The 10 Flowers I'd Grow If I Was Starting Over

If I could go back to the very beginning — before the dump trucks of soil, before the seed catalogues, before I'd ever grown a single flower from seed — and hand myself a planting list, this would be it.

These are the ten flowers I would grow without hesitation. Not because they're the flashiest or the most trending, but because they perform, they're beautiful, and together they make the kind of bouquets that stop people in their tracks. I've grown all of them here at Sugar Flower Farm, and I stand behind every single one.

Let's get into it.

1. Dahlias

If you've spent any time on my Instagram, you already know how I feel about dahlias. They are the wow factor of any bouquet — the flower that makes people lean in for a closer look. What I love most about them is the sheer variety of textures and shapes available. From soft, romantic cafe au lait tones to deep jewel-toned purples, there is a dahlia for every palette and every vision.

For beginners, here are my variety recommendations by colour:
Pinks: Castle Drive or Lakeview Peach Fuzz
Purples: Ferncliff Concord
Yellows: Golden Scepter
Neutrals: Sweet Suzanne
Oranges: Jowey Linda

One thing I wish someone had told me early on: dinner plate dahlias are not your friend in a bouquet. They are simply too overpowering — one bloom takes up the entire arrangement and leaves no room for anything else. Similarly, collarette dahlias are absolutely gorgeous in the field, but their vase life is very low, so they don't translate well to cut flower use. Stick to medium-sized blooms and you'll be golden.

2. Zinnias

Zinnias are the bread and butter of my operation. The workhorse of the field. They bloom endlessly all summer long, they come in a beautiful range of colours, and they are as close to foolproof as a cut flower gets.

Here's something exciting happening in the zinnia world right now: hybridizers have been developing new varieties that are more pastel and subtle than what most people picture when they think of zinnias. These are not your grandmother's zinnias. They are soft, sophisticated, and absolutely stunning in arrangements.

My top varieties: the Oklahoma Series in pink, salmon, and ivory; Queen Lime Blush; and Ballerina.

My most important zinnia tip: pinch them after two sets of true leaves. I know it feels counterintuitive to cut back a plant that's just getting started, but pinching zinnias early leads to bushier plants with far more stems over the course of the season. Don't skip this step.

3. Snapdragons — Traditional Dragon Shape

Snapdragons bring height and structure to bouquets in a way that very few other flowers can. When you're working with a lot of round and disc-shaped blooms, a tall snapdragon spike is exactly what pulls an arrangement together.

For the traditional dragon-shaped variety, the Potomac Series is my top recommendation for beginners. They are extremely robust with long, strong stems — exactly what you want in a cut flower. My favourite colours in this series are Appleblossom, Orange, and Pink.

The most important thing I can tell you about growing snapdragons: build a low tunnel to shelter them during heavy rain. One bad rainstorm can completely destroy an entire crop. It's a simple precaution that will save you a lot of heartbreak.

4. Snapdragons — Chantilly Shape

I'm giving snapdragons two spots on this list because the Chantilly form is different enough to deserve its own mention. Instead of the classic dragon-mouth shape, Chantilly snapdragons have an open, butterfly-like flower that gives bouquets an airier, more romantic feel.

The Chantilly Series in Salmon and Bronze are my favourites here. One thing to keep in mind: Chantilly snapdragons tend to bloom early, so succession planting is especially important. Stagger your sowing dates and you'll have a continuous supply rather than one big flush that's over before you know it.

5. Strawflower

If there is one flower on this list that might surprise you, it's strawflower — and that's exactly why I love it. You will almost never see strawflower in a florist shop or a grocery store bouquet. Which means the moment you add it to your arrangements, they immediately look different. Special. Like something you couldn't just pick up anywhere.

My must-grow variety is Silvery Rose. It is the most versatile colour I grow — it goes with absolutely everything, from soft blush palettes to deep moody burgundies.

Bonus tip: harvest strawflowers to dry and save for the off-season. They are absolutely beautiful in holiday wreathmaking and make a wonderful dried product to sell through the winter months.

