Grow your own cut flower patch - in pictures

I have chosen flowers for a 2.5m x 1.25m bed. They are easy to germinate from seed, and some can be bought as plug plants from garden centres or by mail order. A mix of hardy and half-hardy annuals and biennial plants and a tender dahlia will give you, from late spring to mid-autumn, enough flowers to make posies and fill small vases. SHOPPING LIST Dahlia ‘Karma Choc’ x 1 (pictured above) Cosmos bipinnatus ‘Candy Stripe’ x 2 Ammi visnaga x 2 Biennial stocks (Matthiola) x 6 – replace with dahlias in early summer. Sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) x 12 Daucus carota ‘Black Knight’ x 2 Dianthus barbatus x 4 Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Black Cat’ x 2 Narcissus ‘Tête-à-tête’ x 30 – plant these around the edge of your bed. Photograph: blickwinkel/Alamy

Cosmos bipinnatus 'Candy stripe' Photograph: Clare Gainey/Alamy

Ammi visnaga Photograph: Steffen Hauser/botanikfoto/Alamy

Biennial stocks (Matthiola incana) Photograph: WILDLIFE GmbH/Alamy

Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) Photograph: John Glover /Alamy

Scabiosa atropurpurea 'Black Cat' Photograph: Jonathan Buckley

Sweet william (Dianthus barbatus) Photograph: Carole Drake/GAP Photos

Narcissus 'Tete a Tete'. Click here for more advice on preparing your soil for planting. Photograph: SJ Images /Alamy