Fabulous Flowers For Raised Beds

cut flowers for garden

One of my missions is to bust the misconception that vegetable gardens aren’t attractive. I strongly believe that you can have a vegetable garden that produces a lot of food and is beautiful to look at.

What’s the secret?

Plant lots and lots of flowers among your vegetables. Annuals are my flowers of choice, although I also plant spring bulbs in my vegetable beds for some early season color.

Tucking flowers throughout your garden will add colorful pops of beauty to draw the eye into and around the space, attract tons of beneficial insects like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, and impress your neighbors because they’ve never seen a vegetable garden looking so good!

In this article, I’ll share the best flowers for raised beds. This list features my absolute favorite flowers I’ve been growing in my vegetable garden for many years.

cut flowers in the vegetable garden

This post contains affiliate links.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of harvesting a basket full of colorful produce you grew with your own two hands. If you know just what I’m talking about, then I’m pretty sure you’ll also love gathering a bright bouquet of cut flowers just as much. 

Luckily, if you’re already a vegetable gardener, it’s incredibly easy to incorporate some flowers into your raised beds so you can harvest beautiful bouquets for yourself and friends all summer long.

Favorite Flowers for Raised Bed Gardening 

zinnia flowers for vegetable garden

Zinnias

Nothing screams summer more than a handful of cheery zinnias.  Available in a brilliant rainbow of colors, these cut-and-come-again plants are essential for any flower-loving gardener.

As one of the easiest flowers to grow, they are perfect for beginning gardeners.  They also do well in a wide range of climates and growing zones.

Favorites include:

Benary’s Giant

Queen Red Lime

Zinderella Lilac

Zinderella Peach

Jazzy Mix

Lots of cool zinnia varieties in this Etsy shop here.

 

cut flower rudbeckia

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Black-eyes Susan is commonly seen in perennial and prairie gardens in the Midwest where I live. The good news is that you don’t have to be a perennial flower gardener to grow rudbeckias (as they are also known).

The photo above features the best Black-eyed Susan I’ve ever grown – Prairie Sun. Instead of a black eye (or center), it has more of a green center and two-toned petals featuring complementary yellows. 

I’ve also tried and liked

Cherry Brandy (maroon instead of yellow) 

Chim Chiminee

cut flowers for the garden globe amaranth

Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena globosa)

I’ve been planting Globe Amaranth as a companion to my vegetables for as long as I can remember. I often rotate the flowers I grow each year, but this one is always on the list!

Many of the varieties are tall and airy, so you easily mix them with your vegetables and they won’t crowd them out.

The blooms last way past your first frost and hold their color when dried so you can use them for winter bouquets as well.

I love Strawberry Fields Gomphrena mixed with Prairie Sun Rudbeckia in the same garden bed. The red and yellow colors pop against each other and the vastly different forms of the plants complement each other well. 

flowers in a raised vegetable garden bed

Other favorite varieties

Bicolor Rose

Qis Purple

This Etsy shop has some fun varieties of Gomphrena.

cut flower gomphrena

Bicolor Rose Gomphrena

verbena flower for vegetable garden beds

Tall or Purple Top Verbena (Verbena bonariensis)

There are various verbenas out there, but this one is my favorite by far. It’s tall and airy, so I love mixing it will other flowers and vegetables. The insects and pollinators love it and I’ve seen many a butterfly enjoying the flowers. It blooms for a long time – from July until frost.

I’ve tried to start seeds at home without much luck, so I usually purchase a few seedlings at my local nursery in spring. It does re-seed itself pretty aggressively, so I often find little seedlings sprinkled around my garden in late spring. They don’t bother me though. I let some of them grow and weed out the rest.

Verbena bonariensis

nasturtium flowers for raised bed gardening

Cherries Jubilee Mounding Nasturtium

Nasturtium

Until a few years ago, I had no idea that climbing nasturtiums existed! I stumbled upon some seeds while looking around online, ordered them as an experiment, started the seeds in the winter, and planted the seedlings at the foot of my turquoise tuteur (photo below).

Image my surprise and delight upon discovering them slowing climbing up and up throughout the season, all covered in flowers. I fell in love with them! Now I plant several different varieties on the tuteur and at the foot of my cattle panel trellises.

There are also mounding nasturtiums, which I also plant some years. In my garden they tend to get huge and sprawling, so sometimes I skip planting them for that reason.

In the last few years, I’ve noticed many more interesting and unique varieties being introduced. Some of my favorites:

Moonlight Climbing Nasturtium

Climbing Phoenix Nasturtium

Cherries Jubilee Mounding Nasturtium

Bloody Mary Mounding Nasturtium

Orchid Cream Mounding Nasturtium

 

 

climbing nasturtium for vegetable garden

Climbing Phoenix Nasturtium

salvia flowers for vegetable garden beds

Salvia

If you want a hummingbird magnet in your garden, then scatter some Lady in Red Salvia throughout your raised beds. It continues to bloom all summer long into fall and I also love this one mixed with the yellow flowers of Prairie Sun Rudbeckia

There are lots of colors of salvia out there, but the red and blue are my favorites.

Victoria Blue

cutting flowers in vegetable garden

Where To Buy Flower Seeds and Plants

Buying Seeds

If you already have a favorite seed company you should be able to find great varieties of flowers for raised beds in their catalog. Some of the varieties we talked about in this blog post are a little more difficult to find because they’re so unique.

