Planning Your Cut Flower Garden With Dahlias
We all know that dahlias are the queen of any flower bouquet but every bouquet needs some supporting players. Earlier this week, I asked my crew what their favorites annuals were to plant with dahlias in a cut flower garden. I know every one is planning their summer gardens right now so read on for a bit of inspiration.
We are going to go in alphabetical order here:
Asters: These are a great early fall bloomer to complement dahlias. They do work better if you are a cool zone 7 or lower. Sadly I haven’t seen a lot of success for these in extreme heat climates. You need to know that they must be planted early in the season (April/May). They have to establish under shorter day lengths so plant with enough time for them to bulk up before the summer solstice. The decreasing of daylength after the solstice is what initiates the buds on them—therefore leading to a beautiful early fall bloom.
My Crews Top Picks:
Melissa- Tower Violet
Baylee- Tower Salmon
Celosia: These beauties are the opposite of asters. They love the heat! If you are in a cooler climate, you could try them inside a hoophouse, even a small backyard one might give you the extra heat needed to grow it. Celosia can be succession planted too- you can seed a set of them every month from March through July if you live in an area with a frost date of late October or later. Earlier than that, you would want to quite seeding in early June. Seeding transplants is definitely the way to go with celosia, you’ll get better results than direct seeding. But make sure to not leave your transplants in the trays too long- they don’t like to get rootbound.
My Crews Top Picks:
Melissa- Chief Persimmon
Nonah- Dragon’s Breath
Baylee- Flamingo Feather
Cosmos: You can never have too many cosmos in our opinion. We had a hard time picking just a few varieties! I like to direct seed cosmos. You can do transplants but they do very well from a direct seed and it saves time babying plants. Wait until the soil is very warm- don’t rush these into the ground immediately after your last frost date. Give it a few weeks and then they will pop out of the ground within a few days. If you choose taller varieties you may want to support or net them so they don’t fall over.
My Crews Top Picks:
Melissa- Rubenza, Bright Lights
Baylee- Double Click Bi-Color Violet, Apricot Lemonade
Nonah- Double Click Bi-Color Violet
Sophie- Rose Bon Bon
Gomphrena: Who doesn’t love the fun pop of color that gomphrena brings to a bouquet. They have such a sense of whimsy. You can succession plant these too if you want a continuous bloom all summer. Just start a new set of seeds about every 4 weeks until July. Begin seeding 4 weeks before your last frost date. Then plant after the frost clears. Pinch out the center when they are a few inches tall so that they will branch and give a lot of stems.
My Crews Top Picks:
Melissa- Firecracker
Baylee- QIS Pink
Nonah- Las Vegas Mix
Marigolds- These are the champions of fall. Such tough and hardy plants and there are so many new ones on the market these days. I grew to love marigolds again last year when we planted White Swan. Gorgeous butter yellow color and doesn’t have the strong smell of other varieties. Marigolds have a strong scent to their foliage and you either love it or hate it. These can be direct seeded very easily or transplanted- they work well either way and will sprout in a few days.
My Crews Top Picks:
Melissa, Baylee- Gem Series (specifically Lemon Star)
Nonah- White Swan
Zinnia: An easy to grow favorite! Zinnias really fill up a bouquet and the wide range of colors gives something for everyone! Start from direct seeding if your soil is sufficiently warm or transplants if you want to start the seeds early. Zinnias are another good one to succession plant. They tend to get fungus after a few weeks of blooming so good to plant multiple successions to have fresh blooms without brown spots.
My Crews Top Picks:
Melissa- Oklahoma Ivory and Benary Wine Red
Baylee- Ballerina
Nonah- Cherry Zydeco
Sophie- Queen Lime Red
So what are you going to grow with your dahlias this summer and fall. And most importantly— do you have enough dahlias?? The queens are important and there must be enough beauties to hold pride of place in your bouquet. If you need more- check out our dahlia tubers and cuttings!
