Bringing flowers in from your garden to a vase in your home is a great pleasure, a little luxury. Here is a list by bloom time from early spring through fall, of some of the longest-lasting and easiest to grow. I’ll start with the perennials, which includes bulbs. I won’t even try to list varieties, it seems like new ones are coming out all the time. One small problem with that is that flowers with nice long stems are easiest to work with in arrangements, but much of the new breeding is for compact, short, bushy plants that look good in containers, not tall stately plants with long stems. Be sure to read the plant tags for the size you want when purchasing new plants with cutting in mind.
Early Spring through Mid-Spring This season has a pretty short list
Daffodils, Tulips, Hyacinths
Bergenia
Camellia (OK, they’re shrubs, but I can’t leave them out)
Heuchera – Coral Bells
Doronicum – Leopard’s Bane (Weird common name. Did a Doronicum ever actually kill a leopard? )
Later Spring through Early Summer
Iris
Peony
Dianthus – Sweet William, Carnations, Pinks
Digitalis – Foxglove
Campanula – Bellflowers. Many species, all good cuts
Delphinium (Magnificent!)
Daisy – Shasta and Painted
Scabiosa – Pincushion Flower
Achillea – Yarrow
Baby’s Breath – Gypsophila
Mid- Summer through Autumn
Agapanthus – Lily of the Nile
Alstroemeria – Butterfly Lily, Peruvian Lily
Lilies of all kinds
Dahlia
Gladiolus
Coneflowers
Chrysanthemums
Asters
Delphiniums on their second flush of blooms
Asters
Japanese Anemones
Annuals – all one long bloom season from planting time until frost
Celosia
Cleome
Cosmos
Daisies – Gerbera, Marguerite, etc
Geranium – stems are short, but flowers really last well
Nicotiana
Petunia – semi-trailing stems can be hard to work with, but long-lasting and fragrant
Blue Salvia – Salvia farinacea, like Evolution Violet. Many other Salvias fall apart fast.
Snapdragons – wonderful, fragrant. Some kinds are really tall, straight perfect stems.
Statice – they dry well, too
Sunflower
Zinnia, zinnia,zinnia! Perfect!
The trick is to not strip your garden of color as you pick for indoors. The obvious answer is to grow lots of flowers. Dig up more lawn and plant more flowers. You will also be helping bees, birds and butterflies by doing so. And your local flower grower,who will thank you from the bottom of her flower-loving heart.
Ellen