But, due to the rising popularity of growing flowers, I have noticed that seed companies are expanding their seed selections to include more than just your average annual flowers. 

If you prefer to support local and small seed companies and growers like I do, check out some of these seed sources.

Etsy: There are a lot of individual seed savers and growers on Etsy and they tend to carry many of the harder to find varieties. To save you time lots of time I created an Etsy list featuring many of the varieties from this post. Check it out here.

Floret Flower Farm: A family-owned business in Washington state, this farm has been slowly breeding their own varieties and expanding the amount of seeds they offer each year.

They open their seed shop in early January and many of their most unique seeds tend to sell out very quickly. I’d suggest signing up for their email list so you get notification each year about the seed shop’s opening date. Find all of the seed varieties they offer here.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds: This Maine company is a favorite of organic farmers all over the US. Their vegetable, flower, and herb seeds are focused on high-performing varieties. I order many of my seeds from here.

If you want to grow cut flowers this season you won’t be disappointed if you order from them. See their offerings here.

Botanical Interests: This Colorado company has been selling herbs, seeds, and flowers for 25 years. They also have a robust seed donation program I utilized when I ran youth gardening programs for a local non-profit in Madison. Check out their flower varieties here.

cutting flowers from the vegetable garden

Amazon: Although it might be more convenient for you to purchase your seeds from Amazon, I struggle with their platform because it’s difficult to know who exactly is selling the seeds I’m purchasing.

While looking for varieties when writing this article I discovered one of the vendors had stolen photos from the Floret Flower Farm website to use in their listing. It’s the Wild West on Amazon sometimes. 

I know it’s convenient to purchase from Amazon, so I do provide lists of my favorite garden tools, vegetable varieties, and more in my Amazon shop.

Buying Plants

Even though I start many of my flowers for raised beds at home in winter, I also make a few trips to the farmers market and local nurseries just to see if they have anything that can tempt me into trying it out.

If you don’t start seeds at home, or don’t have room to start flowers, I suggest buying annual flowers from local sources near you. I particularly love purchasing plants from farmers in my area who I know are growing these exact plants in their own fields. 

You can read more about where where to buy vegetable plants.

 

grow zinnia cut flowers

Queen Red Lime Zinnia

How to Plant Flowers in Raised Beds

How do you plant your flowers, you ask? There are two options: direct seeding or planting seedlings. I personally prefer to plant all of my flowers as seedlings to get a jump start on the season. I want flowers as soon as I can get them!
 
Direct seed means at the correct time in the season (you can find this on the seed packet) you’ll simply remove some seeds from the seed packet and plant them right into the garden soil. 
 
Cut Flowers You Can Direct Seed
Black-eyed Susan (can also be started indoors)
Zinnia (can also be started indoors)
 
Planting seedlings means you’re going to tuck a baby plant into your garden bed. This plant will be one that you start indoors yourself or purchase from someone else. If you already start your own vegetable seeds at home you can just integrate the flowers into your seed starting calendar. Easy peasy!
 
Or, you can shop at your local nursery or farmers market like we talked about above.
 
Cut Flowers You Should Start Indoors or Purchase as Plants
Black-eyed Susan (can also be direct seeded)
Globe Amaranth
Verbena bonariensis
Salvia
Zinnia (can also be direct seeded)
 

More Resources for Growing Cut Flowers in Your Garden

Take my most popular workshop, Design Inspiration for a Creative Vegetable Garden. I share fresh ideas to elevate an ordinary garden to an extraordinary one with plenty of photos to get the creative juices flowing.  Learn how to design a garden that inspires joy, tips for adding artistic touches, and favorite colorful and unique varieties to grow.

 
As a garden educator, I get sent a lot of gardening books by publishers. I read through them all and most of them end up in the Little Library in my neighborhood. Only my absolute favorite books end up on my living room bookshelf.
 
The Cut Flower Garden is a gorgeous book packed with lots of well-organized, useful information. Reading it will get you super excited to grow cut flowers in your garden this season! Click here to purchase.
 
 
 
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A Year in Flowers: Designing Gorgeous Arrangements for Every Season

Once you get the hang of growing cut flowers the next step is mastering how to artfully arrange them into stunning bouquets you can scatter around your house to bring you joy all season long. This is the follow up book to Floret Farm’s Cut Flower GardenClick here to purchase. 

 

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Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty

One of my favorite gardening books is a holistic view of why and how mixing flowers in with our vegetables benefits us, our plants, and the animals and insects that are a part of our garden ecosystems. Click here to purchase.

 
 
 
 
 
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Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden Journal
 
I highly recommend keeping notes about your garden each year. This allows you to keep an eye on what’s working, what needs improvement and helps you think through how you can keep getting better as a gardener.   This journal would be perfect for just that! Click here to purchase.
 
 
 
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If you don’t currently mix flowers in with your vegetables, this is the year to try it! Plant some of these fabulous flowers for raised beds and get ready to have fun creating bouquets to brighten up every room in your house.
 
Get a behind the scenes tour of how I use flowers in my vegetable garden design to add beauty and color to my front yard in the video included in this post.
 

