Easy Cut Flowers To Plant In May For A Constant Supply Of Summer Bouquets – 7 Beautiful Blooms

May is an exciting time for anyone wanting to grow cut flowers. Now is the ideal time to sow many annual flower varieties that are stars of the summer garden as well as looking good indoors arranged in bouquets and vases. The trick is to choose cut and come again varieties that are both easy to grow and super productive to keep the supply of flowers coming.

Flowers grow so quickly that even if you think you've left it too late you really haven't as long as you get on with sowing seeds this month. You have the choice of sowing these varieties directly in the ground or into pots or trays indoors ready to transplant outside once the seedlings are large enough to handle.

If you find yourself short on time you can always opt for cutting garden flowers from the nursery instead by stocking up on young plants that are already established and can go straight into the ground. Here are my top recommendations for what to plant in May. I've chosen varieties I already grow with great success in my own garden.

1. Dahlias

I want to start with dahlias as they're one of my all-time favorite cut flowers to plant in May. It's the perfect month for planting out dahlia tubers or any cuttings you've been nurturing along to get them in the ground for perfect blooms all summer long. You can also grow dahlias from seed but be warned they can be slow to germinate.

Dahlias are very much the super stars of the cutting garden. They come in a smorgasbord of different shapes, sizes and colors to add real joie de vivre to your garden, and as well as looking fabulous outdoors you'll be able to fill vases for stunning indoor displays right through summer into fall.

Dahlias work as a focal point for any flowerbed or indoor arrangement. The blooms can be pompom shaped, spiky cactus style, blowsy like peonies or shaggy like chrysanthemums. They come in every color too from dusky pink, orange and red to faded coral, soft lilac, and blush. I love the variety pictured above, the peachy pink 'Penhill Watermelon' Dahlia variety available from Burpee, with its fashionably shaggy petals and sunkissed color.

2. Zinnias

I was late to growing zinnias but once I discovered they've got what it takes to be one of the best cut flowers to plant in May I now grow them every year. One packet of seeds brings so much joy, and they are a great choice for beginners too, as the seeds germinate in as little as four days.

These easy blooms will fill your summer garden with bright splashes of color, or if preferred choose the softer tones offered by the newer pastel shades. With so many different varieties of zinnia to choose from your options are endless: giant varieties with massive blooms, neat pompoms and shaggy cactus-type flowers known as semi-doubles.

One of my favorites is the robust deep pink ‘Purple Prince’, available here from Home Depot, which has fully double, dahlia-like flowers and grows to a taller than average 36 inches.

Zinnia is a cut and come again flower variety. This means the more you cut them to fill vases in the house the more blooms you get. You'll want to leave plenty of flowers in the garden too as they're such a winner. So once they fade on the stem be sure to deadhead them to encourage more flowers instead of letting them go to seed.

3. Cosmos

I plant trays of cosmos every year as they're such a brilliant choice for cutting, as well as adding a lovely floaty detail to the flower garden, where they're a favorite for pollinators too as well as producing armfuls of flowers every summer.

There are many different varieties to choose from including single open face ones and double bonbons with packed petals. They come in a beautiful range of colors too including mid pink, pale blush, vivid magenta, and white etched with pink.

You can even get dark chocolate and mocha shades as well as yellow ones occasionally. I always include white 'Purity' in the mix as it's so prolific and goes with everything.

Cosmos is another cut and come again variety, so the more flowers you pick the more you get. It's important to carry on deadheading the plants you leave in the garden regularly too so the blooms keep coming.

I like to be brave and pinch out the tips to encourage the plants to branch and produce more flowers, even though it can feel counter intuitive to cut back those beautiful feathery stems. When picking flowers for the house don't worry about cutting deep into the plant as it will produce plenty more stems as it grows back.

Shop Cosmos

4. Celosia

There are lots of different types of the vibrant summer flower celosia to choose from but my favorite is celosia plumosa, with its eye-catching feathery plumes that offer a long show of color in the garden.

The flowers are great fillers in fresh vase arrangements when mixed with any of the other flowers on this list, meaning they're another one of the best cut flowers to plant in May.

Surprisingly quick and easy to grow, at first I thought they looked a little ostentatious on the seed packet but I was soon won over by their outstanding performance in the garden, where they can be used in beds and containers as another high yielding cut and come again variety.

They are also a good choice for drying later in the season. I grew the pink Plumed Castle Series of Celosia seed available from Amazon.

I'm not keen on the yellow or orange colors as I find them a little fake looking but if you want an alternative to pink try the award-winning 'Arrabona Red' celosia seeds available from Burpee.

The plumed variety of celosia is not to be confused with celosia cristata, which has a large contorted flower that I think is ugly looking but I'm sure is not without its fans if you want something more unusual.

5. Sunflowers

Adding sunflowers to the mix of summer blooms you grow is a wise move if you want to cultivate a cutting garden. The good news is these abundant blooms are super easy to grow and shoot up fast, adding a touch of sunny color to the garden.

Sunflower seeds are best sown directly in the ground where you want them to grow as they don't like their roots being disturbed.

Forget the supersized variety though. Instead choose more petite types of sunflower. In addition to yellow they come in a palette of late summer shades featuring fiery russet, ruby red, burnt orange and gold.

Their smaller size means they make better cut flowers for vases too. Try Jua Maya Sunflower Seeds from Burpee, which take 45 days from seed to vase.

Pinch out the growing tips of sunflowers you want to pick when the plants are about 20cm tall. That way within a week you’ll see lots of buds and rather than one large flower topping the stem, you’ll end up with four or five slightly smaller flowers perfect for picking and displaying indoors.

6. Marigolds

Another choice for cheerful and easy to grow cut flowers to plant in May are marigolds. I'm not talking about the short bushy varieties that belong in the vegetable patch as an insect deterrent but the African marigolds that grow up to two feet tall.

These they have a long vase life of 7-10 days and add a cheery pop of yellow or orange both to outdoor flower beds and bouquets.

Best sown from seed, you can pinch marigolds to get bushier plants and more flowers. Again they need regular picking or deadheading to keep the flowers coming.

Try 'Mission Giant Yellow' Marigold Seeds available from Burpee, which grow up to 34 inches and have stunning 3 inch double blooms, or 'Elevate Orange' Marigold Seeds also available from Burpee , which grow up to 40 inches tall and produce a profusion of fully-double rounded luminous orange blooms.

7. Scabiosa

This prolific long-stemmed variety of cutting garden flower adds a tall, airy touch to the vase and comes in a range of shades from palest blue, pink, mauve and cream to dark purple and even inky black.

Try this lovely 'Vivid Violet' Pincushion Flower with pretty ruffled petals from Nature Hills or a 'Butterly Blue' Scabiosa from Burpee that will produce bountiful flowers until first frosts.

Growing scabiosa, also known as pincushion plant, is easy. Pick regularly and keep snipping away any deadheads and it will continue to delight right into fall. This favorite cottage garden perennial can grow up to 30 inches tall to add airy height to flowerbeds, and for this reason it's popular in flower arrangements too.

It's another one of my favorite cut flowers to plant in May that benefits from having the growing tips pinched out to create a bushier plant and more flowers to pick.

So that's my round-up of cut flowers to plant in May. I hope you've found plenty of inspiration. One last tip for your indoor vase arrangements. I also like growing ornamental grasses such as dainty Panicum elegans 'Frosted Explosion' and the fluffy white flowerheads of Lagurus ovatus 'Bunny Tails', which both add wonderful textural foliage to bouquets, and are easy to grow from seed too, so why not add them to the mix.

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