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Your favorite perennials for cut flowers???

17 years ago

I love perennials, partly because I don't want to have to buy and replant every year and partly because I love the constantly changing landscape you get with perennials. I also love having fresh flowers on the table and would like to know which ones other gardeners in our area enjoy growing and cutting. I'll start. Off the top of my head, I guess my list would include:

daffodills

peonies

roses

yarrow (rose and white now, yellow later)

veronica

black-eyed susans

coneflowers

butterfly bushes

lavender

What would you add?

Comments (10)

  • 17 years ago

    Besides the ones you listed, i would add:

    swamp sunflower (which grows like a weed some places, but i like it)
    heliopsis

  • 17 years ago

    This is only my second year in my garden, and I had mostly annuals last year, but I also love cutting roses, coneflowers, daffodils, glads, crocosmia, hostas and ferns for greenery, and I know they're not perennials, but I love hydrangea, camellia and gardenia blooms.

    Although I don't grow these in my garden, I love peonies, tulips, delphinium and lilies.

    Now if I could just figure out how to keep my cat from eating any plant or flowers that I bring in the house! :)

    Catbird, what peonies do you have in your garden that do well for you? I was so tempted to buy some at the BBG spring plant sale but chickened out because I had heard that they can be so finicky here!

  • 17 years ago

    haley: I don't even know what varieties my peonies are. One came from the garden of my daughter's 70-yr-old house in NC after they bought it. (They're pink, which I love and she doesn't.) The other is a generic I ordered from Greer Gardens some years ago. Both are beautiful, but have started getting mildew half way through bloom season. I think if I divide and thin them out this fall they'll be fine, though.

    Hydrangea, camellia and gardenia are perennials, they're just perennial shrubs, not herbaceous perennials -- and they're great additions to a cutting garden.

    Tood: Thanks for suggesting the heliopsis. Don't think I have one of those.

  • 17 years ago

    Please add butterfly gingers to your list. Peach, Yellow, white; beautiful and fragrant. The Kahili gingers are great as well. How about oakleaf hydrangeas. Also the monardas.

  • 17 years ago

    Obedient plant is another that probably makes a good cut flower. It reseeds
    itself so successfully, you can have lots and lots if you wanted.

  • 17 years ago

    Haley just touched on lilies, they make a magnificent display. Asiatics or LA hybrids, maybe a few Orientals or Orienpets. I wouldn't do a whole bouquet of Orientals though, it might over power your room.
    My gardenias are in full display so I've been bringing blooms in and placing them in a bowl for a quick fix..er sniff.
    I never thought about bringing a whole inflo of butterfly ginger inside, I usually just pluck one bloom and tuck it behind my ear.

  • 17 years ago

    Kabby, the first time I saw a display of butterfly ginger was at a flower show at a banquet at the Commerce Club in Atlanta. It was magnificent. The aroma was intoxicating. I've been in love with them ever since.

  • 17 years ago

    I love zinnias as cut flowers. I just received some obedient plants as trade, and cannot wait to see how they do.

  • 17 years ago

    Dana: A word of caution re obedient plants: Be very careful where you plant them. They will take over any bed you put them in, so plant them in a spot where they'll have lots of room to spread or where they will be contained, like between a sidewalk and the driveway! I made the mistake of planting some in a perennial border, then spent several years trying to get them out of it. Obedient they ain't. ;-) Alice

    P.S. Zinnias are annuals, not perennials. ;-)

  • 17 years ago

    ooooops... right you are catbird....