 

Read more about adding beauty to your vegetable garden:

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Comments

  • Melissa Renner

    I’ve been wanting to try poppies for years and last year finally planted some. I’m still waiting to see whether they survived and will re-emerge this year or if I add them to my list of failures. Someday I will have a green thumb!

  • I love growing zinnias and cosmos because they seem to be the essence of summer. I would love to get some lily if the valley for their simplistic beauty and grace.

  • What an awesome post! I follow Floret on Instagram and I can’t get enough of those beautiful pictures. One of my favorite flowers to grow is zinnias too! I also have an appreciation for roses that I didn’t have before moving to this house that had 16 rose bushes I had to learn how to take care of, haha.

  • I followed Erin’s book tour to this website. I can’t wait to explore this site now.

  • Nigella is one of my favorites and has been with me for many years. Thank you for including her ♡

  • Jelena Socava

    I love roses.

  • Zinnias and marigolds are always in my garden areas. Often sunflowers too. I tend to use the older type marigolds as they have more open flowers for bees, and they are amazing for helping control in-ground pests. I’ve used cosmos in the past, but where I am, they can be a bit invasive. I have dahlias in various places but have not yet incorporated them into any veggie beds, other than placing some in lots in between some raised bed sections.

  • I am obsessed w zinnias. I save my own seed each year but also buy lots of packets as well to feed the obsession. I plant them all around the border of my veggie garden and it’s gorgeous. Thanks for the giveaway!

  • Tina Higinbotham

    My favorite flower to grow….well one of many is Liatris. It has a long vase life and gives nice height to an arrangement and has a lovely color and texture 🙂

  • Lynette Bryant

    My favorite flowers to grow are dahlias and cosmos, they were my Mother’s favorites to grow and by incorporating these into my gardens it brings back great memories of her. I also love Cana lilies in the garden, I remember my Dad always growing those in his vegetable garden. I’m anxious to start following Floret online. Great post Megan!

    • I love to grow lots of flowers! I love perennials, annuals etc. My favorite would probably be zinnias! I love old fashioned look they give my garden!
      Cindy

  • Lauren Roth

    I have a soft spot for zinnias- the day my husband proposed to me at the Missouri Botanical Garden, he bought a seed packet of zinnias for us to grow together to remember the day. 🙂

  • I love flowers in my garden! We have sunflowers, lavender, marigolds, echinacea, bachelor buttons and at some point my chives flower. I really like the colors and seeing the bees go for the nectar. Thanks for your blog – I really enjoy it.

  • I have planned to plant tulips for the last 10 years we’ve lived in our house, but have never done it. I have always grown tomato plants and herbs. After finding Erin’s gorgeous Instagram a few months ago, I’ve been bitten by the cut garden bug. I’ve got some Floret sweet pea seedlings that are growing like crazy and the tiniest little poppies sprouting up too. I’ve also got Floret cosmos and zinnias to be sown in the next few weeks. So looking forward to all the colorful beauty to be sprouting up in my yard for the first time this summer.

  • I grew up with snapdragons and peonies in my yard. Peonies smell soooo good and snapdragons were fun to play with as a kid.

  • What a great post! I have been planting various flowers in my gardens for awhike. I love zinnias! They are the happy faces of flowers! Colorful, bright and they bloom a long time.

  • Idalisse Sandoval

    I am looking forward to planting some Dahlias, Snapdragons and Stock in my garden this year.

  • My favorite would be Chinese flowering crabapple and of course, roses! Thanks for the opportunity. Congrats Erin!

  • Such a great post! I planted a lot of flowers last year and am planning more flowers this year because with three little kids, fresh flowers to cut or enjoy in the garden is an easy way for me to feel less overwhelmed and more in love with my garden. My favorite flower is Snapdragons! They even survived a few light freezes in the fall and I was still picking them way later than I expected! Love them.

  • Abbey March

    I love growing nasturtiums and marigolds. The marigolds are easy to start ahead and quick enough that my toddler is antsy to go see them every day. They bring in the bees AND the chickens love to eat them too!

  • I love zinnias and dahlias. I’ve been following Floret on Instagram and FB for quite some time. I would love her book. Now, I’ve also discovered your blog and started following it today. Thank you.

  • I’m relatively new to gardening, but have been delighted by dahlias in my garden the past couple of years. This year, I am most excited to try snapdragons.

  • I always plant sunflowers in amongst my veggies then wait impatiently for them to show their smiling faces. Thank you for this wonderful book give away! Good luck to everyone!

  • I always allow cilantro and bunching onions to flower alongside vegetables to attract pollinators. Cilantro flowers are so delicate and pretty, but I also love the green seed heads in bouquets. After the bouquet declines, I remove the seed heads, dry them until brown (coriander), and use them for cooking and baking. Agastache is another favorite for the same reasons but even more so for its long flowering season.

  • I haven’t tried growing flowers from seeds before because I was a little intimidated. But I done tulips which I love and have a large range of succulents that also flower! Excited to try something new for the first time!

  • Stefania Guarda

    I am such a new flower gardener but am excited to try this year. my fave would really be peonies or poppies!

  • I love ALL flowers, but am especially fond of snapdragons. Whenever, I try to grow the tall varieties, the stems grow curly and crooked. I’m trying some of Erin’s seed this summer and hoping I’ll have better luck!

