Question
I have an Olmstead garden, live across from the L.I. Arboretum and would like to find someone that would help us plant a flower garden with cutting flowers.  Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you.

Answer
Martin Viette has an excellent consulting service. You can see their work up and down Northern Boulevard, but they do smaller projects as well. The Long Island Nursery & Landscape Assn will direct you to their most prominent and/or most feted award-winning nurseries.

That said, you should make sure you have the right stuff to begin with.

Cutting gardens must have:

1. Full sun (morning, noon and night)
2. Diligent care (out of sight, out of mind; make sure you can access this plot twice or thrice daily as the weather heats up and water evaporates in the blink of an eye)
3. Cutting flowers

If it's Roses you're contemplating, make sure you select Roses for their long vase life expecancy.  Anything less and you risk picking petals up off the floor because the flower shatters upon being cut (you need flowers for their longevity and long stems).

If you want to tackle this yourself, I recommend the Delphinium-specialists, Graceful Gardens:

www.gracefulgardens.com

They have several packages that you would be lucky to plant, and may get even luckier than that.  I recommend the Delphiniums highly.  Superb cutting flowers, btw.

Thanks for writing!