August In My New England Cutting Garden: What’s Thriving

August in My New England Cutting Garden: Big Wins, New Flowers & One Honest Flop.

There’s a particular kind of August in New England that gardeners here know well: the one where summer finally stops apologizing for the cold, soggy spring it put us through and just DELIVERS! That’s exactly where we are right now, and my cutting garden is making the most of every single warm day it has left.

July was hot here in coastal New Hampshire, but we got enough rain that nothing struggled, and the results are showing. Right now I’m out there with my snips every morning, cutting zinnias, discovering new flowers I’d never grown before, and watching my dahlias started from seed after the voles took out all my tubers last year get closer to blooming by the day. This is the season I wait for all year.

Here’s what’s actually happening in my Zone 6a cutting garden this August. The wins, the one honest flop, and the flower I’m completely obsessed with that you need to add to your list immediately.

What’s Absolutely Thriving

We are at the mid-season point of the gardening season here in zone 6a New Hampshire. After a slow start at the beginning of June, things have filled in so fully in the raised bed cut flower garden. Last year was an incredible year out here in my cutting garden, and I’m hoping that my end-of-season recap will say the same thing about the 2026 growing season! So far, so good. You can check out my recap of last year’s flower gardens for comparison.

Here are some of my favorite blooms.

Zinnias

The zinnias are the star of the show right now, and I say that every year, but I mean it every year. They took their sweet time getting going for me this year after a very chilly start; it was in the 30s over Memorial Day weekend here!! But the past two weeks they have completely taken off, and I am cutting armloads of them every few days.

If you’re ever discouraged by slow zinnia growth in early summer, just wait. They always come through.

Snapdragons

Snapdragons are such a nice addition to your cut flower garden. Their spiked shape always makes a simple vase of fresh flowers look more elegant. I started the snapdragon seeds indoors under grow lights in March and planted out the seedlings in late May.

Celosia

I went a little crazy trying different varieties of celosia this year. The tall plumes get me every single time! I’ve used it as the ‘back row’ of quite a few of the raised beds. It works so well with a row of zinnias in front of it.

Strawflowers

My strawflowers seem to be a little later blooming than past years. They finally look like the plants are filling in and are just starting to flower. In the next couple of weeks, they should be fully in bloom here. They are my #1 favorite flower to dry and use in botanical projects throughout the year.

The real excitement this year, though, is the new flowers I tried for the first time. I went a little adventurous with my seed orders and every single one of them paid off:

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Then There Were The Poppies

And then there were the poppies. I had a banner poppy year, truly the best I’ve ever had, and while they’ve finished blooming, those pods are still stunning in arrangements. Nothing else gives you that same dramatic silhouette.

Poppies and I have had a complicated history. In past years I’d direct-sow them; they need to be surface sown, just pressed lightly onto the soil, and end up with maybe two or three flowers if I was lucky. My best guess is that the birds and critters were finding the seeds before they ever had a chance to germinate.

This year I tried something different. I winter-sowed the seeds in mini peat pots, tucked them into large zip-loc bags, and set them outside to do their thing. When it was time to transplant, I just tore the bottom off each pot and popped the whole thing directly into the garden– peat pot and all. This is the key with poppies: they are notorious drama queens about having their roots disturbed, and planting them pot and all means you never actually touch the roots. Problem solved, and clearly it worked.

I also have to talk about winter sowing for a minute, because everything I winter sowed this year was amazing. If you’ve been on the fence about trying it, let this be your sign. The plants came in strong and healthy and hit the ground running in a way that seeds started indoors sometimes don’t.

The Sweet Peas Situation

Sweet peas are one of those flowers I grow every year knowing full well how the story ends. This year was actually my best sweet pea season ever. Truly beautiful, incredibly fragrant, and I cut from them constantly. And then the heat arrived, and they were done, just like that.

I’m not even sad about it anymore. Sweet peas are a spring flower doing their best in a New England climate, and the deal is you get them early, and you enjoy every single stem while you have them. I did, and it was worth it.

Semi Flop?

Annual baby’s breath. I grew it, it bloomed, it was really pretty- and then it was gone almost before I had a chance to appreciate it. The window was so short that I found myself wondering if the space it took up in the bed was really worth it.

I’m genuinely on the fence about whether I’ll plant it again next year. I love the look of it in arrangements, but I might just buy a bunch at Trader Joe’s when I want it and use that bed space for something with more staying power.

What I’m Watching

The dahlias. Oh, the dahlias.

After losing all my tubers to voles the past couple of years as soon as they started flowering, I started to save all that $$$ and buy a $4 pack of seeds instead. The downside of seeds is you are getting a mix, so I’m not sure what colors the flowers are going to be-but this year, that is fine with me!

They’ve been growing big and strong all season, and I have been so patient- truly, I deserve a medal, and as of right now I have exactly one flower. One. But it is pretty, and I am beside myself with excitement to see what the rest of them look like as August rolls on. Stay tuned!

Looking Forward To The 2nd Half Of The Season

Well, that’s a look at the mid-point for my New Hampshire zone 6a cut flower garden! The change from the beginning of July until the beginning of August is always so dramatic!

I’m looking forward to the rest of the season as the celosia fill out, the zinnias take over, the cheerful gomphrena bopping around in the breeze, and the strawflowers start getting taller than me!

This is the part of the gardening season I want to bottle up and keep forever. Everything is green and full, and the vases in my house are never empty. If you’re growing a cutting garden this year, I hope your August looks something like this, and if you’re thinking about starting one, let this be your encouragement. There is nothing quite like walking outside with a pair of scissors and coming back in with an armful of flowers you grew yourself.

What’s blooming in your garden right now? Tell me in the comments- I genuinely love to hear what everyone else is growing.