Cut flowers can be an elegant and aesthetic addition to your home and it’s easy to create a unique flower arrangement right from your garden.

• Pick your flowers in the morning using a sharp bypass hand pruner after the dew has dried off the petals; this will keep them looking fresh and help them to last longer.
• Have a pail of tepid water close by. Immerse the stems immediately. Peonies often harbour ants while dahlias are more likely to be home to earwigs. Leave them in the pail of water in a shaded outdoor location for a day.
• Once inside, recut the stems on an angle under running water and remove all the lower leaves that reside below the waterline.
• Mixing a floral preservative into room temperature water will prevent you from having to change the water every day.
• Keep an eye on the water level and top up as necessary.

• Grown every year from seed or started plants.
• Annual cornflower, sweet peas, love-in-a-mist (Nigella), cosmos, delphinium, and Bells of Ireland are best planted from seed directly into well-drained soil, enriched with peat moss, manure, or compost, and placed in an area that receives a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight per day.
• Annuals such as pansies, salvia, calendula, snapdragons, and zinnias will bloom sooner than seed growing plants, so you will be able to start picking in early summer.
   

• Lily-of-the-valley, Asiatic lilies (Stargazer and Casa Blanca), lavender, and herbaceous peonies all have a delightful fragrance.
• Liatris, veronica, and perennial salvia add a wonderful contrast to daisy-like flowers such as blanket flower, shasta daisy, purple coneflower, and black-eyed Susan.
• Perennials such as bearded iris, monkshood, lupines, delphiniums, Asiatic lilies, and summer phlox offer a commanding presence to any arrangement due to their sheer size.
• Scabiosa, columbine, and astilbe all have unique flower shapes and colours that will draw attention to arrangements.
• Asters and chrysanthemums are proven favourites in fall arrangements.
• Yarrow and baby’s breath are two of the longest lasting fresh cut flowers.
   

• Darwin, single late, and lily-flowering tulips all make alluring cut flowers.
• For a touch of the exotic, add parrot tulips to evoke a reaction.
• Daffodils secrete a poison when cut, which affects other flowers, so they will need to stand in water for a day on their own before being transferred to an arrangement.
• Narcissus, Acidanthera, Star of Bethlehem, and hyacinths are wonderfully fragrant and will add a powerful aroma to any room.
• Spring-flowering bulbs must be planted in the fall. Mark your calendar to take advantage of the best selections in September.
• Freesias are cherished for their scent and graceful, arching blooms.
• Gladiolus is the star of the August garden and is usually grown specifically for cutting.

• Roses can be displayed individually, in a bouquet, or combined with perennials.
• Hydrangeas make an amazing cut flower with their large and showy blooms.
• Include attractive foliage in your flower arrangements like artemisia, hosta, globe thistle, sea holly, and lady’s mantle.
• Evergreen English ivy and annual licorice vine drape softly over the edge of a decorative container.
• Annual scented geranium is upright in habit and its leaves come in many fascinating shapes.