The Picking Flower Garden

For pretty posies that pack a punch, all you need is your own picking garden. Here's 10 plants worth owning if you're a fan of fresh flowers in.
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Let them clamber up obelisks, stakes or trellises. If old flowers are left to develop pods, the vines will stop flowering and concentrate on ripening the seeds.

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Roses are beauty queens with a purpose. All are suitable for picking, however favourite varieties include 'General Gallieni', which is a superb, distinctive old Tea rose, no two flowers of which are alike. Lilies make a real statement in a vase. Oriental lilies are highly fragrant; asiatic lilies are not — but both work well in bouquets indoors.

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Arrange these large blooms in odd numbers to achieve a balanced look and make sure there aren't any leaves sitting in water that will rot and smell terrible. Lilies last anywhere from seven to 14 days in a vase. The one pictured is Gloriosa superba 'Rothschildiana' and is unusual as it's a climber but also makes a great cut flower. With their super-long stems and brilliant ruffled flowers, gladioli make a lovely cut flower. Their corms can be planted from late winter to early spring, right up until December.

Plant a new batch every few weeks for months of colour. Allow days from planting time to flowering. Lift and store the corms once they've finished flowering. Pictured is gladioli 'Double Contessa'. For picking and drying, plant English lavenders Lavandula angustifolia such as 'Hidcote Blue' or 'Munstead', though these don't like humid climates.

Lavandula dentata, also known as French lavender, is less fussy, though for best performance in the garden, opt for Lavandula stoechas varieties such as 'Major', 'Pukehou', 'Marshwood' or the 'Bee' series from Gardening Solutionz.

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Try arranging lavender stems in a vase collared by hosta leaves. Big, bold and beautiful in a vase, dahlias deserve all the kudos they get.

10 plants with beautiful blooms to pick

Plant the dormant tubers in winter for a continuous display of summer blooms. Protect the emerging spring shoots from slugs and snails, and stake taller varieties at planting — nothing breaks the heart like a dahlia decapitated by strong winds at the peak of flowering. Don't forget to deadhead spent blooms to ensure your dahlias continue to dazzle. Rest home residents savour fine dining. Agni reflects on Block education. Shane Bond's madeover home. Star defends 'sexy' wedding dress. From state house to 'wow'.


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My in-laws won't accept me, or my kids. Kate Sheppard's legacy lives on. Jandal season is nearly upon us sponsored. Podcast your way to wellbeing. The ultimate size of the plot depends on how much space you have and how much time you can devote to taking care of it. Visualize it more in terms of crops: Then enrich the growing area by working a layer of four to six inches of organic material compost, chopped leaves, peat moss, etc.

If your ground is very sandy, swampy, or rocky or high in clay content, do yourself a favor and consider making raised beds with a simple kit and filling them with amended soil purchased in bulk. This saves you the daunting, near-impossible task of trying to turn bad soil into good. Before you hit the nursery, create a simple sketch of the bed on graph paper and decide how many of each kind of plant you want. There has to be enough room between rows to get in there to weed, fertilize, deadhead, stake, and, of course, harvest.

Just like a trip to the grocery store, being armed with a shopping list at a nursery helps prevent overbuying and impulse purchases. Err on the conservative side: You can always add more plants if you prove to have the room. Planting can begin after the last frost—sometime in spring, depending on where you live.


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Check the website of your local cooperative extension for the average date. And pack your reading glasses, because plant tags reveal a wealth of information, from size at maturity to care requirements.

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Even the most experienced gardeners read the fine print to ensure the varieties they choose fit their needs. No tags on offer? Pepper the staff with questions. Store it all by the door closest to the cutting garden with a supply of three-foot bamboo stakes and a roll of garden twine for supporting top-heavy stems and propping up foliage that could be broken by rainstorms. Just before you plant, mix some granular time-release fertilizer such as Dynamite; dynamiteplantfood. This will help keep nutrition consistent during the growing season. For easier maintenance, group together flower varieties with similar sun, water, and drainage needs.

Once everything is in the ground, water each plant carefully and thoroughly to settle it and eliminate air pockets.