Create a Cutting Garden

To pick or not to pick? That's the dilemma facing every gardener who's ever marched out to the garden, scissors and bucket in hand, to pilfer flowers for a fresh arrangement.

I made many such forays myself. As often as not, I returned to the house with a few paltry blooms, unable--unwilling--to commit the felonious act. I solved the problem by building a cutting garden. I now "pinch" my blooms there and bring bucketsful of colorful flowers indoors without raiding the border.

Actually, "garden" is an exaggeration for my cut-flower bed. Just three feet by 15, and slightly raised for good drainage, the space is utilitarian and not especially attractive. It doesn't have to be. My goal is to cram the bed full to overflowing with rows of cut-and-come-again bloomers. Frequent harvesting keeps plants mostly green.

Siting the bed was done deliberately, however. Squeezed between a row of tomatoes and another of berry bushes, the cutting garden had to get full sun. Its long, narrow shape assures easy access to the stems in the back; a wide path on one side provides a convenient place to rest a bucket of water.

The hard-working soil in the cut flower bed is among the best in the whole garden. For what I ask of it--a consistent supply of quality, long-stemmed beauties--nothing less would do. Homemade compost enriches the soil each spring while frequent applications of soluble fertilizer each summer supplement the plants' nutritional needs.

I disagree with horticulturists who believe cutting gardens should be planted exclusively with annuals. It should contain the flowers you'd most like to have indoors, in colors that bring the most pleasure.

That could mean an entire block of pure white Casablanca lilies. Or rows of neatly staked gladiolus. (Hint: plant the bulbs at two-week intervals in spring for a succession of summer blooms.)

Likely, your cutting will be like mine: a hodge-podge of annuals, perennials and bulbs in different combinations and quantities each season. Among the best annuals to include are sunflowers (the tall cream-colored "Vanilla Ice" and "Valentine" are my favorites), dahlias, snapdragons, zinnias, cosmos, lisianthus, nicotiana and Chinese asters.

If you prefer the "hot" colors instead--red, yellow, orange--then Mexican sunflower (Tithonia), celosia, red salvia and globe amaranth are better choices.

Most flower arrangements benefit from a little filler material. No matter what the color scheme, the blue and lavender blossoms of Victoria salvia, Verbena bonariensis, love-in-a-mist (Nigella), bachelor's buttons and larkspur will graciously mingle.

For foliage effect, try baby's breath, kochia, dusty miller and the lively variegated leaves of snow-on-the-mountain. If you intend to dry the blooms for use in wreaths and craft projects, reserve a corner of the garden for strawflowers, statice and pearly everlastings.

Perennial selections are wide open. What's wrong with buying a market-pack of delphinium seedlings and growing them only for cut flowers? Delphinium spikes are just too precious to snitch from the border, but there'll be no such reservations if they're growing in a cutting garden. Lupines and foxgloves could be treated in similar fashion.

Many "everyday" perennials make excellent cut flowers: peonies, brown-eyed Susans, phlox, veronica, coneflower, globe thistle, yarrow and red-hot-poker are a few.

Shasta daisy is a universal favorite, and plants will often rebloom after the first crop of flowers is harvested. Delicate sprigs of lavender make nice "teacup" arrangements, combined with the feathery foliage of silver artemisia. And who can resist the old-fashioned charm of sweet William? Poke in a few chrysanthemum cuttings to insure autumnal tones.

Bulbs have a lot to offer cut flower gardeners because they don't take up much space. Squeeze a big handful of tall Darwin tulips into a short row right next to a few giant alliums. There's no need to leave plants room to breathe. If space permits, include an extravagant calla lily or two.

By their very nature, cutting gardens are high maintenance plots. Long-stemmed beauties like delphiniums, "Rocket" snapdragons and gladiolus spikes have to be staked. Instead of supporting individual blooms, construct a grid of wire or string to save time. The "mechanics" don't have to be pretty.

Make plans for a succession of bloom. Dig out bulbs as soon as the flowers are harvested. Pull cool season annuals even before they're spent to make way for a main season crop. And be sure to cut frequently, for it encourages the flowers to keep on coming.

(Lindsay Bond Totten, a horticulturist, writes about gardening for Scripps Howard News Service.)