  • My favorite flower so far I’ve grown are zinnias (although the celosia blew me away last year growing it for the first time!). I can’t wait to grow flowers this year, these photos inspire me. Thanks!

  • Dahlias!! I need to grow these ??

  • Wow, what a great giveaway! My favorite flowers in my garden are my roses. They keep my house filled with fresh cut flowers spring until fall.

  • I thought I already commented so forgive me if it comes up twice… I’m doing quite a bit more flowers this year and less veggies. I’ve come to realize that having enough of both is really good for me and my enjoyment in my garden (realized and figured out through your books/classes Megan!). My favorite flowers to grow are snapdragons! I was so excited when they somehow survived a light frost on the fall and I could still cut from them much longer than I anticipated.

  • I love this for so many reasons! I am always torn between allocating time and space for veggies and flowers. I always feel I have to choose. Veggie gardens are just never as attractive as flower gardens. This inspired me to combine the two. I hope I can succeed. I definitely could use some more guidance in this area. I live dahlias but I worry the dinner plate ones are just too big. I may try sunflowers as the backdrop to my garden…And of course zinnias but that’s where my imagination ends

  • I will always appreciate zinnias because they remind me of my mom, she plants a row in her vegetable garden every year, but I am really excited to try dahlias for the first time this summer!

  • I’m so excited to start growing flowers. Right now my favorites are the bulbs that I just put a little bit of work in and now reward me every spring. But I’m really looking forward to planting some seeds and expanding my horizons in the flower world!

  • Hello from Minneapolis! Thanks for doing the Floret giveaway. Erin is so inspiring!

  • My garden is full of dahlia, roses, peony and daisy’s mainly. Always looking for more and would LOVE to win the spectacular prize! Blessings

  • These have been great fun! My favorite flower is poppies – all kinds!

  • Love following the blog hop! My fav flower in the garden is nasturtiums.

  • Two favorite flowers to grow from seed: sweet peas and annual poppies!

  • I love the combination of flowers and vegetables together. Sweet peas, zinnias granny bonnets, corn flowers all dellightful. I am hoping to plant some honesty and scabious.

  • Jennifer Gill

    My favorite flower in the whole world to grow is the sweet pea. Every color, every type. There is no other flower like them.

  • It’s so hard to choose just one favorite flower! But if I had to pick, I love freesia (and close behind dahlias).

  • Love growing Dahlias! So pretty and easy to grow.

  • Dahlias, dahlias, dahlias! I especially love growing the dinnerplates – my faves!!

  • Lee Chearneyi

    Delphiniums make dramatic and lovely additions, with beautiful indigos and pinks.

  • Love Ziannias. Trying Dahlias this year

  • Cindy Nelsen

    I have to have dahlias in the garden — and I can’t wait to get the dahlia tubers I ordered from Erin 🙂

  • This is the first year I have a garden plot! I am excited to put Erin’s advice to work. (: Thank you!

  • I love the combination of Larspur and Cabbage leaf Poppies in my garden, and they make great cut flowers. The poppies are attractive cut in bud, bloom or seedhead!

  • I used to plant the fragrant oriental lilies until the red lily beetle entered my garden a few years ago. Now I plant what tends to grow best in a garden surrounded by walnut trees. Currently, I’ve been seeking out different varieties of zinnias — Cactus, Benary Giant, and Queen Lime. Would love to try the Zindarella that Erin mentioned.

  • My favorite flowers are zinnias. Hoping to get more flowers planted in my garden this year.

  • Hello from Kentucky! I love growing zinnias and sunflowers!

  • I love mixing flowers into my veggie gardens! Up until now, it’s been more medicinal and edible flowers, but this year, I’m starting non edibles! I have always loved yarrow and calendula! But this year, I’m going full bore with zinnias and cosmos! How fun!

  • I always plant sunflowers along the perimeter of my vegetable garden for a nice pop of color and cheer!

  • I love all of the flowers I my gardens, but if I Must pick one I would say Delphiniums! They pretty in the garden and I love them even more in a summer bouquet!

  • I always grow marigolds to keep the deer away and zinnias for the color in my veggie garden each year!

  • Obsessed with celosia!

  • Bianca Mclellan

    I can’t decide which flower is my favorite-they are all so pretty! Time will tell which plants like the new garden…:)

  • happy to find your blog via floret! I’ll be back to visit again 😀

  • Love Cosmos and starting lavender this year. So excited!

  • I love my zinnias and snapdragons. I am in Arizona but when I lived in PNW I grew dahlias and they were my favorite

  • Hello Erin,I love the old fashioned roses that grow into a bush. The scent is incomparable to anything else I’ve smelled. I love when they bloom and the yard smells so good; wish that they would last longer. 😉

  • Maggie whitaker

    My mom grew up on a flower and vegetable farm in upstate New York. I have such fond memories of going to visit my grandma on the farm and helping her with the seeds and flowers in the fields and greenhouses. When I was a little girl, I was always drawn to the snapdragons that she had in her fields. As an adult, these are still my favorite flower. I bought my own house seven years ago, and ever since then snapdragons have been a must in my gardens! They are very sentimental to me because they make me think of my grandmother’s farm which is no longer in our family. Over the past few years I have really gotten into creating flower gardens in my yard. I now look at them as a way of honoring my grandmother who passed away when I was in high school.

