I'm so excited that we've finally entered into "cutting season" here in Virginia! It's always been my goal to have a garden that will provide me with constant blooms to bring inside from Spring to Fall, and because we built our home, I had the luxury (or back breaking chore - however you'd like to look at it!) of starting our flower beds from scratch with this goal in mind. -
Over the years, I haven't planted anything unless it has a purpose - and in the case of 95% of the plants in our yard, that purpose is to be cut!
Right now it's bulb and flowering tree season (I think that flowering tree branches are gorgeous in a vase!),
and a silly thing about me as a bulb gardener is: I tend to plant them in a very obvious pattern. SO, when you go to cut a few, the pattern is ruined! I know it's ridiculous (or OCD), but I had to go and plant and entire bulb "cutting garden" just so I could cut bulb flowers without reservation. It's just a long strip at the edge of the yard full of bulbs, and the whole idea is to CUT THEM ALL! I love it! Makes it so much more fun to bring in my daffodils. :-)
Speaking of which, this just came to mind: did you know that when you cut a daffodil it secretes a milky liquid that can harm (kill) other flowers if placed in a vase with them. If you really want to add daffodils to another arrangement, just cut and place them in water for about 6 hours by themselves - this will seal the ends and cut off the milk flow. Then you can use them along with other flowers with no danger threat.
Are any of the rest of you interested in growing flowers for cutting? If so, I'd be happy to post about great flowers for cutting that I've discovered over the years.
