Growing annual cut flowers from seed can be incredibly rewarding. While seed starting does require significant work upfront, the effort pays off abundantly in July and August when your garden bursts with beautiful blooms that are often impossible to source without growing them yourself.
When first starting a cut flower garden, it’s tempting to buy every variety that catches your eye. What begins as a modest plan for 10 seed packets can quickly grow to 30 seed packets or more! For your first year, I recommend exercising restraint and starting with mixed variety packs, like a Madam Butterfly Snapdragon mix or a Queeny Series Zinnia mix. This helps you discover your favourites before committing to specific varieties in subsequent years.
While some local nurseries are beginning to offer cut flower starts – with places like my neighbour Mother Earth Greenhouse expanding their selection each year – most of these specialized varieties are not readily available as nursery starts. Occasionally, flower farmers offer small-quantity grow packs of select varieties, but these are relatively rare.
If you have a particular goal with your cutting garden, such as growing flowers for drying, make sure to choose varieties that work best for that purpose. (If you are growing a drying garden, keep in mind that the varieties commonly found at local greenhouses aren’t often the best choices for drying projects.)
Without further ado, here are my tried-and-true favourites for arranging beautiful bouquets all growing season!
Hero Flowers
Anemones
Anemones make a lovely choice for early-season bouquets, but they can be a little tricky at first since they need to be pre-sprouted. Aside from that, they’re easy to grow and add a beautiful touch to your spring garden.
Related: How to Soak and Pre-Sprout Anemones
Dahlias
Often referred to as the queens of the cutting garden, these fall flowers come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours and are a fan favourite in floral arrangements.
Related: How to Grow Dahlias in a Short Growing Season and Cold Climate
Lisianthus
Lisianthus may be a bit tricky to grow, but it’s well worth the effort! If you garden in a cold climate with a short growing season, you’ll need to start them around Christmas. The Rosanne Brown variety shown below is a great match for Pantone’s Colour of the Year, Mocha Mousse.
Related: How to Grow Lisianthus from Seed
Marigolds
Marigolds bloom from late summer to early fall, and are a wonderful cut-and-come-again to any flower farmer’s garden!
Ranunculus
These stunning, cool-hardy flowers bloom in early spring—just when you’re eager to start arranging! While they require pre-sprouting and can be a bit tricky to start, they’re absolutely worth the effort.
Related: How to Grow Ranunculus in Zone 3 (So They Don’t Die!)
Sunflowers
Nothing says summer quite like a sunflower! While the classic yellow is a favourite for a reason, these blooms also come in stunning shades of cream, brown, and red, adding a vibrant touch to any bouquet.
Zinnias
Zinnias are easy to save from seed and I can’t wait to have an abundance of them again this summer!
Related: 5 Easy Annual Flowers for Beginner Seed Savers
Spikes
Amaranth
Bells of Ireland
Bells of Ireland can be tricky to germinate, so allowing them to reseed can be a more dependable option! They add a unique touch to bouquets, and my subscribers always love them in their arrangements.
Related: 4 Foolproof Ways to Germinate Bells of Ireland
Celosia
Celosias are striking flowers available in both brain and spike varieties. They come in a vibrant range of colours and are excellent for dried arrangements.
Related: How to Grow Celosia in a Cold Climate, Short Growing Season
Gladiolus
Glads are often thought of as old-fashioned, but they will always have a place in my cut flower garden. They can be susceptible to thrips, so make sure you’re prepared if growing them for the first time.
Related: How to Grow Glads in a Short Growing Season
Orach
Orach grows easily in all types of soil and self-seeds reliably. I love that it comes back year after year, and I welcome its tall stems each summer!
Related: Cut Flowers That Easily Reseed Themselves (So You Don’t Have to Seed Start Them Ever Again!)
Snapdragons
A backbone crop in my flower farming business that comes in a lovely variety of colours.
Stock
Fillers
Ageratum
Baby’s Breath
Perennial Baby’s Breath is considered a noxious weed and is illegal to plant in Canada, so be sure to stick with the annual varieties. You can also direct sow them, which is a convenient option if you prefer to skip seed starting.
Related: 10+ Cut Flowers That Don’t Require Seed Starting
Borage
Borage self-seeds so well that people often consider it a perennial. It provides a wonderful hit of blue in floral arrangements!