  • I’ve been a veggie gardener for many years and always plant LOTS of flowers – they are eye candy:) and help with bugs, encourage good/deter bad. Just stumbled across Erin’s blog yesterday as I prepare to grow an abundance of cut flowers for a dear friend’s wedding this August, so exciting and daunting all at the same time. Anyway Erin is a wealth of wonderful info, I am so appreciative of all she generously shares. Thank you!!!!!

  • My couple of my favorite flowers to grow for weddings include Alliums, Lemon Bergamot & Rudbeckia ‘irish eye’s, but really there are just way too many to pick from!!!

  • Love daffodils & peonies

  • Cindy Trick

    Love the cover of your new book!!! Zinnias!

  • Must haves: celosia, zinnias, dahlias and snapdragons!

  • Katie Stutler

    Zinnias!!! They remind me of my grandmother. I love how easy they are to grow from seed and how well they do as a cut flower. And the colors! Fantastic!

  • Linda Oliver

    I love to grow zinnias, sunflowers and poppies…..love your new book….ty for a chance to win the book

  • Becky Holmes

    I love growing lisianthus.

  • Linda Schaefer

    Poppies, Bleeding Hearts, Hyacinth, Asian Lilies

  • I love Zinnias … so cheerful!

  • I’m very new in planting flowers, and I attempted Marigolds last year but had no success. (Sad). But I have some new tips to try this year thanks to you guys, and I can’t wait to get started! I plan to try many including these varieties on this post! Thank you!

  • Corina Biltac

    My garden is so pretty when zinnias, cosmos and dahlias are blooming

  • Beth Lessick

    Zinnias for sure, only have containers but want to try some dahlias.

  • Kate Nicholson

    Our zinnias have bloomed out of control here in Maine pretty much anywhere we plant them! In our vegetable garden, though, I’ve only planted marigolds historically. If we can afford the space I will try some of these tips here- I LOVE snapdragons!!

  • Vicki Jennejohn

    I’m hooked on dinner plate dahlias and zinnias! I love sharing bouquets with friends & family!

  • Morgan Regas

    So excited to have just planted these snapdragons yesterday!

  • I love to grow lisianthus and strawflowers. Thanks for the chance to win. Erin is an inspiration.

  • Zinnias & dahlias have a special place in my heart & my garden. My great grandma taught me all she knew about gardening, arranging & showing flowers at the local county fair. These two flowers always had a way of showing up in her yard year after year & are now a staple in mine.

  • Georgia monroe

    Last year I planted zinnias and they did great!

  • I love to grow dummies and cosmos! I can’t wait to try download this year.

  • Dahlias are my passion – can’t get enough of them!

  • Hannah Bennett

    I just love the longevity of snapdragons in cut flower Arrangements. I think my husband’s going to think I’m going to little crazy this year with all the zinnias I’ve planted. We’re up with a lot of pee in the morning glories when I was little. Looks like a great but, following her Instagram now.

    • Hannah Bennett

      Oh goodness, correction: I grew up as a lot of peonies and morning glories period looks like a great book

  • My favorites are sunflowers, marigolds, and snap dragons. I’ve never seen large snap dragons! Last year I added a zinnia and loved it. Blooms all the way into late October! Will need to check out the flower book!

  • linda wong garl

    My new favorite is a Hellebore…an amazing perennial…and the flowers looked great in my Christmas wreath and bouquets! Blooms for many, many months and there is an enormous variety of colors, shapes and a very appealing flower! I have become addicted to this new find! Very easy care and needs little attention! Today, planted a hellebore garden with bulbs, other perennials, primroses in a bed of sweet woodruff…under my Hinoki Cypress trees so it looks like a very natural setting!

  • I love growing zinnias, but I’m hoping with the book I can do a better job with my favorite, dahlias! I also have a hoop house now so I’m excited to see what I will be able to do with that!

  • Jennifer K.

    My favorite flowers to plant would be snapdragons!

  • This year I am urban gardening 6 types of flowers (that I can bring inside without killing my cat) I’m most excited to see how the celosia grow!!

  • Andrea Zniewski

    Dahlias hands down since my first exposure 10 years ago. I am in awe, each season, of their beauty and they sure are fun to share!

  • This is so beautiful & inspiring! So, I love our Hydrangeas & Peonies & varieties in the window boxes! Want to try growing Dahlias! and Sweetpeas! and…and…and… 🙂 Endless possibilities! Thank you for this lovely post and sharing about the beautiful Floret Farm book.

  • I love this post. The book blog has lead me to your website which now I’m excited to explore! I love cut flowers and am starting a cut flower garden this year. One of my favorites right now is love-in-the-mist (nigella), which comes up randomly in our vegetable garden. And I’m trying delphiniums this year. Hope all goes well with that endeavor!

  • Elizabeth P

    Dahlias! Wish I could grow peonies in my climate though…

  • Probably dahlias but I love love love the smell of gardenias!

  • I love dahlias-they just keep on giving!

  • Connie Ascanio Ancona

    I love growing breadseed poppies in vegetable garden. Pretty flowers that attract butterflies, ornamental seedpods to dry for winter bouquets and delicious seeds for baking!

