Last year in our zone 5 area, autumn beauty sunflowers,a multibranching type (commonly available in big box stores) flowered within ~65 days planted late June. Procut Sunflowers a large single stemmed type, are 55-60 days but you'd probably have to order seed (Johhny's & GeoSeed carry it) which would slow things down a bit. Maybe amaranth, a quick growing celosia, cinnamon basil and cosmos.

I stongly recommend you look for The Flower Farmer by Lynn Byczynski at your local library. She's in zone 6, KS I think. Have fun! Planning NEXT years cutting garden sounds like a great way to spend the winter. :D

trovesoftrilliums, thanks! I ordered Lynn's book, as well as a couple others, as soon as I learned I'd be taking on this project. I don't know if I'll be with this farm next year but my wheels are already turning. I'm studying medicinal herbs too...so I have plans for my medicinal herb garden, a cut flower garden, a butterfly & hummingbird garden, then there's the veggie patch, heirloom tomatoes, and, oh yes, the orchard filled with native fruits too. Now, all I need is lots of land and more hours in the day! As a gardener, I can appreciate winter for the time it gives me to fantasize and plan for the coming growing seasons.

So many great flowers--annual and perennial--that I would've liked to start this year, had I known earlier about this cut flower endeavor. I ordered the zinnias through Johnnys. I like Johnny's a lot, though seeds didn't come as quickly as I would've hoped.

I'm looking into planting some sunflowers for cutting right now, and other sunflower varieties just for fun in my garden. Thank you for your suggestions, I will look into them.
Best wishes for your garden,
mika

Hi Mika. What fun! Along with the zinnias, I would second the suggestion of sunflowers. I'm not sure what else can be started now that would bloom in time - are you in zone 5 or 6? One post says zone 6 and your other post says zone 5, lol.

Are you planting at the farm? I'm envious thinking of all that space to grow in....

:)
Dee

For years I've thought I was in zone 5...then, last year, I learned Southeast Michigan was now zone 6, I guess. I wrote zone 6 for the first time here because I grew something last year that survived our chilly Michigan winters that wasn't suited to growing in zone 5, but the gardenweb form automatically keys in zone 5b for me and I was too lazy to delete that and key in zone 6. To err on the cautious side, I guess I am zone 5.

I have at least a couple 100'x5' rows I can use for flowers. Thus far, I have nasturtiums and borage seedlings in (for edible flowers). I put some calendula seedlings in last week but, this week, they're gone. I suspect birds ate them because I've seen many birds near that row, though I've never heard of birds eating young calendula before. I am planning to put more calendula in because the flowers are edible and because I'd like to make some salve and creams.

I wish I would've known earlier that we would have this room for flowers and herbs. The soil isn't too great, as it was grass up until a couple months ago...still it's so nice to have the space to grow. I'm not sure if the farm owner and manager have plans for selling fresh cut flowers next year. I think just having flowers at the farm enlivens the area. I'd love to plant some perennials that could double as fresh cut flowers, like yarrow and echinacea and a place for pollinators.

If anyone has particular recommendations for zinnias or sunflowers, advice would be most appreciated. I planted some benary's giant zinnias but some other varieties, like Zinnia candy cane mix and queen red lime zinnias, look good too. Is it too late for statice or tricolor chrysanthemums?

Do you have any cactus zinnias in? Baker Creek has some nice giant ones.

I think that amaranth is a great idea as well. The R158 from Johnny's is what I grew last year and it is beautiful. Dark red and you can cut it at various stages.

I heartily agree with using one of the rows for perennials/biennials. They may not have plans for flowers next year now, but once those come up next year they will be thanking you.

Sorry, the amaranth at Johnny's is called 'Garnet Red' now, not R158.

Is this a somewhat permanent thing? I had figured it was, but now you are talking about not knowing what will be happening next year.

If it is a long-range deal, I would consider amending the soil at your plot. Perhaps some manure and shredded leaves this fall, so next year your soil will be better.

Again, if it's long range, some perennials that are good are daisies, echinacea, rudbeckia (and of course the annual rudbeckias are fantastic!), phlox, liatris, russian sage, and if you have room, a hydrangea or two. Not exactly perennials, but dahlias are good too.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help with annuals for this year. I'm hoping you can do this next year because you will have time to plan, and you will have so much fun! Either way, best of luck to you! Let us know how it turns out.

Dee

magz88, Thank you for the heads up about this lovely amaranth. Gosh, the pictures of it online look beautiful! The color reminds me, somewhat, of a plant called Shiso that I tred to start from seed. I like that the amaranth can be used in a salad, for cutting, or go to seed for the birds. I have the book Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy. I would love to create more of an ecological garden one day. The seeds are backordered right now at Johnny's, but I think I'll have to try this amaranth.

diggerdee, I'm bascially apprenticing with this farm. I'm learning more about vegetable production. This is a young farm that is growing on 3x the amount of land they had last year. Plus, this is the first year of their CSA. I admire the founder, she's mighty ambitious. They didn't create the rows for the herb/flower section until early May, then they told me in June I could plan for a cut flower market. They have annual herbs, like dill, basil, and parsley, and a couple perennial herb plants, like lavender. Some compost was worked into a few inches of soil a few weeks before anything was planted.

As far as I know, the plan is to use those rows in the future. Will they be for cut flowers though? I don't know. The founder wanted to try cut flowers, even this late in the season, to test the waters, so to speak, and see how they sell at the weekly market. I also get the feeling that she wants to diversify the farms offerings too and that she likes flowers in general. I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to sell cut flowers next year, and I'd certainly love to be involved. Planning and fantasizing about gardening during the winter really sustains me. It's especially gratifing to actually have enough land too to carry out some of these plans.

Dee--thank you for the good suggestions that I'll keep in mind. Plus, I think they'd just be beautiful, in general, to have on the farm. I've been amazed at all the different echinacea cultivars that've come out the last few years. You also reminded me that I've been meaning to retry growing liatris.I like Russian sage especially, I think it's such an underrated, hardy, fragrant, pretty plant.

Thank you!

I actually ordered my amaranth from Prairie Garden Seeds if you really are interested.

http://www.prseeds.ca/catalogue/grain.php?C=Grain

He ships to the US. $3.

I hope all goes well. Sounds fun and exciting. :)

Last year about this time I started biennial dianthus and campanula medium from seed, along with perennial delphiniums. Then I planted them in ground late September. At that time I also direct sowed larkspur and agrostemma. This gave me some spring flowers end of May and into June. I'd recommend seeing if the farm will let you do this as it will give you an early start next year. It would also provide a plan that will hopefully encourage them to continue growing the cut flowers. Yay! Must grow more flowers. :)

I love how Johnny's gives germination info and days to harvest.

I have statice blooming now, sown indoors in early April. The Flower Farm book has it listed as a plant you can successively sow (so it is probably not daylight sensitive) but not sure if you have enough days til frost. Any idea what your average last day of frost is?

If the flower growing continues at the farm, then you can start planning for bulbs...tulips for Mother's Day, etc. But then you'd need a budget to buy the bulbs, etc.