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Native Cut Flowers for the Mid-Atlantic

Thrillers, fillers and spillers. So many to choose from….

flower arrangement blue wall
flower arrangement with honey locust, trumpet honeysuckle, eastern columbine, bronze wave heuchera , Ozark witch hazel

A few years back, I asked Drew Asbury, then responsible for the iconic cutting garden at Hillwood Estate, Museum and Garden in Washington D.C. and behind the addition of many native plantings there, and now with Brookside Gardens and his own design firm Drew Asbury Garden Design, what he thought of a native plant cutting garden. He had some great advice. While a number of native perennials make great cut flowers, he said he would find it hard to imagine giving up classic cut flowers like dahlias and zinnias. I never did plant a cutting garden, instead using my very small, flat sunny patch to dabble with vegetables and a few dahlias, with extremely mixed results!

 

Fast forward to last spring. I came across a suggestion by Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm in the Northwest's Skagit Valley. She famously started selling cut flowers from her backyard garden years ago and today runs a multi acre acre flower farm and is a prolific author, teacher and influencer around cut flowers.  In an effort to reignite her original joy with cut flowers, she tried a weekly practice of making a flower arrangement for herself, once a week, at roughly the same time, as a sort of meditative practice. She advised it could be done with anything – writing, a photograph, sketching … really anything you like to do but tends to get lost in the bustle of the week. She found the repetition and commitment of the weekly practice, though taking only 20 minutes or so, helped anchor her week. I was intrigued and decided to try it with native grown flowers from my small garden. What a joy it was! To keep myself disciplined, I posted each week’s arrangement on Instagram, figuring if I told people I was doing it, I’d be less likely to skip it.

 

There were a few late postings but the weekly practice itself became something I really looked forward to. Just as Erin said, it didn’t take much time yet became an important positive addition to my week. Some arrangements barely lasted a day and others close to two weeks. I thought I’d share what I learned about natives as cut flowers for each season with you here!

 

Native Cut Flowers For Spring


Longest Lasting Flowers & Berries

Dogwood tree (Benthamidia Florida, formerly Cornus Florida)

Golden alexanders (Zizia aurea)

 

Most Dramatic Flowers

Carolina Allspice (Calycanthus floridus)

Eastern columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempivirens)

Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)

 

Native Cut Flowers For Summer


Longest Lasting Flowers & Berries

Blue hyssop (Agastache)

Blue indigo (Baptisia australis)

Coneflowers (Echinacea)

Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)

Wild Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens)

 

Most Dramatic Flowers

Passion flower (Passiflora incarnata)

 

Native Cut Flowers For Fall


Longest Lasting Flowers & Berries

Bluebird Smooth Aster (Symphiotrichum laeve var. 'Bluebird')

 

Most Dramatic Flowers

Amsonia (Amsonia)

Beautyberry (Callicarpa Americana)

Common Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)

Passion flower (Passiflora incarnata)

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)

 

 

Best Native Foliage, Fillers & Greens

flower arrangement blue wall
flower arrangement with oakleaf hydrangea, hydrangea ‘Annabelle,’ goldenrod and bluemist flowers

As a novice arranger, at first, I was very focused on color and which flowers I would cut. It quickly became clear the best results were the arrangements that were the most full and abundant. This is where fillers come in. Plants that add weight yet don’t steal the show. They bulk up the arrangement but don’t draw attention. There are lots of these growing in our native gardens. These are the plants I turned to most often and all were long lived once cut.

 

American arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis)

American holly (Ilex opaca)

Amsonia (Amsonia)

Inkberry (Ilex glabra)

Mountain mint (Pycanthemum muticum)

Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandifolia)

Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana)

 

Best Native Plant Spillers

Basics of container planting and flower arranging always seem to include the advice to include a thriller (tall or spiky plant), a filler and a spiller. Spillers usually trail over the edge of a container or vase to soften the edges and move your eye. These spillers are available most of the growing season.

 

Virginia creeper


flower arrangement in front of blue wall
oakleaf hydrangea, coneflowers and Virginia creeper

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quiquefolia) was available all season long and adds a very casual yet artistic flair to an arrangement or a bucket filled with flowers. Just drape a piece over the edge. In the fal, you can drape bare pieces with just berries to great effect. One tip, while newly emerged foliage in the spring is beautiful with pea green and deep orange shades, the foliage did not last half a day. It did not seem to be able to absorb water. Slightly more mature foliage was very long lasting.

 

Passion flower


flower arrangement in front of blue wall
Sprays of beautyberry, coralberry "Proud berry,' obedient plant, boneset and passionflower fruits

The most dramatic spiller or trailer was passion flower (Passiflora incarnata), also sometimes called maypop. The flowers and later the fruit add unparalleled bling to your creations. Both also proved to be long lasting once cut. Please note the flowers do close in darkness and reopen the following day. I say the flowers are long lasting because even as they begin to fade, they still add beauty.

 

Take Aways

This experience is anecdotal: just one growing season and we know every growing season is different! I cut the flowers early in the day before the temps rose and immediately plunged cutttings into cool water. I used no special treatments like searing cut ends or other flower conditioning methods.

 

My biggest aha moment was the importance of massing. Arrangements where the mass of plants was twice the size of the vase definitely looked better. You can step back from the arrangement and see if the area taken up by the flowers is at least twice the size of the area taken up by the vase. If so, you should be in good shape. This is where those filler plants really make a difference. When I look back at these now, I loved them all but some are most definitely sparser than others – lol!

 

If you have other plants you like to cut for arrangements or display or different experiences or tips to share about the plants included here, please do add below. 

 

I hope this inspires you to look at your garden as bounty for a fresh bucket of water or two this growing season. As for a cutting garden, this practice showed me a separate garden for cutting is not necessarily needed to have fresh flowers all season long. The native perennials, shrubs and trees in this 1/8 acre garden provided way more cut plant material than I needed, though I am not opposed to a cutting garden.  Those dahlias and zinnias have to go somewhere!

 

Happy Gardening.

We want you to be as excited about planting Chesapeake natives as we are. “Plant This or That” gives you a native alternative to popular plants. Other posts highlight really fabulous fauna native to the Chesapeake.

Nuts for Natives, avid gardener, Baltimore City admirer, Chesapeake Bay Watershed restoration enthusiast, and public service fan.

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