How to Create Your Own Cut Flower Collection

Begin constructing your cutting garden plant palette with colors that inspire you. Maybe it was your wedding bouquet, your favorite dress or that vacation you took to Sedona last fall. Maybe it was a painting you saw at your favorite gallery or the heirloom quilt that has been in your family for generations. Whatever it is, start there.

Personally, I’m inspired by all things tropical. Wildly vibrant blooms in every color under the sun, magnificent sunsets, bold feathered birds, fresh ripe fruits and of course the sounds of the ocean waves crashing on the beach. You could even build a vision board to keep yourself organized and on track. Here’s how our Tropical Sunset Collection started:

You will want to pick flowers that are easy to grow, or at least start with these varieties. For our curated collections I only select from this list of flowers because they are easy to grow AND they are cut and come again all summer long:

• Ageratum
• Amaranth
• Celosia
• Cosmo
• Gomphrena
• Marigold
• Rudbeckia
• Snapdragon
• Statice
• Strawflower
• Zinnia 

For our 2024 Tropical Sunset collection I have included all the flowers in the list above.

Next you’ll want to determine a selection of flowers by each flower type: focal, filler, disk, spike and air. If you need a refresher on these types, click here. You want to make sure you have enough filler to support your focal flowers like zinnias.

My rule of thumb is to aim for 65-75% filler/disk/spike/air and 25-35% focals. I’ve outlined each flower by type in the list below. You may notice many of these flowers fulfill two or more types, it’s not exact science and it’s subjective!

• Ageratum (filler/air)
• Amaranth (filler/spike)
• Celosia (filler/air)
• Cosmo (filler/disk/air)
• Gomphrena (filler/disk)
• Marigold (disk)
• Rudbeckia (focal/disk)
• Snapdragon (spike)
• Statice (filler)
• Strawflower (disk)
• Zinnia (focal)

Next you want to choose the specific flowers with the colors that match your inspiration. For the Tropical Sunset Collection we hand selected varieties so every bouquet you make is as magnificent as any sunset you can imagine.

Check out Tropical Sunset Collection by clicking here.

Again, this is a great jumping off point and you can easily add other flowers that are easy to grow, but might only be a single cut like many single stem sunflowers. You could even extend your growing season with a collection of early season hardy annuals.