Cold Loving Flowers to Grow in Utah
When I first moved to my new farm in the fall of 2021, I was a bit nervous about farming in zone 5. I had spent the last 4 years farming in zone 7 and loving all the warm season annuals. Transitioning to zone 5 seemed like a really daunting task. But as I have become accustomed to the colder climate, I have learned what flowers are happiest here and together we have thrived in this new environment.
I am often asked how I can grow flowers in such a cold environment, especially as all my flowers are field grown while we wait to build our high tunnel.
But there are so many amazing cold loving flowers, you don’t have to be in a tropical climate to enjoy an abundant flower garden.
So I wanted to share with you some of my favorite annual cold loving flowers.
These are flowers that you can plant well before your last spring frost date. As long as the soil has thawed and even when there is still risk of a frost, you can plant these flowers.
Cosmos- Cosmos is an eager annual often self-sowing in many places throughout Utah. There are so many beautiful colors and varieties that can compliment almost any color scheme. Here in Cache Valley I prefer to direct sow my cosmos and do two plantings. Once in early spring when the soil has thawed, and again in early June. This allows me to have flowers from late June from the first sowing, to September with the second sowing. The first sowing will still bloom in September, just not as vigorously. And the second sowing will take off in late August for a lush fall garden. Cosmos love the cooler temps for blooming, just as much as they do for planting.
In a warmer climate, like Salt Lake City, you can do a fall sowing of cosmos as well for them to sprout and bloom the following summer.
Scabiosa- The annual varieties of scabiosa are a lot of fun and can easily bloom all summer long if properly cared for. But they really take off in early July here in northern Utah. I like to start these indoors for a more consistent planting and will start them 6-8 weeks before my last frost date but planting out as soon as the soil is workable.
Scabiosa blooms best in early summer, waning in the strong heat, but will make a comeback as the temps cool off again in September and October. If you keep it dead headed during the hottest months, you will find it full of color again as summer transitions into fall.
Ammi/ False Queen Annes Lace– There are some great ammi flowers out there that I absolutely adore. I think my favorites are While Dill (not dill related at all) and Green Mist. The purple false Queen Annes Lace is amazing too, but for some reason I just love the other two so much more.
As these flowers are related to carrots and so have a tap root, it is best to direct sow them so as not to hinder the developing root system.
I did some trials with these flowers on my farm last year to find when the best planting time for them would be. I did a fall sowing and a spring sowing. Both sowings bloomed at approximately the same time, but the fall sowing was taller, more vigorous, with more blooms and bloomed for longer. So going forward I will only do fall sowings for these flowers. The spring sowing just wasn’t as happy. They really do love the cold period of winter to help them get a deep root system and bloom at their highest potential.
Centaurea/ Bachelor Buttons– These flowers are so fun, breezy, and easy to grow. One sowing in early spring (or the fall for the warmer climates) and they take off from mid-June to August. They really don’t require more work than that. And they come in some beautiful colors of blue, burgundy, pinks, white, lavender, and probably more that I’m not aware of. They are a fun and easy flower to grow.
Calendula– I Love calendula. I direct sow it in early spring and it will bloom all summer long from early July to September. As long as you keep harvesting the flowers, she will continue to bloom. My favorite variety is Ivory Princess. Now calendula is a bit sticky to the touch and some people really do not like that. But I don’t mind it and I love the soft yellows of Ivory Princess.
There are so many other great cold loving flowers out there. This is barely even the tip of the iceberg. But it is a fun place to start to give your garden some color, texture, and movement before the heat loving annual flowers are not yet blooming.
This year I am growing 40 different varieties of flowers and greenery, and of all of those only 4 of those are heat loving flowers. Everything else is either a perennial or a cold loving annual flower.
There are some new varieties I am trialing this summer that I am pretty excited about. I’ll let you know how it goes as they are supposed to be a bit tricker to grow. But it’s so fun to learn new things and push myself to try something different.
So while summer may feel like a long way off, the growing season is about to start as I start seeds inside and wait for the snow to melt to direct sow those cold loving flowers.
