been one of my favourite arrangements and here the Sunflower ‘Valentine’ is the centre of attraction. Its is supported by Inula hookeri, Rudbeckia ‘Marmalade’ and Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’ and the filler is Ammi visnaga, Nicotiana ‘Starlight Dancer’ and Bupleurum falcatum.
Finally there are the filler and foliage plants and flowers, these put their arms round the stars and the supporting cast and allow them to shine. Its a fine balance, you don’t want it to be too dominant but just bring out the best in them. Some can be a bit frothy and airy, you may want contrasting foliage colour or you may just want it to blend in and compliment the arrangement. The foliage really can seen as a base for the arrangement, a framework if you like into which you blend in the fillers, supporting and focal flowers. I’ll write a future blog in more detail about these filler flowers, but some of my favourites are Ammi visnaga, Cerinthe, Salvia viridis, the annual phloxes, like Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’, Gypsophila ‘Covent Garden’ and grasses like Briza and Panicum ‘Sprinkles’.
The Sunflowers are the stars of the show in this arrangement too. Helianthus ‘Ruby Eclipse’ and Helianthus ‘Red Sun’, the supporting flowers are Rudbeckia ‘Sahara’, Cosmos ‘Purity’ and Cosmos ‘Apricotta’ and the fillers are Ammi visnaga, Nicotiana ‘Bronze Queen’, Phlox ‘Creme Brulee’ and Panicum ‘Sprinkles’.
I don’t profess to be an expert on this at all, I’m still very much learning about this all the time from my favourite flower growers and arrangers, like Georgie Newbery and Sarah Raven, and just from going out there and giving it a go. But just having this range of flowers in your cutting patch will help you get a beautiful balanced arrangement. It’s really just worth experimenting with what you have in your garden.
There is obviously often a bit of overlap between the categories, some like Phlox, Gypsophila and Cynoglossum can be used as supporting flowers too or just as filler. Sometimes you may not have any real showstoppers to pick from your garden and sometimes a more gently froth of smaller flowers can be just as beautiful. Its not set in stone and the rules are there to be broken.
In this arrangement, I’d say there is no real showstopper unless you count the Narcissus ‘Thalia’, but I like its frothy mix, the supporting flowers are the Wallflowers ‘Ivory White’ and ‘Cloth of Gold‘ and some Spanish Bluebells. Some fillers from Honesty, Omphalodes linifolia ‘Little Snow White’ and some lovely grass flower heads from Melica altissima ‘Alba’.
In this arrangement I just kept it very simple with Godetia ‘Crown’ and ‘Memoria’ with one of my favourite fillers Oreganum vulgare.
Sometimes you just want a vase of just a single variety, this can be gorgeous, like this pot of Cornflowers.
Hopefully this have been helpful to get you thinking about what you might grow in your cutting patch. A few showstoppers to be the stars of your arrangements, some supporting flowers to mingle with the stars and some filler flowers to pull it all together. But ultimately just grow the flowers that you love!
Wishing you all a flowery summer.
Higgledy Anne
(I’m on Instagram anne_hinks if you fancy a follow, I’ve also joined Bluesky Anne Hinks)