Sarah Raven spoke to me on “Don’t pick and plumk” with her reminder not to cheat us out of the moment of joy that a home-grown cut flower can provide by sticking it in the vase without conscious aftercare.
Thanks to A Year of Cut Flowers, the 14th and latest book by the acclaimed British gardener, horticulturist and podcaster, I will never again carelessly cut a stem crosswise. If cut incorrectly, there is a risk that the bottom of the vase will seal instead of remaining open to absorb water.
I also won’t carelessly cut the stem back much deeper than is necessary for the intended vase, because what is wasted could contain buds that could represent another potential bloom. Don’t waste.
Growing cut flowers, Ms. Raven writes, has been her “biggest gardening obsession” for more than 30 years, a pursuit she describes as “gardening for the optimist and the greedy flower lover.”
Adding to this enthusiasm is the disciplined wisdom she has gleaned from the notes she has collected during years of methodical experimentation with thousands of varieties in the sprawling, organically farmed gardens of Perch Hill, her home in East Sussex, England.
Her analysis has determined, for example, which roses are the best choice for the cutting garden, but they have also helped her find other necessary solutions—like how to control disfiguring fungal diseases like powdery mildew and black spot without chemicals. Underplanting roses with Salvia microphylla hybrids has proven effective, probably thanks to the compounds released by the sage leaves.
This combination of pure joy and hard facts is a powerful combination, a formula so compelling on every level that it will make any gardener want to make room for a garden to prune.
Which flowers make the cut?
Success begins with selecting plants that can produce top performance. These potential rebloomers are those that form embryonic buds in the axil where the leaf meets the stem.
About 70 percent of her cutting garden space is devoted to such candidates, most of them annuals, biennials or dahlias, since perennials are generally less likely to provide quick repeat crops, she said. (Of course, there’s also room reserved for must-haves like tulips, daffodils, and other bulbs, even if they tend to only bloom for one round.)
Even among the top 70 percent of artists, “there are superlatives and OK,” she said. “And if you have a small property, a balcony or a flower box, you want the superlatives.”
Ammi majus, for example, reblooms but does not recover between cuttings as quickly as Cosmos. Other top producers include annual clary sage (Salvia viridis), annual scabiosa (S. atropurpurea), sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus), amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus), zinnias and dahlias.
With many plants that are “so generous in their behavior,” she said, the gardener still needs to encourage a stocky plant from the start by pinching out the top set of leaves once three pairs of true leaves have formed at the bottom. Sage, sweet pea, cosmos, dahlias, marigold and zinnia respond generously.
When we begin cutting later, we must also do so strategically – usually over a pair of leaves so that the axillary buds remain intact to spur the next round of flowering.
Ms. Raven recommends harvesting in two buckets in the morning (or last thing in the evening). Cut the stems at an angle, remove the leaves from the bottom two-thirds, throw them into the additional bucket and place the cut flowers in the one filled with water.
Then, in late winter and spring, perhaps three-quarters of the picked fruit is sautéed, another treatment to extend vase life. In summer this value drops to around a quarter. The bottom 10 percent of each stem is dipped into a cup of boiling water fresh from the kettle – soft stems for a few seconds, woody ones like roses or lilacs perhaps for 30 seconds. Notable exceptions include tulips, daffodils, and other scallions, which are not sautéed; later this does not apply to sweet peas and dahlias either.
Ms. Raven suggests letting the flowers sit in lukewarm water in a cool place out of direct sunlight for at least a few hours, or better yet overnight, before arranging them. When it’s time to arrange everything, she adds some clear distilled vinegar or bleach to the vase water to slow the proliferation of bacteria that could accelerate decay. In a 12-inch vase, she might add half a teaspoon of bleach or five tablespoons of vinegar.
One benefit of using bleach: It also neutralizes the “signature pong,” she said, that can offend some noses when bouquets contain allium, cleome or cabbage. And yes, the vegetable garden is a good match for red-leaved mizuna or kale, or other landscaping elements such as dill and other herbs, runner beans or sweet peas with purple pods, or sprigs of the smallest cherry tomatoes.
The simplest of all arrangements
Regardless of her expertise, Ms. Raven resists pressure to become a master arranger. In fact, she tends to like simpler ways to bring parts of the outside world into her own home. One option: as individual stems or small bundles of treats, each tucked into a row of small containers along a mantel or grouped on a pewter tray on a table.
“A galaxy of mini bottles,” she calls it.
When an occasion calls for more formality, anyone who has spent a stroll through the garden worrying about what goes with what will be grateful for Ms. Raven’s charming imagination when it comes to pulling off happy floral weddings.
The palette, she writes, typically includes three types of flowers (with foliage elements coming later). Identify a bride (“the star of the show” and “the first thing people choose”) and a bridesmaid (“smaller and slightly less ostentatious,” in the same color or very similar, “who supports the bride but doesn’t compete with her”). Finally, choose a gate-crasher to liven up the mix (a flower with a contrasting color, “like adding a squeeze of lemon to smoked salmon”).
Or free yourself from design worries entirely—and from using unsustainable, petroleum-based floral foam—by constructing clever, homemade trellises that sit on trays or deep bowls and support the flower heads. The grid keeps the flowers out of the water, ensuring they last longer than if they were floating in the bowl.
To form a trellis, cut branches, ideally hazelnut, dogwood or willow, so that they are about an inch wider than the container on each side and lay them out like a tic-tac-toe board. Connect each intersection by tying square knots in stretchy garden twine (we recommend the Flexi-Tie brand). To do this, first tie each knot loosely and then double it to tighten them all.
The trellises are reusable so, like the carefully selected flowers, they are always within reach when you cut them again and again.
So take a look at what’s blooming outside, scissors and bucket in hand. Why wait until it’s time to deadhead the plant when you can preemptively do “live deadheading” (Ms. Raven’s word), enjoying the gift of cut flowers while simultaneously alerting the plant to consider starting another round?