Seeds, Fertilizer, Varieties, Spring, Fall

The dazzling yellow blooms of sunflowers symbolize adoration and loyalty. This hardy perennial grows in full sun to partial shade.

Dainty grape-scented muscari bloom in cool season, with plants ranging from four to six inches tall. They naturalize easily, making them a good choice for rock gardens or edging.

Photo: Farrah Storr

I became an eccentric flower woman sometime between my 40th birthday and the morning I was browsing an antique store in the Cotswolds and discovered the only thing chicer (and more exclusive) than an old Celine crombie jacket was a vintage Constance Spry vase. So I converted a small patch of land at the bottom of our garden, deep in the British countryside in the wilds of Kent, into a cut-flower patch. I bought a bunch of tulip bulbs and dahlia tubers, dug them into the ground, and thought that was it. Oh, how wrong I was. Here’s the Murphy’s Law of growing your own flowers: The more beautiful the flower, the bigger the pain in the ass it usually is. Flowers are divas. They need the right soil, the right secateurs, the right vase, and particularly the right temperament (lots of patience and the occasional whisper does the trick) to get the best out of them. But here’s the thing: It’s worth it. Because not only does growing and picking your own flowers allow you to have bunches of jewel-like blooms in your house all year round, the likes of which you will never, ever find in your corner bodega, but the very act of nurturing flowers from bulb to bloom feels akin to a spiritual awakening. I swear, half an hour with my cut flowers feels exactly the same as seven days at a yoga retreat. I’ve spent four years, almost every waking hour, and literally thousands of pounds on figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Here’s what you need, from the best gardening gloves to the bots that will change your life.