With my first season of starting cool flowers indoors and planting them in the ground in the books, I discovered my favorite way to plant cool flowers with mulch.
Although it is similar to how I’ve planted my summer cut flowers with spacing, fertilizer, and design, the weed preventive strategies are different. For the most part, I rave about using landscape fabric for cut flowers. With perennials and flowers I hope can reseed, I need to use a mulch instead. The black plastic in the landscape fabric would not allow the seeds to reseed, and it makes me wonder if the perennials would have an easy time coming back for the following season.
When to Plant Cool Flowers
Before I started my seed starting this season, I ended up realizing I should plan to plant out 8 weeks before my average last frost. My average last frost is May 15, so 8 weeks before is the first week of April.
Cool flowers can handle frosts, even down to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. With this being my first year, I took caution. I planted one bed 4’ x 28’ and just kept to that amount until those very low temperatures passed. All those flowers survived.
It ended up that I didn’t plant majority of the cool flowers until near the end of second week of April, closer to six weeks before the last average frost.
What I learned was I loved the larger size of the cool flowers, having extra days to grow, becoming a perfect size. Too small is seedlings that would be put in the soil and you couldn’t see it from far away, or even close up. Those would need more time in the greenhouse or under grow lights.
It was best to start them two weeks earlier, planning to plant out for early April, and then waiting until mid-April. So, if the seed packet says to start them 6 weeks before planting out, start them 8 weeks before planting out. Then plant about 4 weeks before the average last frost, which is about a month.
Best Weather for Planting?
I prefer to plant on sunny days, the day or hours before a predicted rain fall. Sunshine is good for you, and is great to match to movement from gardening and the fresh air. That’s the environment the gardener needs. The environment the plant needs is a good watering after being planted. With cool flowers, be aware of some of the summerlike days in spring time.
I had a week of 80-degree weather when I needed to plant. Before I realized the extreme of this weather, I had planted a new batch of cool flowers, including bachelor’s buttons. They didn’t have a good rainfall watering, so they did not end up having a good transplanting. That’s why I ended up waiting until that weather came to an end with a good rainfall coming.
What are Cool Flowers?
Cool flowers refer to hardy annual flowers. Depending on your zone and types of winter, some can be started in the fall to continue to grow in the early spring. I’ve had success with rudbeckia this way in zone 5 in the mountains of Pennsylvania. It is a natural perennial here, sometimes even finding whole meadows of it.
For majority of my cool flowers, I start them in the early spring indoors, and then plant them out early, before the last frost of spring. They can handle the cooler temperatures, even enjoying them. Annuals alone would die from those cold temperatures. Most can handle temperatures down to 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Some can handle even lower than that into the low 20’s.
They’re pretty amazing flowers.
Examples of Cool Flowers
Some flowers, I’ve grown before for the landscape or planted later in May for the summer season. I’ve had the most success with yarrow, snapdragons, rudbeckia, feverfew, dianthus, and carnation. I started loads of each of these and had great success with all.
Although I didn’t start an abundance of these flowers, they still have done relatively well, including ammi, bachelor’s button, calendula, clarkia, delphinium, forget-me-not, larkspur, love-in-a-mist, and phlox. My biggest problems with these flowers has been starting them in short 72-cell trays. The trays would dry out once or twice a day. The young seedlings were not thriving in that environment.
Some flowers- ahh-hahaha. Direct seeding did not work out this year. I ended up direct seeding poppies and sweet peas way too early. Orlaya did not germinate outdoors either, as well as some extra flower seeds I started outdoors. Even if something is recommended to direct seed outdoors, I find, I will also be first starting them indoors too.
The unfortunate part is seeds like Buplerum are recommended to start outdoors, and they did not germinate well for me indoors. They may have been started in those short plugs. For starting any seeds, it just takes time to see what works the best.
Measure the Flower Bed
My flower beds in my gardens for cut flowers are not kept year from year. We rototill the ground, and it becomes a fresh slate every year. With planting cool flowers, some should naturalize or are perennial. My hope for the future is that I can have flowers come up every year in this new garden. I may need to plant some that don’t come back, but one goal is to see which ones do. Sometimes plants are perennial that are not listed on seed packets.
With this being the first time planting, I start with the fresh slate, so I need to measure out my flower bed.
Walkways
For the walkways, I like to have 2’ spacing. 2’6” or 3’ spacing is fine too, but I want to have enough room to walk, and that’s it. Think about it this way. Doors on homes come in various sizes. Exterior doors are 3’ wide. Most interior doors are 2’6”. Some houses come with smaller doors for closets, pantries, and even bathrooms- at the small size of 2’. Anything smaller like 1’6”, it would not be comfortable to walk through.
Over the growing season, the ground space will still have 2’, but the flower will spread their branches, creating a walkway where you may be pushing up against flowers. I’ve never had any trouble with this. Just make sure you are not growing any flowers randomly in the walkways. (Volunteer sunflowers- I don’t know what you’re talking about, haha). You want the walkways nice and clear.
I use a landscape tape measure, or sometimes a yard stick, to measure two foot from the top edge of the last planted bed.
Flower Bed Spacing
I measure 4’ from the top edge of the walkway. 4’ wide beds are what I prefer with my long arms to reach across, and I love how much space I am able to use. It also works well for 6’ wide landscape fabric, in other parts of the garden, to where there’s a foot spacing on each side of the landscape fabric to create half of the walk way.
A 3’ wide flower bed is good too, especially with shorter arms, shorter build, or wanting something where you don’t need to stretch to the middle.