  • This will be my first year specifically growing cut flowers – adding rows of them in the vegetable garden inside a high fence. Anything I grow outside the fence has to be deer proof. Some of my favorites include Mexican petunia, lantana, salvias & flowering sages.

  • I love Sweet William. Love how some gerbera daisies with many petals can be a substitute for zinnias when zinnias can’t be had. Thanks!

  • Zinnias, sunflowers, daylilies, dahlias, cosmos, phlox….I could go on and on. Not sure I really have a favorite just a passion for growing and enjoying all kinds of flowers.

  • Zinnias are my favorite. I’ve never planted snapdragons, but I will this year. Pretty! I love all the old fashioned, cottage type flower.

  • I’ve had great luck with indoor house plants whereas my twin-sister is more of a outdoor gardener. Every time I’d visit her, she would show me her garden and would encourage me to try planting a perennial garden.
    It has been two years now when I’ve finally decided to take my sister’s advice. Throughout the 2 years I have planted in my front yard and backyard area four-o’clock, foxgloves, clematis (my favorite), hostas and just last year rocket mix snapdragons (just added to my favorite list).
    This year I’m going to try my luck on starting a vegetable garden. Besides growing tomatoes, I haven’t decided what else will be in this vegetable garden of mine. I can’t wait for spring to be here (officially 2 days from today ??).

  • I always like to plant marigold and alyssum.

  • I am so glad Erin’s book tour led me to your site! Growing edibles have been my main priority for about a decade. I rarely grow annuals. That will change with the inspiration from this book. I do have my favorite perennials in the garden, Sensation lilacs, daylilies, hydrangeais, a salmon Oriental poppy, tree peony and roses. But now I want to find the room for snapdragons and zinnias!

  • Zinnias, peonies, sunflowers, tulips, daffodils… How can I chose?! ❤ always looking for more ideas!

  • Carol Cross

    I love all flowers but my favorites are bearded iris and columbine.

  • Emily Davis

    I love, love growing roses – particularly Crown Princess Margherita!

  • Favorite flower to grow in my garden? How could I narrow it down to one? Top five: zinnia, poppy, echinacea, upright verbena and dahlias.

  • I find a place for blue lobelia in my garden every year 🙂

  • Jessica M Buller

    My absolute favorite is Columbine. I love everything about them, from the shape and colors of the leaves to the delicate flowers.

  • I love to grow zinnias! Such easy and beautiful cut flowers.

  • Sherry Shuler

    Inspired by an article about Floret that I read in Country Living back in fall 2015, I planned the beginnings of a flower farm. I ordered your beautiful nasturtium seeds and tons of zinnia seeds. Well, I drowned the nasturtium seeds and never got the zinnias planted. we had a small vegetable patch that did ok but ended a painful death caused by a merciless attack of stink bugs. My vision for a flower farm has not died but has been dialed back to the realm of reality. I will be planting Zinnia seeds this coming week and plan to do small succession plantings throughout the summer. Thank you for giving us something to dream about and the knowledge to make those dreams a practical reality.

  • I love the poppies that grow wild here in California. I harvested some seed from my neighbor’s poppies and sprinkled them around my fence. I look forward to their bright orange petals in early summer.

  • My twin-sister is more of a outdoor gardener. Every time I’d visit her, she would show me her garden and would encourage me to try planting a perennial garden. It has been two years now when I’ve finally decided to take my sister’s advice. Throughout the 2 years I have planted in my front yard and backyard area four-o’clock, foxgloves, clematis (my favorite), hostas and just last year rocket mix snapdragons (just added to my favorite list). This year I’m going to try my luck on starting a vegetable garden. Besides growing tomatoes, I haven’t decided what else will be in this vegetable garden of mine. I can’t wait for spring to be here (officially 2 days from today ??).

  • Oh so impossible to choose only one favorite! I suppose I most cherish sweet, cheerful little Johnny Jump-ups. My mother always grew them so they remind me of her and they are one of the first to bloom in early spring after a long winter. I live and garden on the other side of the Cascade Mountains from Erin in Eastern Washington. We still have 2 feet of snow covering the garden right now and I am just aching to get my hands dirty, but I have begun my inside seed starting. Do you still have a lot of snow in Wisconsin too? I never have enough room in my garden for everything I want to grow! Every year I plant more flowers. Thanks for hosting this fun book tour. I’m so glad it led me to your site – it looks right up my alley and I am going to go check it out more right now!

  • Barbara Dominas

    Erin is such an inspiration! Her blog has such beautiful photos and I started growing dahlias in my garden after I saw how gorgeous they are on pictures!

  • I don’t grow flowers in my veggie patch, but they are super close to attract pollinators. The native plants attract the most bees, etc., but I’ll include any plant with a flower I like 🙂 I’d love a free copy of the book to encourage my flower habit! Thanks for the chance!

  • Love Bells of Ireland!

  • I love my butterfly irises in my garden. I would love the opportunity to win this great giveaway book!

  • I just discovered the Creative Vegetable Gardener and can’t wait to convert my “flat” gardening style to NO TILL, complete with all the flower ideas! Love the zinnia varieties – Benary Giant, Queen Red Lime and Zindarella – so blitzy!!