6. Celosia

Celosia adds a soft, feathery spike to bouquets that is completely unlike anything else on this list. I want to be specific here: I grow the plume varieties only. I don't grow cockscomb celosia, which has a very different look that I find harder to work with in arrangements.

All of the Floret varieties are stunning, and I also love Flamingo Feather. Celosia is a great substitute to reach for when you're in between successions of snapdragons and need something tall and airy to fill that role.

One practical note: celosia seeds are very easy to save. If you love a variety, let a few stems go to seed at the end of the season and you'll have plenty to sow next year.

7. Cosmos

Cosmos does something in a bouquet that almost nothing else can: it adds airiness. When you tend to make tight, lush arrangements the way I do, a few stems of cosmos tucked in creates movement and lightness that keeps the whole thing from feeling heavy.

I grow one variety: Afternoon White. My philosophy with cosmos is that I don't want to dedicate a lot of field space to them, so I choose one versatile variety that goes with almost any palette — and white goes with everything.

The most important cosmos tip I can give you: direct sow them in the field. I have tried starting cosmos in the greenhouse and transplanting, and the plants that are direct sown outdoors consistently outperform them. Save yourself the greenhouse space and just sow them where they'll grow.

8. Bunny Tail Grass

Every bouquet needs something that makes people pause and say "wait, what is that?" For me, bunny tail grass is that thing. It adds a soft, unexpected texture that clients comment on constantly. People who don't even know what it is love it — they just know that it makes the bouquet feel different from anything they've seen before.

Like strawflower, bunny tail grass can be dried and saved for off-season projects, which makes it doubly valuable in a small-scale operation.

9. Breadseed Poppy

Here's where I'm going to give you advice that might go against everything you'd expect: I don't use the flowers. The petals fall too quickly to make breadseed poppies useful as a traditional cut flower.

What I use — and what I absolutely love — are the silvery green seed pods.

My variety is Ziar, and those pods add the most beautiful sculptural texture to bouquets. They're unusual, they're elegant, and they photograph incredibly well. You'll know a pod is ready to harvest when it makes a rattling sound if you shake it. At that point it's ready to go straight into a bouquet or be saved for seeds.

10. Sedum

I'll be honest with you: I have complicated feelings about filler flowers. I don't love them. A lot of what gets used as filler in bouquets feels like an afterthought to me — something to bulk up an arrangement without adding much beauty.

Sedum is the exception.

The variety I grow is Stonecrop, and I use it when the flowers are still green — before they fully open. At that stage, the disc-shaped clusters add just the right texture and weight to an arrangement without competing with the focal flowers. It's what I'd call a non-filler filler: it earns its place.

Don't be afraid to cut sedum stems early. The green is the point.

An Honourable Mention: Bells of Ireland

I grow Bells of Ireland and I adore them, but I would not recommend them to a beginner or to anyone working with limited space — so they didn't make the main list.

Here's why: they are notoriously difficult to germinate, they are one-and-done (meaning they do not continue to produce new blooms the way zinnias or snapdragons do), and one hard rain can ruin an entire crop. They demand experience, space, and patience.

But if you have all three of those things? Bells of Ireland are an absolutely stunning spike that can be added to almost any bouquet, and they give off the most incredible lemony scent. They are worth the effort — just not in year one.

Start Here

If you're feeling overwhelmed by this list, here's my suggestion: start with zinnias, snapdragons, and dahlias. Those three flowers alone — grown well, harvested at the right time, and arranged in a complementary palette — will give you bouquets that rival anything you'd find at a flower market.

Add the others as your confidence and your space grow. That's the beauty of a cutting garden: it evolves right along with you.

Next up in this series: Understanding your growing zone, and why it matters more than you might think.

I'm Jen, the owner and grower at Sugar Flower Farm — a small flower farm in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. Follow along on Instagram @sugar_flowerfarm for behind-the-scenes farm content, arrangement inspiration, and seasonal growing tips.