How to Create a Cutting Garden – with Perennials

I was chatting to someone this week about gardening and she said her ambition this year was to have a cutting bed. I’ve always liked the idea of having a cutting garden. In fact, I have a vision of me floating around my garden in a dress, like Elizabeth Bennet, with an armful of lovely, freshly picked flowers which I then brilliantly arrange in a vase in my house.

But let’s be real. Whenever I’m in the garden I’m in muddy jeans! I can’t arrange flowers to save my life and while I may think Mr F-W is Mr Darcy, I’m certainly no Jane Austen heroine! Furthermore, I’ve always assumed that I don’t have the plants for a cutting garden – not least because I don’t much like growing annuals. It feels a bit of a faff sowing seeds, pricking them out etc. only to repeat the process year after year! Especially as I don’t have a greenhouse.

But do I have to grow annual plants in order to have a cutting garden? The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve come to realise that the answer is of course ‘no.’

There are plenty of brilliant perennial plants that make beautiful cut flowers. Here are 11 that I think would look wonderful in any vase.

Cutting Garden Classics

Phlox

Phlox is a stunning plant. You can get it in white, pinks and blues and they all smell heavenly. They like to grow in lots of sun, in reasonably decent soil and to be kept watered during very dry spells but otherwise I find them really straightforward. I have a tall, white variety called Phlox Paniculata Mount Fuji in my sunny bed. It grows about 0.75m tall and this variety will actually tolerate a bit of shade. So if you want a great cut flower but have a semi shady spot, this is a great one to consider.

Peonies

Peonies are perhaps the ultimate cut flowers. The blooms are large, soft, silky and romantic. However there is a downside to them. Their season is very short – they’re in flower from late May and through June. Added to this, it can take an age for them to produce enough blooms for cutting – up to 3 years for most. However, as the flowers are large, you only need a few blooms in a vase to have a really beautiful effect.

I’m rather in love with this plant, and don’t have any in my garden, so am going to have to engineer a place to plant them. I’ll probably go for the classic –  ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ variety – and then summon up my patience!

Gypsophila

You often see Gypsophila in florists, but why wait until you get to a florists shop to have it? This lovely airy perennial is so easy to grow and looks wonderful in a border. I have the variety ‘Bristol Fairy’ in my sunny bed. It beautifully and softly fills the gaps between plants.

Penstemon

My kind neighbour Desi gave me a new Penstemon last year – a lovely variety called Pensham Plum Jerkum. It looked an absolute treat in my sunny bed, next to my Astrantias. But thinking about it, it would make a wonderful cut flower too. Indeed, I’d include any Penstemon in a cutting garden as they come in such a range of colours, all have flowers that go on from Summer well into Autumn and you can grow them in sun and partial shade.

They can be a bit tender and short-lived, losing their oomph after four years or so. That’s why they say it’s always worth taking cuttings as a precaution in July and August. That said, the largish variety known as ‘Garnet’, which I have in a container is hardy and persistent (apparently it’s Swiss-bred!).

Leucanthemum

This is another classic flower for an arrangement. It’s all blowsy blooms. I added Leucanthemum Sante to my sunny bed last year and loved it. It’s a clump forming perennial with dark glossy leaves and white ‘daisy-like’ flowers. But it’s not dainty – it’s frothy and full on. I don’t have a big enough clump of this plant yet to be cutting its blooms for a vase, but I think that could all change if I extend what I have. With regular deadheading I think you’d get flowers throughout the Summer and into mid-Autumn from this beauty.

Cutting Garden – Hotter Colours

Helenium

If you want hotter colours in your flower arrangements then I’d add Helenium to your cutting garden. They come in reds, yellows, ochres and oranges and look wonderful planted in drifts through a bed. Alternatively, I have them in my hot corner, in containers alongside grasses.

A vase full of these on the kitchen table would look as lovely as the most lavish formal arrangement.

Achillea

Many of you will know all about my love affair with this plant. But it really is such a worker, with its clusters of florets, and it comes in some stunning hot colours. In the picture above is the variety Achillea Terracotta which I have growing with grasses, it changes from yellow to a lovely orange. If you want a sharper yellow, I’d heartily recommend the variety Moonshine – it’s the colour of an acid drop – it’s to die for!

Like so many perennials, it’s so easy to increase your stock of this plant through division – check out my blog on how to divide it.

Cutting Garden Plants with Structure

Liatris Spicata

Sometimes you want your flower arrangements to have drama. Liatris Spicata, with its long-lasting bottlebrush type flowers, which open from the top down, packs a visual punch. With a long flowering season it will help fill your vases with colour in that tricky month of September – and bees and butterflies love it. Check out the cheeky bee above on it in my garden!

Echinops

Echinops grows like an absolute weed in my garden. Indeed, I’m forever cutting it back as it attempts to take over both in my front garden and in my semi-shaded bed. Of course me doing this just makes it flourish even more. However, even though it has become a bit of a nuisance to me, I do concede that it’s spikey dome shaped flowerhead look lovely in a vase.

Eryngium (Sea Holly)

With its big, bold, bright-blue flowers, Eryngium surely is another plant which adds lots of structural interest to floral arrangements. In my bed I have Eryngium Blue Steel. I went for it as it’s slightly smaller and the colour is almost metallic electric blue, which I think looks lovely with the soft blue-green of sedum before it comes into flower. If you want a bigger variety maybe go for Big Blue; it’s very handsome and like other Eryngiums, flowers from July through to September.

Cutting Garden Fillers

Alchemilla Mollis

Confession time. I don’t much like Alchemilla Mollis – otherwise known as lady’s mantle. I know it’s a classic cottage garden plant and I have a classic cottage garden – I live in the Cotswolds for heaven’s sake! But I have never warmed to it. It always looks a bit something and nothing. However, I saw a vase with sweet peas and Alchemilla in a magazine and the combination looked wonderful. It drew my attention to what a wonderful support act the plant is in flower arrangements. It probably looks fantastic in a vase with roses or peonies too.

So I’m adding it here to my list – and may well add it to my semi-shady long bed! I need to get over myself! It’s frothy, acid-yellow flowers in Summer, and fresh, apple-green leaves would probably fit in nicely.

So that’s it – 11 perennials which I think look lovely in the garden but can also be cut to grace any table.