These days, many of us have started a vegetable garden, or as I call it, a pandemic garden! I’d like to encourage you to also leave some space for several cheery flower combinations. It’s awesome to have fresh veggies, but our souls need nourishment too! A colorful array of flowers from your garden can bring more beauty to our lives and who doesn’t want that? I suggest starting with this list of the best perennial cut flowers!
What to Know About Perennial Cut Flowers
Plant one or all of these seven flowers now for blooms that will last spring and summer and even into the fall. Some flowers may be familiar and others, maybe not, but given their ease to grow and lasting blooms, it might just be time to try something a little different. Right? Another benefit—these flowers will attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds for your viewing pleasure.
Best Perennial Cut Flowers:
Peonies
I absolutely adore peonies. I’ve written about caring for peonies several times here. They are a gorgeous perennial cut flower and honestly, number one on my list of the best perennial cut flowers!
Here is a great post about peonies:
A Complete Guide to Growing and Harvesting Peonies
Yarrow Perennial Flower
Yarrow is a very easy to care for perennial cut flower that is native to North America. You can learn more about how to grow and care for Yarrow here!
Scabiosa Perennial Flower
These button top like perennial cut flowers are beautiful in color and bloom throughout summer and fall. Learn how to care for and grow Scabiosa perennials here!
Narcissus Perennial Flower
This daffodil lookalike perennial cut flower is one that blooms during the springtime and is oh so lovely. Lean how to grow and care for Narcissus flowers here!
Larkspur Perennial Flower
These bold colored perennial flowers are the birth flower of July and bloom during spring. For more on how to care for and grow Larkspur, check out this post.
Salvia Perennial Flower
Salvia will always be a part of my garden! It only needs a severe pruning twice a year (after all its stunning purple flowers are spent), requires little water, and provides hummingbirds with nectar for months. I often cut the flowers to use in flower arrangements for a pop of tall color.
Did I mention they practically grow by themselves? My recommendation is the Mexican Bush Sage. Deep purple, soft, velvety flowers blanket the bush, creating a wall of color. There’s also a pineapple sage with smaller, red flowers, and yes, it does have a pineapple fragrance!
To learn how to grow and care for Salvia, check out this post!
Veronica Perennial Flower
Stately Veronica signifies fidelity and love so it’s a fitting addition to a wedding bouquet! This perennial can grow up to 4 feet so would be perfect if you are layering your cutting garden. Its striking tall spikes of purple, pinks, and whites are a serious hummingbird and butterfly attractor.
Veronica is dramatic as an ornamental, is drought resistant, and blooms spring to fall reaching upward to 4 feet tall. Take a look at Magic Show Purple Illusion—16-18“ high with deep lavender flower wands.
Check out this post on how to grow and care for Veronica perennial cut flowers.
Bee Balm Perennial Flower
Bee balm showcases clusters of tubular flowers beloved by bees, hummers and butterflies and a great pollinator. It can be used as a background plant growing from 2-4 feet high. Choose between bright red to pinks and lavenders. A member of the mint family, it is aromatic and has medicinal uses.
I love Monarda Jacob Cline, producing frilly, scarlet blooms. The leaves can be used to make teas.
Learn more about how to care for and grow Bee Balm perennial cut flowers here!
Coneflower, or Echinacea Perennial Flower
Rugged and hardy, Echinacea purpurea is virtually indestructible and favored overall. The petals push downward, showing off their orange tiny spiked centers. Another
self-seeder and drought tolerant. Cut it back in late winter.
Hummers, bees, butterflies, and songbirds are all groupies!
Cheyenne Spirit is another favorite mixing the colors up a bit.
Check out this post to learn how to care for and grow Coneflower perennial cut flowers!
Tips for Caring for the Best Perennial Cut Flowers
All these flowers will need at least six hours of sunshine and well-draining soil. Check plants for powdery mildew in damp weather.
Remember to dead head spent blooms to encourage more flowers.
What are your favs? The options are endless, and you just might fall in love with flower growing like I have! Start now with this list of the best perennial cut flowers for years of blooms to come!
[…] The secret to an ongoing array of transitioning flowers is to plan ahead. In spring, I’m planting fall perennials so when the sky clouds over, the richly colored gold and orange heleniums and goldenrod serve as […]