Which Flowers to Grow?
/A couple of years ago, I sat down and wrote a list of criteria to refer back to when deciding which flowers to grow. I’ve been growing cut flowers for almost a decade now, and my priorities have shifted as I’ve learned more about soil health and insects, tried different sales avenues, and scaled the business up and back down again.
When I started out, I grew the flowers I could find – fewer cut flower seeds were readily available, and flower farming information was much harder to find than it is now. I tried so many things that were too short, too flimsy, tedious to harvest or with a very brief time in bloom. I’ve grown hundreds of different kinds of flowers, and ditched many of them from my garden rotation. And while I’ve followed the guidance of books and more established flower farmers, I also have to do my own experimentation and learn what works for my climate, my soil, my personality and my business. Some flowers that are must-haves for other growers are total duds here in northwest Montana!
Every year toward the end of summer, I take notes about what to ditch, what to keep, what to try again. Sometimes, if it’s a particularly difficult growing season, I’ll take notes when I’m in the thick of it, to refer back to when I’m in relaxed planning mode during the long winter months. Because there’s a big difference between my brain in July, dealing with insects eating things and wildfire smoke and irrigation woes, and my brain in January, dreaming about long stems and cool summer mornings and ruffled petals.
So without further ado, here’s my criteria along with some explanations and notes…
Prioritize native plants and perennials. This has become my top priority, for many reasons! Perennials save labor and time every year, they require less water, they often bloom earlier, they allow for less soil disturbance, and many perennials either spread or can be divided later on. In recent years I’ve been adding more native plants, even ones that aren’t necessarily good cut flowers, because they benefit the insects, birds and soil.
Long harvest period and/or useful in various stages (bloom, seed, etc), or short harvest period but very low maintenance. If somethings has to be started indoors, tended, hardened off, transplanted, watered, supported, fertilized and pinched before I can harvest a stem, it better be worth it! Or if it’s a quick bloomer like nigella, I’ll still grow it because I can direct sow and use the pods as well as the flowers.
Not sticky, thorny or sappy. I don’t have time for that nonsense. The one exception is tweedia, which is lovely enough that I’ll deal with the sap.
Strong stems with movement for design. This rules out centaurea, annual phlox, thick-stemmed sunflowers or dahlias, and anything that’s prone to wilting easily. Instead I prioritize things like snapdragons, geum, cosmos, cloud larkspur, veronica, perennial scabiosa, and textural additions like grains and grasses.
Usable with multiple color palettes. Hence I grow a lot of softer colors, whites and neutrals, and flowers with ombre hues. If the color is hard to describe, that probably means it has lots of potential.
After initial planting or establishment, doesn't require fussing over. I used to grow a couple hundred dahlias every summer, and now I barely have a handful. There are many reasons for this, but in large part it’s because I don’t want to devote that much labor to one crop.
Relatively resistant to bug damage. Hello again, perennials! They are usually much less likely to be eaten. The bug issue also means that I no longer grow ranunculus in my high tunnel and I stopped growing asters because of aster yellows.
Not prone to powdery mildew. Some years the powdery mildew is fierce, so I don’t even try growing most types of monarda, and I limit the quantity of delphinium I grow so that I’m not too sad when I have to cut them way back.
Easy to hydrate and/or holds up well in bouquets and designs. I no longer grow basil, even though I love the scent, because it’s too fussy for bouquets and doesn’t like being in the cooler. I also ditched dusty miller and hibiscus foliage because they were too unreliable.
Fits my design aesthetic. This has evolved over the years, but it’s always included lots of texture, blooms of different shapes and sizes, and a natural garden or wildflower style.
Not annoying to harvest. If I grow something and avoid harvesting it, what’s the point? That’s why I grow only a few annual scabiosa and a minimal amount of cosmos (even though I love them, I don’t need hundreds of flowers every day).
Bonus: unique shape, also usable dried, attracts specific pollinators. Some things I grow just for pollinators – like showy milkweed for monarch butterflies. And some flowers, like most poppies, don’t work as cut flowers but produce fun pods for use both fresh and dried.
For now, that’s my criteria. It’s a good reference point when I’m ordering seeds or dreaming big dreams in the winter, and it allows me to check back in with my business priorities and values. In a few more years it will probably evolve, but that’s the fun of growing – nothing ever stays the same.