Being a garden center as well as a florist, we have the unique ability to use our own grounds as a growing space for fresh-cut flowers. Growing and designing with flowers are different skill sets, so while our Plant Care Team incorporates cutting flowers into our display gardens, LeeAnn and the rest of the floral team can harvest and design with them.
Advantages:
Freshness! This is as fresh as a flower can come. Fresh-cut flowers are often shipped in from other countries. That means, while they are cooled and handled to last, they are never as fresh as they would be in their own country. By growing flowers on grounds, we can harvest them in the morning and get them right into your arrangement.
Sustainability! Here at Colonial Gardens, we are committed to making moves to become a more environmentally friendly business. While we can’t grow all of our flowers on grounds, even being able to grow a few seasonal gems cuts down on the resources going into our arrangements. Cut flowers are often cooled, flown into the country, and then driven to the florist, resulting in lots of carbon emissions. Instead of all of these steps, we can walk your flower from outside to inside our cooler, powered by our solar panels.
Experimentation! You can source just about any flower if you look hard enough and pay enough, but we are able to experiment with different varieties. We’ve been experimenting with display and trial gardens over the last few years, with one of the tests being vase life. Through experimentation, we’re able to find flowers that last a long time that aren’t traditionally grown for flower production.
Limitations:
Time. The timing of planting many of our cutting flowers coincides with the busiest time of year for the garden center. Without careful planning, we wouldn’t be able to both plant those cutting flowers and be able to care for our thousands of plants.
Deer. We struggle with both deer and rabbit pressure here at Colonial. Our woods are home to over a dozen deer who have no problem entering grounds and browsing on all manner of plants. While we have ample space to plant cutting flowers, the deer definitely limit our choices.
Growing season. We’re located in Phoenixville, PA in growing zone 7A. We experience fairly cold winters, so we are limited in when and what we can plant by virtue of the seasons. With that in mind, our home-harvested flowers are available according to the season during which they bloom.
Harvesting:
Harvesting typically happens in the morning. Our team looks for flowers that are not quite fully bloomed, which will give them a longer vase life.
What We Grow:
-
Zinnias: Choose a variety like “Cut and Come Again,” “State Fair,” or Benary’s Giants, which grow to a height that allows for multiple harvests of long stem flowers.
-
Gomphrena: A powerhouse in our display gardens, gomphrena grow strong into the fall. They are drought-tolerant, deer-tolerant, and rarely suffer from diseases that plague some other common flowers.
-
Celosia: This unique, flame-like flower adds an interesting texture, especially to fall arrangements.
-
Sunflowers: We’re experimenting with the Suncredible series of bush sunflowers from Proven Winners. While they have shorter stems and smaller flowers than other varieties, they produce flowers for a longer window.
-
Culver’s Root: This special native perennial is one of our florist’s favorites! It looks very similar to veronica, but with longer stems of many flower clusters.
-
Yarrow: Yarrow is a multi-use flower in our gardens! It’s an excellent, deer-resistant option that requires very little care, attracts pollinators, and makes a gorgeous cut flower. If you’re planting it in your garden, make sure that you select a variety with long stems.
-
Peonies: This highly sought-after cut flower is deer-resistant! If you plant it in a sunny spot, you’ll be rewarded with year after year of massive blooms.
-
Iris: Iris grow well in wet conditions, which abound here at Colonial. We have Siberian iris, Blue Flag, and Bearded Iris that grow on grounds. Probably our favorite is the Siberian iris, which have long stems and smaller flower heads that work well in many arrangements. The trick to harvesting Siberian iris is to cut them when the color is just showing, but before the flower emerges.
-
Tulips: Thousands of tulips greet us every spring in our front beds, where the deer are less likely to find them. Tulips are the classic spring selection and we’re lucky to have them in many colors.
-
Hellebore: Blooming before just about everything else, hellebore have a unique nodding flower that appears in late winter.
-
Daffodils: This spring favorite is deer-resistant, which means we can grow it in lots more places than we can grow tulips.
-
Flossflower: Tall varieties of flossflower can add extra texture to your arrangements with colors in the blue and white spectrum. They are also a great addition to pollinator gardens, with bees and butterflies adoring the fuzzy flowers.
Other Options We’re Exploring:
-
Ferns, Solomon’s Seal, Sweet Pea, Rudbeckia, Statice
Every year we look to expand our flower selection and experiment with new varieties and growing techniques. We expect to continue to grow in our knowledge and selection as the years roll on. Thanks for supporting your local florist!