  • I love growing zinnias in my veggie garden. I call them my happy faces and they are the first thing I look at when I rise in the morning. I cut and give them away all summer long to share with others. I look forward to adding some of the others listed in this blog. Thanks.

  • This is my first year with a yard! I’m looking forward to starting a vegetable garden and mixing some flowers in as well! I just started my snapdragons. I’m also looking forward to planting poppies, zinnias and cosmos!

  • So hard to choose a favorite cut flower, but I think I’d have to pick dahlias. They crank out the most beautiful blooms! Can’t wait to see my new varieties this summer!

  • Zinnias as they are such happy flowers 🙂

  • I love planting nasturtiums in our raised vegetable beds. They add such a cheery color with beautiful foliage. Bonus points that they are edible and look absolutely delightful on a salad.

  • Lace Faerie

    My favorite flower is the purple petunia, the large blossom old fashioned strain. I love its’ fragrance and I incorporate them in my window boxes and hanging baskets as well as outline my garden beds, both food and flower beds.

  • I love my flowering vines: sweet pea, maypop (first attempt at growing is this year), and trumpet honeysuckle.

  • Sunflowers are my favorite, hands-down. They just exude so much cheer and are fun to cut and take inside. My kids and I love to grow a variety, especially the ones that are giant! Great idea to intersperse flowers with veggies; I’m looking forward to trying more of that in our garden!

  • Firecracker plant better known as cleome are amazing and easy to grow. Their spicy smell says summer way into fall.

  • I plant Milkweed for the Monarchs and now have fallen in love with this lovely weed.

  • I grow milkweed for the butterflies and bees, along with Zinnias, Cosmos, Dahlias, and various Lilies and Daylilies. These bring numerous beneficial pollinators to my garden. I would love to receive this informative book to further my love for gardening and growing flowers.

  • Growing up, we always had all colors of gladiolus, and I hope to someday have enough room to grow my own! Right now in my tiny little raised garden, I like growing nasturtiums because they are bright and spill over the edge so beautifully! They are also so tasty and I love munching on a few while I work or picking them for garnishing salads!

  • I’ve always grown marigolds and nasturtiums in my veggie garden. My mom taught me how to harvest marigold seed when I was little so I always plant some in memory of her. Haven’t planted snapdragons in a long while and I’ve never tired love-in-a-mist but it looks wonderful and I’ll plant to add these to my garden this year.

  • Elizabeth E.

    I used to live in an urban area with little open space for gardening. I planted sunflowers in a little patch of dirt out front of my house where a small tree was planted. They were the talk of the street! People would always stop to talk to me about them. I love how sunflowers make a big impact like that because they can grow so large.

  • One of my favorite annuals is Profusion Zinnias – easy to grow and gets nice and bushy and lasts until a hard frost takes its toll

  • Zinnias are one of my favorites! However I want to start growing dahlias, as my Uncle Jack was well known for them. Thanks!

  • I love all most all of them. We just moved to our 8th home and in a completely different climate then I ever gardened in, so I’m starting over again, slowly. Planted DA roses Sharif Asma & heritage, globe thistle, sea holly, dianthus, lavender, sweet peas, morning glory, coneflower, galliarda, , lots of herbs and verbena bonariensis on your recommendation. It’s a beginning!

  • Linda Cahill

    I’ve had veggie and flower gardens for years, always a hodgepodge of what looks nice and is on sale. Not this year. I have already started reading/using Megan’s book: keeping a log of EVERYTHING now! Thank you for the time and space saving ideas. And now the lightbulb has been lit again: plan and plant flowers with purpose. Figuring blooming times, plant height, pest resistance (deer!!) and placement of flowers in and around my garden will bring joy to my veggies, my neighbors and to me! Thank you for the reminder.

  • Jeri Cleveland

    My favorite flowers are peonies for their huge, beautiful blossoms and carnations for their beautiful fragrance!

  • Cathy Seymour

    I’ve grown zinnias within my vegetable garden for years. Will be trying snapdragons and love in a mist this year! Thanks for the info!

  • Pat Slepski

    Love-in-a-mist (nigella) so delicate in appearance, so fearless in re-seeding and coming back! And dahlias, plant and cut, cut, cut for un-ending bouquets. And snap-dragons- such a happy surprise to see them again after a long winter. So many favorites…

  • I love to grow coneflowers. There are many varieties, they look great in a bouquet, and I know they will come up every year.

  • A mixture of larkspur, bachelor buttons and cosmos make up my cut flower bouquets! I also have lots of zinnias and nasturtiums in my garden–
    My most favorite of all would be my giant zinnia flowers.

  • I so enjoyed Megan’s presentation this year at the Madison Garden Expo. I am so glad I ordered her book. For the first time ever I feel I will accomplish what I set out to do this year because of the great planning using her book. I am in Wausau and have a short growing season so I need to use my time wisely. I love that she puts flowers into the vegetable garden – it is something I had thought about and wanted to do to make the garden more appealing to the eye. It will also promote pollinators. I can’t wait to dig in this year!

  • Barb Glassel

    I love Jewels of Opar [Talinum paniculatum], as a cut flower. It has airy bare stalks with tiny round buds and raspberry flowers on “Limon,” a variety with lime-colored leaves, elegant! Good mixed into large pots with taller, more robust annuals. It echoes another lime-green tall annual, “Only the Lonely” Nicotiana [Flowering Tobacco]. Not sure how that one does when cut, however. Both of these annuals often produce seedling volunteers the following year, which I hunt for, then move.

