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Have you ever seen one of those mesmerizing photos of the kaleidoscopic tulip fields in Holland? Well, Floret Farm in Washington is the stateside equivalent. Depending on the time of year, you'll encounter seemingly endless swathes of ranunculus, roses, sweet peas, and dahlias (to name just a few) in every color imaginable. Erin Benzakein is the self-taught mastermind behind the farm, which supplies fresh cut blooms to stores and florists all over the Pacific Northwest and is the site for various floral design workshops. But lucky for us, she's not keeping her expertise to herself. Benzakein's new book, Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden ($30, Chronicle Books) delves into the process behind growing your own blossoms for using in arrangements—and she swears you don't have to have acres and acres of land to do it. Here are some of our favorite tips from inside the book. . .
Splurge on a soil test
"While this step is the most often overlooked, it’s also one of the most important keys to a cut flower grower’s success," writes Benzakein. After inspecting a sample, a lab will inform you of whether or not your soil has any mineral deficiencies and how to fix them with soil amendments, such as fertilizer or bone meal.
Annuals are "the cutting gardener’s training wheels"
"Tender annuals are plants that you sow in early spring; they bloom mainly in summer, set seed, and die when the weather cools in autumn," says Benzakein. Think sunflowers, zinnias, and marigolds.
Keep your garden close and your bulbs closer
"We grow most of our annuals nine inches apart," writes Benzakein. "This way, I am able to squeeze three to four times as many flowers into a bed as I would if I followed the seed packet recommendations." Plus, there's less room for weeds to grow.
Don't plant just pretty blooms
Benzakein actually plants only half of her plots with traditional eye-catching flowers—the rest is greenery that can be mixed into bouquets. Otherwise, she writes, "it’s hugely frustrating to plant your entire patch with 50 different blooming varieties in spring, only to run out of foliage to mix with them by late summer and have nothing to cut in autumn or winter."
