Cut Flower Garden Layout with Perennials and Annuals

Part of Our Garden Plan Collection

This plan is part of our free Garden Plan Library, featuring tested layouts for vegetables, flowers, and mixed gardens. Each plan guides you on what to plant, when, and how—so you can grow with confidence and enjoy a steady supply of blooms for cutting or decorative purposes.

What’s Included

• A dedicated layout and planting map for a cut flower garden design that includes perennials and annuals which are good for cutting and bouquets.
• Step-by-step instructions for soil prep, planting, watering, and maintenance.
• Plant list along with a schedule and spacing guidance for consistent blooms.
• Tips for succession sowing to keep flowers blooming all season.
• Real gardener insights using this exact layout.

The Cut Flower Garden Layout

Unlike a cutting garden grown purely for production, this plan blends long-lasting plants with seasonal color. Flowers return year after year, while easy annuals fill in gaps and keep bouquets coming all season long. The layout works equally well in a backyard bed, along borders, or tucked into an existing flower garden. By mixing plant types, you get structure, variety, and repeat blooms throughout the growing season. 

This plan beautifully blends:

• Perennials such as roses and yarrow, which return every year
• Annuals such as zinnias, sunflowers, scabiosa, cosmos, and dill — all easy from seed and incredibly productive
• Tender perennials like dahlias are breathtaking. Lift the tubers in colder regions and replant in spring.
• Bulbs such as pest-resistant alliums, which give early structure and can be replanted for another season
• Foliage, because great bouquets need greenery! Shrubs such as photinia or pittosporum provide filler all season, from spring arrangements to holiday greenery.

This cutting garden is shown as a single flower bed for clarity, but the same plants can be grown in rows, along borders, or woven into mixed garden beds.

Planting Map

The Plant List

See guides to all plants listed below: Almanac Flower Growing Guides.

• A single shrub—photinia (Red Robin)—anchors the plan. Its evergreen leaves provide beautiful filler for arrangements year-round. Variegated pittosporum is another excellent choice, but truly any shrub with attractive foliage will work.
• Annuals give the biggest bang for your buck—plant generously for abundant summer color.
• Dill may surprise beginners, but its airy foliage and yellow umbels bring movement and depth to summer bouquets. Depending on your variety choices, your cutting garden can be pastel, bold and bright, or a cheerful mix of both.
• New to cutting flowers? Also consider multi-stemmed dwarf sunflowers in pale shades—‘Valentine’ is a lovely beginner-friendly choice with soft, lemon-colored petals.

How to Create Your Cutting Garden

Step 1: Soil Prep

Mix in compost or aged manure to build a deep, rich bed—flowers grown for cutting appreciate fertile, loose soil for long stems and full blooms.

Step 2: Plant Timing

• Perennials (roses, yarrow) return each year.
• Most annuals in this plan are direct-sown once frost danger passes.
• Perennials and shrubs are planted in spring.
• Dahlias go in after the soil warms.
• Alliums are planted in the fall for next year’s blooms.

Step 3: Maintenance

• Deadhead or harvest often—the more you cut, the more they bloom.
• Bulbs also rebloom best when flowers are picked promptly (it helps them store energy for next season).
• In colder zones, lift tubers in fall and replant in spring.
• Add 1 to 2 inches of compost around perennials at season’s end to keep them vigorous.

Step 4: Harvesting

• Cut flowers in the early morning, using clean pruning snips.
• Put stems immediately into water. Keep a bucket handy in the garden for easy harvesting.

Gardener Spotlight: Susie’s Experience

“I always dreamed of having a cutting garden, but I never knew where to start. The Garden Planner made it so simple to see how many plants I needed and how to lay them out.

I created a little dedicated flower area (mostly because it was fun to draw in the Planner!)—but the truth is, these flowers grow beautifully in rows or right inside a regular flower bed.

My favorites were the zinnias, dahlias, and scabiosa. And oddly enough, the dill! Its feathery leaves added such a pretty texture to my bouquets. The photinia shrub was the real secret—having easy greenery to snip made every bouquet look professional.

By late summer, I was cutting flowers every few days and giving bouquets to neighbors. I must have a green thumb after all! If I can grow a cutting garden, anyone can.”

Why Grow a Mixed Cutting Garden?

• Provides flowers for bouquets while still looking attractive outdoors.
• Combines plants that return each year with easy seasonal color.
• Attracts pollinators such as butterflies and bees.
• Encourages regular harvesting, which promotes more blooms.
• Offers flowers for everyday enjoyment and special occasions.
• Creates a garden meant to be shared.

FAQs for the Cut Flower Garden Layout

Q: Do I need a dedicated cutting garden area?

A: Not at all! This plan is shown as a standalone bed for clarity, but the flowers grow just as well in rows or mixed borders.

Q: Can everything be started outdoors?

A: Yes—most annuals are easy to direct-sow. Perennials, shrubs, and dahlias are planted as nursery plants or tubers.

Q: How do I keep flowers blooming all season?

A: Cut often. Harvesting encourages more growth—especially with zinnias, cosmos, and scabiosa.

Q: How should I overwinter dahlias?

A: In Zones 5b–10, mulch deeply after frost. In colder zones, lift tubers and store them in a cool, dry place.

Q: Do I need foliage plants?

A: Yes! Even one shrub adds structure and 

More References

Best Flowers for a Cutting Garden

How to Grow a Flower Garden

How to Make a Beautiful Bouquet

Storing Flower Bulbs

Wit & Wisdom

“I must have flowers, always and always.” — Claude Monet

A cutting garden rewards you for every snip—more blooms, more color, more joy. Whether pastel, bold, or wildly mixed, it’s a garden designed to be shared.

Other Plans to Explore

Want more inspiration for cut flowers? Check out these plot plans:

• Cut Flower Garden Plan for 3 Raised Beds - a steady supply of fresh flowers for bouquets and vases from spring through fall.
• Three-Season Perennial Garden Design - dependable plants, rich foliage, and overlapping bloom times.
• Pollinator Garden - an open, native flowers that are easy for pollinators to access.
• Perennial Flower Garden - this garden delivers reliable color, texture, and structure throughout the growing season.