    I would love to find a list of native Midwestern wildflowers which do well as cut flowers. Maybe in Erin’s book?!

  • One of my favorite flowers to grow are sweet peas, the running ones. Love the snapdragons too.

  • Love to see my alliums appear each spring! the lavender shades are my favorite- reminds of my Aunts and Uncle’s garden in England- Hope to start an Agapanthus soon. Thanks J

  • Julie Averill

    I love growing peonies. My grandmother had rows and rows and she gave me some of her bulbs.

  • I love marigolds, but also perennial calendulas and coreopsis. Besides having flowers which are loved by pollinators, I snip some of the blooms for dyeing. Win-win. And dahlias, crocus, tulips, niger hollyhocks, delphinium, blue flax, helleboros, African marigolds, California poppies, lots and lots. Give me more ideas. I’m ready, willing and sort of able.

  • Gorgeous! I am determined to get more cut flowers out of my garden this year, particularly peonies!

  • Dahlias are what converted me from a flower lover to a flower grower!

  • I love growing zinnias and cosmos!

  • I like to plant lots of marigolds.

  • I really like to grow cilantro and dill just to see it flower. I think they look like fireworks!

  • I love those first flowers of spring like crocuses and snowdrops.

  • My favorite flower is euphorbia diamond frost! And echinacea cheyenne spirit!

  • My favorite flower is euphorbia diamond frost!

  • Euphorbia diamond frost is a great filler in the garden

  • I don’t think I have a favorite — I live in my childhood home, and like my late father, I’ve grown cosmos, snapdragons, zinnias, daisies, clematis, dianthus, glads, lavender, roses, honeysuckle, jasmine, astrelmeria, hollyhocks, lantana, coleus, hostas, day lilies, geraniums, nasturtiums, calendula, lobelia, cathedral bells, ferns, cacti, iris, tulips, daffodils, poppies, morning glory, nasturtiums…. And veggies…. many from seeds….

  • Would love to be a proud winner of this fabulous book and gifts! Favorite flower? ? I have a few but today I am naming stock for their scent, longevity, and beauty !

  • Nastursium always seem to capture my heart.. And cosmos..

  • This looks like a fabulous book. Gorgeous flowers!

  • LOVE all flowers in a garden but my favorite to plant our poppies! They remind of my grandmother’s garden and always bring a smile to my face. Plus they look gorgeous in an arrangement!

  • Sharon Massey

    Last year we planted two very long rows of sunflowers. I was surprised at how supper happy they made me feel! I’ll be planting them again this year!

  • Sandra Waters

    I have a new picket fence in my yard and want to try hollyhocks beside the gate. I love their tall stems and the flowers are just beautiful.

  • Michelle Rozich

    Zinnias and sunflowers are my go to summer flowers! Going to try something new this year.

  • I want to try snapdragons! What a great cut flower for the summer garden!!

  • Love zinnias’s and dahlias’s. They gave become somewhat of an addiction.

  • I always plant a mass of zinnia someplace. Dahlias and lantana are other favorites. Thanks for the opportunity!

  • I love growing zinnias, marigolds and sunflowers but will love trying others.

  • Megan Caldwell

    My fave type of flower to grow would be any type of bulb! But especially tulips!!!

  • Cherry Habenicht

    Pansies & violas are must-haves every year, but they’re usually so helpful in self-seeding that I can only take credit for caring for them. I’ve grown so many flowers, yet it’s the asiatic lilies that continue to stun me. I usually buy a new variety each year. One bloom is so elegant floating in a pretty bowl!

  • Jessica Herlein

    My favorite flower to grow – I’m so new in this! My roommate two springs ago grew some zinnias that were like magic, so I’m looking forward to growing those this year. I’m also excited to try some lace flower and cosmos…and after reading this post, I think I may have just the right spot for love-in-a mist in my husband’s and my little urban backyard.

  • Renee Oltrogge

    I love puppy’s and zinnias!

  • Last year I tried growing flower seeds geared for bumblebee pollination but none of them germinated. 🙁 This year I would love to grow flowers that are harmonious with vegetables; the Nigella and sweet William look like wonderful options!

  • Mahdi Martin

    I like lilies and other bulbs. Daffodils are wonderful too! Hardy pedals and greenery tickle my fancy.

  • I like growing daffodils and tulips because when they spring up, it means spring is here!

  • My garden is never complete without some giant sunflowers.

  • We love our Mexican Shell Flowers (Tigridia). We received them by accident from a local garden club flower fundraiser. The best part, the flowers only come out for one day. You never know which color it will be and which design.

  • […] Friday, March 17: Creative Vegetable Gardener  […]

  • Since I have read the first article of your blog I tend to visit your blog to read other posts every now and then.I also like to grow flowers and like to get engaged in agricultural stuff.For a person like me your blog is useful and keeps me updated of new things.

  • […] flowers are the easiest way to quickly brighten a room. Or you could try growing your own cutting flowers! Decorate with some driftwood, wicker baskets, shells, or beautiful rocks. Another option is forcing […]

  • […] Find out all about my favorite flowers for raised beds. […]

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