Leo, how about growing some Heliopsis, these perennials are sooo easy and make excellent cut flowers. They're also very simple to start from seed and will bloom the first year from an early sowing. Also, from the nurseries, you can purchase already started plants of such varieties as 'Bressingham Doubloon' 'Tuscan Sun' and 'Venus', all are very good selections.

Terrance

This post was edited by twrosz on Sun, Dec 7, 14 at 18:35

When I was selling bouquets, some of the perennials I used were hydrangeas; peonies; liatris, lilies, as you mentioned; russian sage; phlox; echinacea; agastache; daisies; perennial rudbeckias; hostas (used both leaves & flowers - grandiflora smells wonderful, and some of the large, variegated varieties make a great impact with a single leaf).

Which brings me to foliage - not only did I use hosta leaves, but branches of variegated caryopteris, dogwood (cornus alba); hollies, yew, etc.

You might consider some reseeders as well. Rudbeckias come to mind in particular - great cutting flower and reseeds nicely but not aggressively, IMO. Feverfew, larkspur, cleome, celosias, amaranthus, and nigella are good too. And dill - beautiful in bouquets!

And depending on your climate, you may be able to overwinter gladiolus. They shouldn't overwinter here for me in zone 6, in theory, but they have done so, so maybe you will have success.

Please note, all the suggestions I made are made without any knowledge of UK conditions or sandy soil, lol, so they may not work for you!

Good luck!
Dee

Shrubs provide a lot of good cut flowers. Roses, obviously, but also things like Forsythia early in the year.

Oh nice. I forgot about the foliage.
Where shrubs go, I was looking at rhododendrons, azalea, camelia considering hydrangea but onlif it's blue. (that's acidic soil right?)
We all dislike rose bush. So won't be using them.

How long with the thistle stay blue when cut? They look good too.

You could use Eryngiums or Echinops ('Taplow Blue') is a really nice variety. They can both be dried for use over & over again. Baptisia is another possibility.

angelica sylvestris, ammi majus, chaerophyllum, bupleurum longifolia, astrantia and eryngiums - all in the umbellifer/apauiaceae family.

Delphinium, especially some of the more delicate species and belladonna cultivars - currently enjoying a rather strange d.requienii and the pale yellow D,zalil.

Toadflax - the common purpurea can also be grown in pink (Canon Went) and white with various lilacs in between
Scabious - various but would recommend the dainty S.gramineus.
Alstroemeria...although beware the common aurianticus with fragile questing roots.
asters - many possibilities here
trachelium
limonium
leucanthemum
gladioli (especially the smaller primulinus, dalenii, byzantinus tristis and colveilli

I often use branches with heps and berries, grasses and seed heads such as teasel,

Centaurea comes to mind. These are lower growing and come in some fabulous colors, most of them featuring purple. They will handle the soil, but DO need to have decent drainage. Sand & clay can be a good mixture as the sand encourages the soil to drain. They will also tolerate full sun to partial shade. Echinacea is another thought, mainly because they are a favorite, though they really need full sun. Here's a place to really compare which gives the moisture, soil requirements, bloom times and heights so you can plan to plant blossoms that will not only come back every year but will provide flowers throughout the whole season while looking gorgeous together. Lots of pictures here! :). Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Perennial flower pictures

Echinaceas are quite tricky in our climate. They often don't survive the winter and many people consider them transient occupants of the garden rather than tough perennials. Nor do they self seed much as the soggy Autumns are not conducive to seed ripening. The problem with our winters is that they don't get a good deep freeze and dormancy. The relatively mild wet conditions don't suit them.