Cheap Cut Flowers: Sunflowers, Cosmos, and Zinnias

My wife asked me last summer why we were spending money on grocery store flowers when we had a whole garden. I didn’t have a good answer. By now you should know better than that.

Turns out growing cheap cut flowers is one of the easiest wins in the vegetable garden world, and I’d been ignoring it for years. A single packet of zinnia seeds produces enough blooms to fill every room in the house all summer. A packet of cosmos costs less than a cup of coffee and reseeds itself like it’s trying to take over. And sunflowers, well, my daughters have strong opinions about sunflowers and those opinions are correct.

If you’re in the Pacific Northwest and you’re just now thinking about this in April, you’re at exactly the right time. These three are warm-season annuals that want to go in the ground after last frost, which around Redmond means late May. But you can start them indoors right now and get a jump on the season.

Sunflowers

I direct sow most of my sunflowers, honestly. They don’t love having their roots messed with, and they germinate fast enough, 7 to 10 days at 65 degrees, that starting early doesn’t buy you as much as you’d think. But if my kids are involved, we’re starting seeds in cups in April because waiting until May is not an option anyone is willing to negotiate.

For cut flowers, skip the giant single-stem types and go for a branching variety. Something like Autumn Beauty or Lemon Queen will give you weeks of blooms instead of one dramatic moment. I grab whatever branching mix is cheapest at the seed catalog or the hardware store seed rack. The plants don’t know the difference.

Deadhead them regularly, or just keep cutting. That’s the trick with sunflowers for cutting. The more you take, the more they give. Which is also true of a lot of things in life, but I try not to get too philosophical about my flowers.

Zinnias

Zinnias might be the single best return on a seed packet investment. Full stop. One packet of zinnia cut flower mix seeds can honestly produce more blooms than you know what to do with from July through the first frost. They also don’t care that our summers here are slightly confused. They’ll bloom through the drizzle and the heat waves with equal enthusiasm.

I start zinnias indoors about four weeks before transplant date, in yogurt cups or paper cups with holes poked in the bottom. They don’t need much light to germinate, just warmth, around 70 to 75 degrees. Once they’re up they want all the light you can give them.

One mistake I made early on: starting zinnias too early. Started them eight weeks out one year and by transplant time they were tall, leggy, and already trying to bloom in their cups. Four weeks max. Lesson learned the hard way, as usual.

Pinch them once when they’re about 12 inches tall. I know it feels wrong to cut the first flower bud. Do it anyway. You’ll get a much bushier plant and way more stems for cutting later. Growth mindset. (Gardening pun. Sorry.)

Cosmos

Cosmos are possibly the most forgiving flower I’ve ever grown. You can basically scatter them on prepared soil, walk away, and come back in July to an absolute cloud of pink and white. They prefer lean soil, which means they actively do not want you to amend or fertilize them. I appreciate a plant with low expectations.

Direct sow cosmos after last frost or start them inside four to six weeks early. They’re so fast and easy to grow that starting them early is mainly useful if you’re impatient (which I am) or if you want blooms in June instead of July. Either works.

Cosmos bipinnatus is the classic variety, the feathery-leaved one with the daisy-like blooms. Get that one. The Sensation mix is everywhere and cheap. Tall stems, great for vases, and the bees go absolutely feral for them, which is a side benefit I didn’t expect but now count on. Cosmos and bees, basically an arranged marriage that works out for everyone.

Like zinnias, keep cutting. The more vases you fill, the longer the plant keeps producing. We had fresh cosmos on the kitchen table from July until mid-October last year. My wife has stopped asking why we don’t buy grocery store flowers.

A Few Practical Notes

All three of these do best with at least six hours of direct sun. In a typical Seattle-area summer that’s doable, though some years you’re negotiating with the clouds.

Start with a single packet of each if you’re new to this. That’s maybe five or six dollars total, depending on where you buy. I grabbed mine at Sky Nursery last year, think I paid something like $3.47 a packet. Compare that to a grocery store bouquet and the math gets embarrassing fast. I always buy a basic seed starting mix in bulk at the start of the season and use it for everything, which keeps costs down across the board.

And honestly, there’s something that hits different about walking out to your own garden and cutting flowers for the table. My daughters think I’m basically a florist now. I’m not going to correct them.

Photo by runda choo on Unsplash