Growing Flowers for home decoration

[lmbjer]

Does anyone grow flowers simply to cut and have fresh flowers around the house? If you do, what kinds do you grow?

[FarmerCathy]

I have grown flowers for selling at Farmers' Market, last year I didn't go to market as much as I planned and just used them for the house. I grow celosia (cockscomb), cosmos, rudbeckia, globe amaranth, elephant head, zinnia's, bachelor's button, queen anne's lace, bell's of ireland, calendula, snapdragon, statice, sweet william, yarrow, sunflowers (cutting kind), butterfly weed, love in a mist. I've grown lots of different flowers, I'm sure I didn't get them all.

The ones I just seed directly into the garden are bell's of Ireland (they like to be planted in May), elephant head, zinnia, cosmos, bachelor's button, sunflowers, and love in a mist. The rest I put in winter sowing containers and I'm going to try to start them on Dec. 21st this time. Flowers seem to take longer to grow, at least for me. Go to http://wintersown.org/ for more info (Trudi is also on FB if you want to "Like" the group). It's super easy to grow things this way. I even got mint to germinate this way. They like the cold stratification I guess.

[plantnerd]

My favorites for this are easy direct seeders zinnia, sunflowers, dames rocket, celosia, bachelors buttons, dianthus, marigolds. Even when there are only a few flowers in the yard we will take a walk along the greenway and there is always pretty wild stuff- leaves, berries, seed heads, etc to make an arrangement out of. Much more subtle but sometimes prettier.

Ah, and lots of bulbs, especially daffodils. I really need that in March when it seems like winter will never end!

[HappyMommy2]

I like lilies. They look gorgeous in a vase. Plant the bulbs once, and more & more lilies come back each year! Great color range too.

My neighbor tells me that in a few years, I will have to dig up the bulbs and separate the clumps of them, or they will crowd each other and not grow.