Bupleurum

Here are Lisa Ziegler's 5 recommended "Cool Flowers" — cold-tolerant hardy annuals for overwintering and shoulder-season growing for the earliest possible blooms in spring.

Instructions and tips for cutting and air-drying ornamental flowers: location for drying, selecting flowers to dry, prepping, and how to know when your dried materials are ready for arrangements and crafting.

For experienced vegetable farmers looking to expand into commercial cut-flower production, as well as the more casual — yet entrepreneurial — gardener exploring ways to create a tidy income stream on the side, these personal narratives from expert farmers around the nation introduce our top-15 choices for getting started in cut flowers. Remember to take notes as you create your seed lists!

Profitable margins at the market rely on building efficiencies into the bouquet-making and operation, plus branding that emphasizes "couture" over "commodity." Here's advice from 3 professional flower farmers on how to convey the inherent value of your bouquets through method and presentation.

Which flowers can I direct-sow? Here are our top-10 recommendations: 5 for cool-soil direct-seeding and 5 for direct-seeding, plus one that can be sown directly in either!

In commercial cut-flower production and the backyard cutting garden, fillers and foliage form the backbone of cut-flower arrangements. We asked flower farmers from three different regions for recommendations.