What you should plant now for a blooming summer garden

Apart from the pleasure they bring, there are other good reasons to grow cut flowers, says gardener Olivia McCord.

“One is from a nature perspective, if you are a vegetable gardener, you know, it can bring those pollinators to your garden with the bees.

“But personally, I just think it's such a fun thing to grow. It's beautiful, it smells fragrant, and it just brings joy plopping them in the house, and no one will ever say no to a bouquet.”

The Tauranga based self-taught green thumb has a business selling cut flower seeds. Her new book The Floral Dream: A guide to growing cut flowers in New Zealand is filled with tips and tricks to grow yourself a blooming summer garden.

Cut flowers are any with long stems, she explains.

“Essentially something that has a long stem that you can cut and plonk in a vase.”

If you’re starting out, keep it simple at first, she says.

“I think the biggest essential first is to just grow something you enjoy. Because if you're growing something that you don't overly like, you're not going to want to do more of it.

“Then pick easy flowers. I've put in the book which ones are easier. Hydrangeas are really forgiving shrub.”

Then go to cottage garden classics such as zinnias, cosmos, or straw flowers, she says.

“Things that are just going to keep blooming, you don't want to grow something, and then it only gives you one flower, that's quite disappointing.”

The best, and cheapest, way to get started is from seed, she says. But make sure you source seeds that are genuine cut varieties.

“If you go into your general garden store, you might get a zinnia, but they're a different variety, a lot of them are more the dwarf variety for what they call bedding or for pots.

“Whereas the cut flowers are different varieties that do have those long stems.”

Seek out specialty providers or nurseries to get the right seeds or seedlings, she says.

You can start to build your own seed library and storage is simple, she says.

“You just need to keep them in a kind of dark place away from moisture.

“But when you're wanting to grow them, the key is to know the right season.”

You also, she says, need to know what suits you particular regional climate.

So, what should we be putting in the garden now?

“Maybe hold off for a couple of weeks if you're in the deeper south, but definitely North Island now you're starting to put in all your summers.

"So you can put in your dahlia tubers, especially in Northland. Some probably have already got them in.

“Your snapdragons might have already been in or you can place them in. Your zinnias, your cosmos, your straw flowers, scabiosa, which is my favourite - terrible name. They're very cottage garden and very whimsical.”

To get a good handle on the flower varieties that grow best where you live, get involved in local gardening groups, she says.

“I live in Tauranga and we live just over this little hill in a dip. I can grow peonies, which is unheard of there.

“And my season comes a couple of weeks after the rest of Tauranga. You'd only really know that by talking to locals around you.”