Caring for Your Flowers: Growing, Supporting, and Preserving
There’s something incredibly rewarding about growing your own flowers, whether for a cutting garden, a flower farm, or simply to brighten up your space. To get the best from your blooms, it’s important to provide them with the right nutrients, support, and care throughout the growing season. In this guide, we’ll cover essential tips on feeding your plants, direct sowing, supporting flowers, saving seeds, drying blooms, and conditioning cut flowers for longer vase life.
Feeding Your Plants
If you’ve added compost to your soil before planting, your flowers will have a good foundation of nutrients and won’t need additional feeding for a while. For annual flowers, consider feeding them with a liquid flower or tomato feed later in the season when they are in full bloom, this can give them a boost and prolongue the flowering season. Dilute the feed as instructed on the packaging and apply to the root area using a watering can.
In addition to soil feeding, foliar feeding can provide a quick nutrient boost by allowing plants to absorb nutrients directly through their leaves. The same diluted liquid feed, can be sprayed onto the foliage every couple of weeks during the growing season, particularly if plants show signs of deficiency or stress. Foliar feeding should be used as a supplement rather than a replacement for soil feeding as the roots are always the primary source of nutrition uptake. It is best done early in the morning or late in the evening to prevent evaporation and avoid burning the leaves.
For perennials, an annual mulch of compost around the base of the plants in early spring helps replenish lost nutrients and keeps them healthy for the season ahead.
Direct Sowing
Direct sowing means planting seeds directly in the ground where they will grow, rather than starting them in pots or trays. We direct sow certain flower varieties in early summer, including Cornflowers, Nigella, Cosmos, and Zinnias. While we also sow these varieties in the greenhouse during spring, by late spring or early summer, the soil is warm enough to sow another crop outdoors. Direct sowing when the soil temperatures are warm enough and the risk of frost has passed is a quicker, less labour intensive way to sow seeds.
If you have a spare patch of soil, prepare it by adding compost and raking it over to create a fine seedbed. Sprinkle your seeds evenly across the surface, cover them with a light layer of compost, gently water them in, use the finest setting on your hose or a watering can to avoid displacing the seeds. You should see germination within a couple of weeks, if the seedlings are too close together as they grow you should thin them out, remove the weakest looking leaving room for the healthy, strong ones to grow on.
A note on pests and direct sowing - keep an eye out for birds, mice and squirrels who will enjoy eating your freshly sown seeds and seedlings. If pests are a problem in your garden you may prefer to sow in seed trays so you can protect your seeds and seedlings until they are large enough to be planted out.
Supporting Your Flowers
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned while growing flowers is that they need more support than you might think. Our farm is in an exposed position, meaning wind can be a challenge, but even in more sheltered spots, having proper support helps keep flowers upright and looking their best throughout the season.
For most varieties, we use a combination of bamboo canes and natural jute twine, creating a loose grid that allows plants to grow while providing necessary support. It’s best to set up support structures before plants need them, as installing them later when plants are tall and leaning can be difficult.
For climbing plants like Sweet Peas, we use a sturdy 6ft wooden frame covered in chicken wire, which lasts for years and provides excellent vertical support.
Saving Your Seeds for Next Year
Saving seeds from your healthiest plants is a great way to continue growing beautiful flowers year after year. Allow some flowers to go to seed rather than cutting them, and harvest the seed heads when they are fully mature, usually in late summer or early autumn.
Cut them on a dry day to ensure they are free from moisture. Tip the seeds onto kitchen paper and allow them to dry completely before storing them in labelled envelopes. Keep seeds in a cool, dark, dry place—an airtight tin in a cool room or even the fridge is ideal.
Drying Your Flowers
We dry many flowers at Birch Farm to use in wreaths and arrangements. Great varieties for drying include Poppy heads, Nigella seed heads, Statice, Helichrysum, Larkspur, Amaranthus, and various grasses.
To dry flowers, cut them at their peak, hang them upside down in a dry, dark, well-ventilated area, and ensure they have plenty of space to prevent mould. Once dried, store them wrapped in tissue paper inside a cardboard box to keep them protected until you’re ready to use them.
Cutting and Conditioning Your Flowers
To maximize vase life, cut your flowers in the morning when the stems are fully hydrated. Use clean, sharp scissors or secateurs, and place the stems immediately into a bucket of cool, fresh water. Choose flowers that are just starting to open rather than fully mature blooms
Conditioning is the process of preparing cut flowers to ensure they last as long as possible. Strip off any leaves that will sit below the waterline to prevent rotting, and re-cut the stems at an angle to aid water absorption.
Wash vases thoroughly with hot water and a little vinegar or baking soda to remove bacteria
Recut stems at an angle while submerged to prevent air bubbles blocking water uptake
Place the flowers in fresh water in a clean vase and keep them away from direct sunlight, heat sources, and fruit, as the ethylene gas from ripening fruit can shorten their lifespan. Change the water every two to three days, recut stems to aide water uptake and remove any fading blooms to keep the arrangement looking fresh.
Final Thoughts
With the right care, flowers will reward you with beauty and abundance throughout the season. Whether you’re growing for cutting, drying, or simply to enjoy in the garden, taking the time to feed, support, and properly condition your flowers will ensure you get the best from them. Happy growing!
For more tips on starting your cut flower garden from seed, check out our other blogs on seed sowing, potting on, and planting out.
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