Last Flowers of Season

Zinnias and lantana in the last cut flower bouquet of the season. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Last Flowers of Season

The first frost came early this year; about two weeks earlier than the usual Halloween frost that marks the first hard frost of the season. I live in USDA Hardiness zone 5 where we have four distinct seasons. With our rapidly changing climate, springs and falls are getting longer while summers and winters seem shorter.

I started bringing in my tropical plants a few weeks back which includes pots of annuals including geraniums, lantanas and salvia. The pots of zinnias have not survived well inside in the past so those are cut to preserve the last flowers of the season.

If you want to enjoy a few more cut flowers from your garden, cut them as you would any time of the year. Early morning is best, and use pruners or flower scissors to make a clean cut on the stem.

Lantana flowers are annuals that have a sharp scent as cut flowers. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

This time of year you can also cut the buds. In the case of zinnias, the buds very nicely open up inside to form full flowers in a vase.

You can cut zinnias in bud; they will unfurl into full flowers in a vase. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Remove leaves from the stem bottoms.

Change water every day or so to keep the flowers blooming.

If the stem is collapsing, recut so the flower can still absorb water.

If you get the stems too short, consider putting them i a shorter flower vase instead of throwing them out.

You can also add wildflowers currently in bloom. The combination of annuals and wildflowers can make lovely combinations. Since I was cutting these flowers in the middle of the night I chose not to go looking for wildflowers. Wildflowers will make it through a frost much better than these tropical annuals.

Enjoy, and start planning next year’s garden!

Charlotte