Poppies and a Cutting Garden?

[KitchenGardener]

I have a back area in my yard, about 8x30, that used to be my vegetable garden until the local critters (raccoons, rats and mice, possums) started eating all my produce every year and leaving none for me So I gave up on it, let it go wild, and planted a much smaller, 30 sf garden and a bunch of pots of flowers right up next to my house. Every year its a challenge fitting everything in (I don't), so I've been collecting more and more pots.

This year, I finally broke down and have been making gorgeous bouquets of the coreopsis, snap dragons, allium/chive, viola, gerbera daisies, delphinium, and surprise, surprise, papaver nudicaule! Who knew that poppies are fantastic cut flowers?!! I didn't. Now I know why my Grandma - who had the most exquisite gardens ever - had banks of poppies of various kinds growing. She made dried flower arrangements, and now it comes back to me that she frequently used poppies.

So now that I'm loving all these flowers and making bouquets, I thought that I could resurrect the back patch and plant a drought tolerant cutting garden. and I have so many questions!

What do you recommend? My idea is to amend the soil, and then broadcast seeds, or carefully transplant the pre-germinated seeds that I start indoors on a heat mat. The main flower type would be poppies because they are so striking, seem to grow really easily here, and are a lovely cut flower - at least the Iceland version is. Are other types the same? Specifically what about Papaver rhoeas, orientale and somniferum? If I let these varieties go to seed, will later generations appear the same? The only papaver I don't love is the California poppy since it grows wild everywhere here.

Other flowers I'm thinking of are centaurea - the deep blue cornflower, coreopsis (another one I didn't realize would last so long as a cut flower), Agrostemma, Orange cosmos, blue flax, and maybe white bishop's lace (this last one is a maybe because I realize if its the exact thing that grows wild everywhere here I'm not sure I want to chance it, as it would be so much taller than all the other flowers and I worry about its invasiveness). What do you think? The area in question is a raised bed in pretty much full sun. While I can periodically water it particularly when its getting established, my hope is to leave it be and water only occasionally. I do want to pick the flowers for bouquets though.

Your thoughts please? Any I've overlooked? Any I should do without? Thanks so much.

[imafan26]

Sounds like a great idea. For me it would be more than a flower garden as I would probably add some other things to attract pollinators like a log, leave some open ground for a path and also for ground nesting bees. Bird house? You will probably still have to do some fencing as those flowers will still invite other animals to nibble. Either that or get a medium sized dog that likes to chase.

Some flowers are edible, nasturtiums, calendula, daylily fulva, borage, edible marigolds, pansies, begonia, angelica, anise hyssop, bachelors buttons, roses, dianthus, bread poppy. Herbs can also be low maintenance and blend well in a mixed garden. Some plants can be repellent because of the way they smell or feel and it might be good to use them as border plants.
http://triblive.com/lifestyles/jessicaw ... ts-foliage

[KitchenGardener]

Imafan: thanks so much for your response. Calendula! Missed that one, but that was my very favorite flower my Grandma grew, so have to grow that one too!