I like using a yard stick at the top to later mark where to plant the flowers.
Next, I run the landscape tape measure from the top of the new bed down the length of it. I stretch out the tape measure, making sure that at the bottom it is 2 foot from the last flower bed. This will keep your rows straight. I secure the tape measure by laying the winding part on top of the ruler section.
Sometimes, my beds were 28’ long, but others are 24’ long. It just depends where was rototilled, and the landscape of the land around the garden space. The length is to your discretion. My first year growing cut flowers, I made all my beds 10’ long, which was nice for walking around these beds.
How to Measure the Flower Bed?
1 Measure 2’ from the last planted bed.
2 Measure 4’ at the top of the bed. Use a yard stick, or make markings
3 Run the landscape tape measure from the top of the bed down the length of the bed
Prepare the Bed with Mulch
With my spring flowers, I’ve tried three ways to mulch them. Read this blog post to learn more.
The best way I discovered is to first mulch the bed before planting. It takes me back to my first landscape flower gardens where everything was mulched. It keeps majority of the weeds down, and makes the garden aesthetically pleasing.
One step that I would prefer to skip is raking any rocks of clumps of grass out of the bed. I never liked this task, but is necessary. So, don’t skip it, even if you really want to.
The mulch that is added can be freshly bought or made. Mine that I used was in a bag for over nine months. It can be bought in bags at local stores, or you could find a local landscape and stone company that sells it in truckloads.
Spread the mulch in a small layer, about two inches thick. For me in a 4’ x 24’ flower bed, it took 5 bags of mulch. I used the brown mulch we had on hand, and covered the whole flower bed.
How to Prepare the Flower Bed with Mulch?
4 Rake any rocks or clumps of grass from the flower bed
5 Add mulch
6 Rake and spread the mulch 2” thick across the flower bed
7 Continue until the flower bed is covered
Create the Planting Hole
At times with plants with a larger root system, I will use a trowel to create a hole. Other times, especially with soft soil, I use my hand to create the hole for the plant, usually for plants in 72-cell trays.
Cut flowers take spacing 8” to 12” depending on the type. All my spring flowers I gave 8” spacing, besides the delphinium; those I gave 12” spacing.
Using the landscape tape measure, I look at markings that are 8 inches apart. I start at 4”, then go to 12”, then to 1’8”, to 2’4”, to 3’, to 3’8”, et cetera. It’s just some simple math addition out in the garden.
For adding fertilizer, I do not use anything besides organic fertilizer from Epsoma. Using the standard fertilizers that are stronger, the fertilizer cannot be added directly into the planting hole. Organic fertilizer can and will not burn the roots. For starting flowers, I use either GardenTone, BioTone, or BulbTone. It’s awesome, and I recommend using it.
How to Create the Planting Hole?
8 Measure 4” from the top both directions
9 Use a trowel, knife, or hand to create a hole
10 Measure two more holes in the top, first row, 8” apart. Look for markings of 12” and 20,” or 1’ and 1’8”
11 Add ½ to 1 tablespoon of organic fertilizer to those three holes
Planting the Cool Flower
The biggest struggle with planting flowers into the ground is making sure to get all the roots attached to the step. I find the best way to do this is to press all along the bottom sides of the cell plug, then to gently pull at the base of the flower plant- the very based that is right next to the soil level. It should release with all its roots.
The roots should form around the soil medium so that it comes out easy. If there are not enough roots in majority of the cells, then it is too early to be planting out. Let the plants grow for another week or two. If majority of the flowers have strong root systems, just plant the small ones out as well. If the small ones are extra ones, I will put them between the healthy large ones- just to see if they grow or not.
Breaking roots is not the best practice, I’ve use to do this. That was when majority of my plants came from store’s garden centers with plants with roots almost root bound. Tease the roots at the bottom alone, so that the roots are handing down versus circling back up.
When inserting the transplant into a hole, line it up to its measurement. I’m not the type to keep to perfect rows and columns, so my flower beds have plants going at all sorts of squiggles. I’m okay with this. It is best to keep the plant as close to the markings as possible.
Soon enough, the flower bed will be planted. It takes me a few hours to fill a space of 4’ x 24’ with lots of cut flowers. I spend evenings after work or time on weekends to plant on the sunny and no-rain days.
How to Plant Cool Flowers?
12 Take out plants from the trays
13 Press the bottom sides of the cell plug
14 Gently pull at the base of the plant to release out of the cell
15 Tease the roots at the bottom
16 Insert transplant into hole, lining it up to its proper measurement
17 Cover with native soil, then the mulch
18 Continue planting on this side, and then continue on the other side of the bed as well.
Why to Plant Cool Flower Garden?
April is the month before the average last frost. Some days it is a normal spring day with some April showers. Other days, it snows, only a day after it was summerlike with 80-degree sunshine weather. Cool flowers can survive the flotation, from surviving in the 30-degree snow fall to withstanding some July temperatures in spring.
Some days the cool flowers need covered with lows below 28-degrees. Other days, they need watered twice a day to withstand a week’s worth of beautiful, sunny, and warm weather. It does take work.
But . . . along with the hard work of extra steps to combat on the two fronts- very cold and very hot, it takes you out into the garden before most people even think about planting a garden. It extends your season of spending time outdoors with fresh air, movement, and sunshine. Besides reaping the positives from gardening earlier, you will also reap flowers soon- flowers that are healthier than if planted later in warmer temperatures.
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