5 Favorite Summer Cut Flowers

The Five Best Summer Cut Flowers

Summer flowers love the sun and attract lots of native pollinators. These five varieties are relatively easy to grow and will bring lots of color to your garden space!

1.       Sunflowers

Everyone’s favorite summertime flower. There are many different types and colors of sunflowers. The best way to pick what you want is to check out a seed catalog to see what would fit best in your garden. Some sunflowers can get to 12 feet tall! There are also dwarf varieties that stay just a few inches tall. The colors range from light yellow to dark red and everything in between. To plant sunflowers all you do is plant the seed ¼” deep in the soil and water in. They will pretty much do the rest. They grow very fast and some flower within 60 days. Because they grow so fast, they don’t really need to be weeded, they shade the weeds. My favorite sunflowers all come from the ProCut series.

2.       Zinnias

Zinnias come in almost every color imaginable and are considered “cut and come again” flowers. This means the harder you cut them, the harder they will grow back for you! Zinnias come in big and small, single, or double (petals). There is even a cactus variety that has a “spikey” look to it. The seed can be directly planted in the soil ¼” deep and watered in. You may have to weed around the seeds once or twice, but once zinnias establish, they will remain relatively weed free.

3.       Cosmos

These are the perfect fairytale looking bloom. They are whimsical and come in all the perfect shades of white, pink, and purple. Cosmos can be direct seeded but give them space between plants as they get big and branch out! These are also cut and come again flowers that will produce more blooms the more you cut them!

4.       Marigolds

I think Marigolds get a bad rap, as the bright orange flower. But they have incredible stem length and strength of stem. They bloom back when cut as well. They do have a strong scent, so be warned if you are sensitive to that. Direct sow into the soil ¼” deep and water in well.

5.       Amaranth

Amaranth is a large spike flower that comes in various shades of purple, green, and orange. It can get very tall and large but if you plant them closer together, it will keep the plants smaller and a little more manageable. Plant direct in the soil after your last frost date and water in!