One Last Harvest from Ellen’s Cutting Garden

Hi GPODers! We’re wrapping up our visit with New Jersey garden designer Ellen Goldfarb today, and this time we’re stepping away from her fall container designs to see what’s growing in her cutting garden. Here’s Ellen with a little background on her garden and what she picked!

My cutting garden is in two raised beds about 17 inches high, 4 feet wide, and 8 and 10 feet long, made from railroad ties. It has a southern exposure. This was only the third year I’ve had the garden. The area had been in full shade until a neighbor took down a huge tree to the east of my property. Sad for the tree but good for me! I also have a bean tunnel with beans (Phaseolus vulgaris, annual), 21 tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum, annual), and a fig tree (Ficus carica, Zones 7–10).

I picked all my dahlias (Dahlia cvs., Zones 8–11), zinnias (Zinnia elegans, annual), and roses (Rosa cvs., Zones 4–9) from the cutting garden because we were expecting a frost that night. So sad!

Here they are, arranged in their vases!

Starting on the left and moving across the arrangements:

1. Dahlia ‘Shaggy Chic’, with ‘Aurora Mix’ zinnias from Johnny’s Selected Seeds behind it to the right. I grow this mix every year and love it!
2. In front are mixed-color nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus, annual). Last year I had the most incredible double-flowering plants with the wildest colors, but the grower didn’t have them this year.
3. Back to the right are ‘Easy Does It’ (orangey peach) and ‘Julia Child’ (dark yellow) roses, my two favorites for cutting and fragrance.
4. In front of them are pink ‘Pica Bella’ coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea ‘Pica Bella’, Zones 3–8), which we just saw on the Netherlands tour, and a very double orange coneflower with a green center called ‘SunSeekers Rainbow’ (Echinacea ‘SunSeekers Rainbow’, Zones 4–9). I just saw it and grabbed it. I hope it’s hardy!
5. To the right and back are ‘Queeny Red Lime’ zinnias. I love the Queen Lime series and will always grow them. They’re great cut flowers, lasting at least a week in a vase, with strong stems in the garden. Beautiful dark red centers and a nice mix of colors. Last year I grew ‘Queen Lime Orange’. Next year I think I’ll get the mix.
6. In front of them is ‘Sweet Drift’ rose, a beautiful small floribunda and a crazy bush! The description says it grows 3 feet by 3 feet, but I have them on a job where they’re unattended all summer, and they end up 5 feet by 5 feet. I find they’re prone to mildew, but they’re still worth growing and make really pretty cut flowers.
7. Back to the right are ‘Fascination’ dahlias and a hot pink cactus-flowered dahlia whose name I don’t know.
8. Next are more dahlias whose names I don’t know, but the salmon-colored ones are ‘Ice Tea’. Mixed with them are some pink cut-and-come-again zinnias.
9. In front are more nasturtiums, with a little stem of ‘Mona Lavender’ plectranthus (Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’, Zones 9–11).
10. Behind that and just above are ‘Apricot Zest’ zinnias. They didn’t behave the way they were described, so I probably won’t grow them again, but their red centers were nice. Last year I grew Baker Creek’s ‘Zinderella Zest’, and they were prolific. There’s a ‘Profusion Apricot’ zinnia in there, too. I really like that plant but always seem to overcrowd it. It needs a nice place of its own. Next year!
11. Above and to the right are more ‘Aurora Mix’ zinnias.

There’s also a small purple-flowering stem of cape primrose (Streptocarpus cvs., Zones 10–11) in the middle front. That isn’t from the cutting garden. I had just brought the plant inside for winter.

Thank you, Ellen, for sharing one last burst of color from your cutting garden! I love hearing which varieties earned a place on your list for next year and which ones might not make the cut. That’s half the fun of gardening, isn’t it?

And a big thank-you to Ellen and Tracy for sharing their beautiful fall container designs and autumn arrangements with us throughout the week! It’s been such a treat seeing their creativity, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have!

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