Children’s Cut Flower Garden & Cut Flower Mini Course
Yesterday was the first day of spring and things are in full-swing on the farm getting ready for this growing season. Seeds have been started indoors, dahlias are waking up, and shipments of plants, tender bulbs, and tubers are beginning to arrive. It is a great time of the year to be outside and working in the garden, and I know many people feel the same about this. As others are also starting to think about spring and growing a garden, I receive a lot of questions about how to grow flowers, what the best flowers are for kids or beginners, and where to get seeds and supplies. So, as part of our new educational offering I have created two more guides for those who are looking to grow cut flowers. Our first new guide is a Children’s Cut Flower Garden with three different garden plans and easy to grow flowers. We will also be releasing a Cut Flower Mini Course on April 1 which goes into greater depth and includes the information I wish I new when starting out several year ago.
Children’s Cut Flower Garden
The Children’s Cutting Garden was inspired by my daughter who has been asking to plant sunflowers, zinnias, and dahlias all winter long. She has even picked out a spot on the farm for her own flower garden and is going to fill it up with ‘Pooh’ Dahlias. I am really looking forward to spending time with her this summer planting and tending her little garden and letting her pick any flower she wants and placing them in a vase on the kitchen table.
The Children’s Cutting Garden guide includes three different gardens designed for children 3 and older who want to plant seeds and grow their own flowers. I have included easy-to-grow flowers that will provide blooms for many weeks. The plans include information on recommended varieties to grow, how to plant the seeds, how to care for the plants, and when to harvest flowers to enjoy in a vase. There is also a companion spreadsheet that can be used to determine the ideal planting time based on your specific hardiness zone. Some of the flowers in our cutting garden include basil, cosmos, sunflowers, and zinnias. The garden plans include:
Garden I: 4 different varieties and is 3’x10’
Garden II: 6 different varieties and is 4’x12’
Garden III: 9 different varieties and is 4’x16’
Cut Flower Mini Course
One of the amazing things about growing cut flowers is that you can do it on any scale that works for you, whether it’s with a handful of flower pots on the patio or on a large farm. When I first started growing cut flowers, we had a small city lot with two raised beds that had not only flowers, but vegetables and herbs too. The jump from growing vegetables to starting flowers from seed was a bit overwhelming though. Even with two-raised beds, it was hard to know where to start when choosing what to grow. I didn’t know anything about flower varieties, and there were so many to choose from. I was of course familiar with sunflowers, but that’s where my knowledge ended and I ended up trying to grow some pretty challenging flowers, like lisianthus, which has a reputation for being difficult to start from seed. I learned a lot that first year, and helped me develop the basics to start our current farm. The next year we sold out house in Minnesota and bought our farm in Tennessee and decided to really dive into flower farming.
We are now starting our fifth year in Tennessee, and looking back, there is so much I know now that would have been immensely helpful for me as I was getting started growing my first cut flowers, and this course provides the foundational pieces needed to start your first cutting garden. No matter what scale you are growing on, the same core flower farming principles apply. In this course I talk about our favorite summer and fall cut flowers that don’t require any indoor seed starting, row covers, or hoop houses to grow well. I also discuss how to plan out the garden, prepare the site, grow healthy plants, and harvest flowers to enjoy in your home or to share with others.
Topics Include:
Variety Selection, Recommended Varieties, and Succession Planting
Site Planning and Preparation
Garden Maintenance
Harvest and Post-Harvest Care
15’ x30’ Sample Flower Bed
List of Seed Suppliers and Other Resources
I am still putting together the final details for the Cut Flower Course, and plan on releasing Monday, April 4!
