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How to start a cutting garden | Gardening with Gutner

Learn which flowers are best for a cutting garden and how to correctly cut them.

YORK, Maine — Having cut flowers in your home is a luxury that many gardeners enjoy, including Elizabeth Brown, owner of Foxglove Farmhouse, a small private farm where Brown grows and sells bouquets to floral CSAs and florists. Brown is also a resident gardener at the luxury resort Cliff House in Cape Neddick, Maine, where she cultivates beautiful blooms for guests to enjoy. 

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Cliff House, Cape Neddick, Maine

"We also grow lavender and mint. All sorts of things that are used in the cocktails at the resort and the spa," Brown said. 

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Lavender to be used in the spa at Cliff House

At her flower farm, the gardener revealed how she started Foxglove Farmhouse as she stood amongst her Cosmos. 

"This was my pandemic project. Some people learned to bake bread, but I got really into flowers," Brown divulged. "So I learned about what's called the Growing Kindness Project, which was a way to learn to grow your own cut flowers and give them to people in the community. So my family and I grew close to 100 Dahlias and gave them to teachers and healthcare workers."

It was from that positive experience that Elizabeth became addicted to flowers and decided to triple her growing space and create her business. 

Credit: NCM
Foxglove Farmhouse, York, Maine

As well as growing flowers, Brown teaches people how to make their own cut flower garden. 

"The number one thing I always tell people, though, is think about the bouquet you want to see in your hand in high season," Brown instructed. "A lot of times we think of a, you know, big flashy like this, a dahlia but you want to make sure to fill out your bouquet with little secondary flowers like these little Zinnias, Cosmos."

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Think of secondary flowers for your bouquet

The flower gardener said she has been experimenting with native blooms such as wild bee balm and aromatic mountain mint. Adding those creates a bouquet that appeals to all the senses. 

She recommends starting with just five flowers in your first year to get a handle on what you're growing and learn how they function in your yard and in a vase. 

Cosmos are a favorite of Brown's. 

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Cosmos

"They really speak to the home garden. Cosmos do not travel well. So when you find Cosmos at a farmers' market, you can be always certain that they're hyper-local and probably have been harvested that very morning," the flower fanatic stated. 

Brown recommends succession planting to have blooms all season. She planted her second crop of Cosmos six weeks after the first. 

"That way when these flowers tire after all the summer heat, those flowers are ready to take their place, so we have blooms through the last frost," Brown noted. 

Cutting correctly is very important in the growing of cut flowers. 

"People have the hardest time cutting their flowers," Brown joked. "Usually, you have to cut them much deeper to encourage new growth."

The flower expert measures from her fingertips to her elbow to get the right length of stem and cuts just above the leaves. She likes to make sure there are open blooms as well as some that are just about to burst open. She referred to it as "the crackin' bud stage."

Credit: NCM
Use your fingertips to your elbow as a length of reference to cut.

To learn more about cut flowers, Brown has instructional videos on her Instagram page @foxglovefarmhouse and on her website.

To watch all the Gardening with Gutner segments click HERE

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