Dill
I love growing dill in my cut flower garden because it of course serves two purposes: one as a beautiful flower with an interesting scent and two to actually use the dill leaves in the kitchen. Dill seed is also incredibly easy to save, so make sure you let a couple of plants go to seed. Save the seeds or let the chips fall as they may, so to speak, and let them grow as volunteers next year!
Fennel
Fennel smells like licorice and because of that, I will grow it in my garden every year. The flowers are very similar to dill and also have a similar leaf shape, but the scent is very different. Fennel is also cold-tolerant, so you can get it outside earlier in the season.
Feverfew
Feverfew may return occasionally, but it’s not guaranteed. Typically, about 50% of mine come back, but this varies from year to year.
Forget Me Nots
Queen Anne’s Lace
Queen Anne’s Lace may be a perennial in some areas, but in Zone 3, the variety we plant is an annual. If you’d rather skip seed starting, these classic white blooms can be direct sown.
Saponaria
A good alternative to baby’s breath.
Statice
Statice is another backbone crop on my flower farm. It comes in so many beautiful colours and works well in both fresh and dried arrangements.
Related: 25+ Best Flowers to Grow for Dried Flower Arrangements
Sweet Annie
Sweet Annie is another strong-smelling flower and it’s one of those flowers that you really love or really hate because of it. I personally love Sweet Annie, because it is cold-tolerant and dries well. I love to use it in my wreaths and pumpkin arrangements. You can also use it before it matures as a green.
Sweet Peas
Sweet peas have a heavenly scent and I like to slip one or two in bouquets just for their scent! They can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked and actually thrive in cooler soil.
Related: How to Grow Sweet Peas in a Cold Climate
Supporting Flowers
Asters
Bachelor’s Buttons
Also known as cornflowers, bachelor’s buttons can be tricky to harvest due to their thin, easily-tangled stems. A nice choice if you want to attract pollinators!
Related: 44 Pollinator-Friendly Flowers and Herbs to Help Save the Bees
Calendula
Calendula is an excellent self-seeder and does double duty in the cutting garden as a beautiful flower and a perfect choice for medicinal teas and tinctures.
Cosmos
Strawflowers
Strawflowers will always have a place in my cutting garden. They work well fresh and dried and come in so many fun colours!
Specials
Poppy Seed Heads
Related: How to Grow Poppies in Zone 3
Craspedia
I haven’t been as successful with craspedia as some of the other flowers on this list but I still like it for drying and its unique shape. In my experience, craspedia is a one-and-done flower, so start lots! On the bright side, they don’t take up a lot of space, so you can space them very close together.
Related: 10 Best One-and-Done Cut Flowers
Garden Huckleberries
Garden huckleberries ripen quite late, so I don’t usually get a chance to eat them. If you have chickens that you let free range, you probably won’t get them to self-seed, either, because the chickens love garden huckleberries just as much as you do and they will eat all the seeds! They are a good way to get some navy in your bouquets.
Related: Feeling Blue in the Garden? These Flowers Have Your Back!
Greens
Cosmos
If you harvest some of your cosmos before the flowers bloom, they make for excellent greens in bouquets. They are one of my favourite cut-and-come-again flowers in the cut flower garden.
Related: 10 Best Cut and Come Again Flowers
Marigolds
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus offers therapeutic benefits and has a wonderfully fragranced green for both fresh and dried arrangements.
Related: How to Grow Eucalyptus for Cut Flowers (Even in a Short Growing Season)
Holy Basil
Holy basil has been the best variety for my short growing season. I love its fragrance, and in addition to being great in bouquets, it’s also perfect for making tinctures.
If you liked this blog post, find me on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram for more cold-climate vegetable gardening tips, delicious recipes, and cut flower goodness! I also make weekly videos over on my YouTube channel. I hope to see you there!
WANT TO LEARN THE SECRETS TO ARRANGING A BEAUTIFUL BOUQUET, EVERY TIME?
Bouquets Made Beautiful includes a collection of my best bouquets of all sizes, throughout all seasons, including a flower-by-flower list with pictures for every single one! I also share my favourite colour palettes that I return to over and over again. Whether you’re a backyard gardener or a farmer florist, this highly visual ebook will help you create better-looking bouquets and give you more confidence that you’re growing the right things.
If you’re planning for an event and ready to take your flower farming to the next level, this ebook is also available in the DIY Wedding Bundle alongside Cut Flowers Made Simple and the Flower Farmer Garden Planner.
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