Grow a Cutting Garden

A friend of mine has the most beautiful native, xeriscape gardens. She and her husband worked with a designer to plan a landscape that not only looks natural and appropriate for their beautiful new Craftsman-type home, it's full of gorgeous, flowering plants that flourish in the Central Oregon climate.

Why do some of us take a different route and design specific garden rooms or ornate parterres with winding pathways or cutting gardens with dozens of labor-intense annuals? Why do some of us have gardens that require so much effort to maintain despite our high desert climate?

Why indeed.

As you may have learned if you've read a couple of my blog posts, I'm not the most thoughtful of garden designers.  I've been known to buy a stunning plant at the nursery and then come home to figure out where on earth I'm going to put it! I've learned to read the plant label so I no longer bring home the plants that are doomed from the beginning (wrong soil type, wrong hardiness zone, not deer resistant) but I seem to be a prime target for every pretty bloom grown in a nursery.

So I've decided to focus my sometimes wild eyes on those perennials that will give me bouquets every summer. Since it's a long list I'll have lots of potential for my beloved plant shopping but not so long that I'll go broke before I buy them all.  And, as perennials, I shouldn't have to keep buying them, year after year (unless I kill off too many).

Now to determine what would be in a list of cutting garden perennials. Since they'll be in a bed by themselves, I don't have to worry about the design (color, size, sun/shade exposure) but their water needs should all be compatible to manage the irrigation schedule.

I should choose plants that will give me blooms from Spring through Summer, into Fall if possible. My favorite bouquets have a mix of flower types so I'll need to think about the flower shape - not all daisy-types, not all tiny forget-me-nots, not all spiky salvias and delphiniums.

Lastly, I think I should add some annuals to augment my perennial blooms: they'll produce flowers for a longer time and the professional growers come up with new varieties I can try every year without breaking my garden budget.

That's it, my plan is ready and now I can get to the best part: shopping!

This University of Vermont Extension publication has lots of good information: http://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/cutgardn.html 
and this is a good one from Penn State Extension http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/fact-sheets/perennial-garden/great-cut-flowers-from-your-home-garden.