Yes, it’s the end of June, and perhaps time got away from you this spring and you never got around to growing those flowers you intended to. Good news! You haven’t quite missed the boat on growing flowers here in Virginia.
Below are four beginner-grower-friendly, cuttable flowers that will bring joy to you and pollinators alike. Simply purchase the seeds, which can all can be directly seeded into a weed free patch, and commit to watering them daily until they’ve reached their mature height.
Once established, watering only needs to happen 2-3 times a week for these tough heat loving flowers, and cutting from them regularly will encourage them to keep pumping out blooms from late summer to the first frost.
Also, if deer and critters are a problem in your backyard, using an all natural deer repellant spray a couple of times a week will help them avoid attack so as to not destroy your flower garden dreams.
So without further ado, the 4 favorites are…
Cosmos
Tall and wiry yet full faced, cosmos add a whimsical element to the garden and make an amazing statement in a vase en masse.
There are many different varieties, and it’s important to note the height when choosing where to grow them. Favorite extra tall varieties are Afternoon White, Cupcakes Blush, and Apricotta, which may require some support so they won’t flop over during a summer storm.
A shorter variety that does well in pots or along flowering borders without any support is Xanthos, a lovely pale yellow and white color to weave into fall arrangements.
Zinnias
Zinnias are fast growing, bushy plants that are offered in almost all colors of the rainbow (except blue, whomp whomp).
There are also different shapes and sizes. Size-of-your face bloomers can be found in the Benary’s Giant Mix, sharp skinny quilled styles are found in Cactus varieties, extra fluffy flower heads are in the Zinderella varieties, and tiny, cute as a button sized blooms are produced from the Jazzy mix.
When harvesting the first stems, be sure to cut at least one leaf node down to encourage taller growing stems!
Sunflowers
A personal anecdote regarding sunflowers: when I was in middle school, the traditional yellow and brown giant sunflowers were all the rage. And I had this one friend who embraced it with her whole heart, decorating her entire bedroom in sunflowers and wearing them on her clothes and backpack. Said friend decided she hated me after I got a new haircut and the braces came off. In my mind it plays like a movie, me walking into school that morning after the little makeover and her saying to the person next to her “who does she think she is?” Then she commenced attempting to make my life a living hell from that point on for the rest of the school year.
Thankfully I had parents who raised me to hold my head high and not stoop to her level, so I managed to make new friends and ignore her as much as possible…and that did the trick of making her eventually stop. But the pain and ridicule she doled out definitely stuck with me for a while. Which is why that year, every time I saw a sunflower, my stomach sank because I thought of her. And that reaction just kind of stuck, which led to a long term hatred of sunflowers.
Fast forward many years later when I have begun my flower growing journey and suddenly I realize that there are SO MANY varieties of sunflowers! Striped ones and white ones and ones as dark as the night sky. Fluffy ones and short ones and ones that grow like a tree with lots of branches coming off of a central stalk. I about cried with joy. So now I grow them proudly and without a pit in my stomach….though I did actually grow the traditional ones that year as a reminder to let the past be in the past and to appreciate the tough times, for they actually can make us grow taller. Like the sunflower.
Now enough of the life stuff. As for where to begin if you want to grow interesting sunflowers you don’t see every day, I would suggest any from the ProCut series (Plum and White Nite are two absolute favs!), Rouge Royal, Sunfill Purple, and Teddy Bear.
Marigolds
Much like with sunflowers, before I was a grower, the only marigolds that came to mind were the short little red and orange ones most often found in nurseries. Then once again my mind was blown when I saw that there were taller, more sophisticated varieties to grow that would still be wonderful for attracting pollinators, detracting pests, and killing nemotodes….but would be more of a statement flower in the field and in arrangements.
At the farm we grow the Giant series (Yellow and Orange), White Swan, Red Gem, and Lemon Gem for arrangements (Red and Lemon Gem specifically for their lacy foliage).
Hope that’s helpful! If you need advice on where to source seeds, be sure to check out this post Finding Incredible Flower Seeds