Five top tips - growing plants for cut flowers

Bring the outside in by growing your own flowers for cutting. Stems from shrubs, perennials, annuals, bulbs and climbing plants can all provide blooms for the home throughout the year. Make sure to cut your garden flowers straight into water at the coolest time of the day and set them somewhere cool and dark to condition (hydrate) before arranging them. This will help them to last longer in the vase.

• Cel Robertson's five favourite plants for cut flowers
• The cut flower growing year
• 10 bulbs for spring cut flowers
• 1o cut flowers to grow from seed
• How to raise cut flowers from seed
• Perennials for cut flowers
• Best roses for cut flowers

Grow in the sun or the shade

A sunny site will give you the most choice of varieties to grow, but there are lovely cutting plants that grow well in shady positions: hellebores, narcissus and aquilegia in spring; astilbe, astrantia and foxgloves in summer; hydrangea and Michaelmas daisy in autumn; and skimmia, viburnum and witch hazel in winter.

Support your plants

Supports for your plants while they grow will ensure long straight stems for flower arranging. Pea and bean netting can be attached to stakes horizontally to provide support across cut flower beds. Corralling is another useful method; wrap rope or twine around a framework of stakes to keep your plants upright.

How to use plant supports

Think about flower shapes

Think about flower shapes when planning for cut flowers, along with which varieties will be blooming for use at the same time. Spikes and spires, discs, sprays, umbels, bold focal flowers, frothy fillers, trailing elements - all of these will bring interest and dynamism to your floral arrangements.

Use foliage

Don’t forget about foliage. I love to use lots of foliage as structure in my arrangements to give them a ‘garden-gathered’ feel. When I plan my planting with cutting in mind I like to think in thirds: one-third foliage, one-third filler flowers and one-third focal flowers.

Add some texture

Grasses and seed heads will bring another element of texture and interest to your seasonal garden-style arrangements. Take inspiration from nature to use the best that the season has to offer. I like to dry these textural elements to use throughout the winter months to remind me of summer.