Cutting gardens should be bright, beautiful and romantic.

And it's not a ton of work to get there: Pick a place that's sunny, preferably a southern exposure, with well-drained soil.

Garden designer Charlotte Kidd suggests having your soil tested before you plant. You can buy a test kit at some nurseries or by contacting your state university extension service, which will analyze your soil sample and recommend what it needs.

In Pennsylvania, visit the Web site at www.extension.psu.edu.

Plant seeds or seedlings after Mother's Day, May 13. Be sure to buy annuals whose stems will get at least 12 to 14 inches tall. Plant in clusters or rows, tallest in the back. And leave space for walkways, so you can weed, cut and water; they should be four feet wide, if you have room.

Add homemade compost, leaf mold, or mushroom soil to what you have planted, and water gently by hand to keep moist, not wet. The first two weeks are most critical.

Once the blooming begins, remove spent blossoms (deadhead) often. Collect seedheads at summer's end, and don't clear out the bed till next spring. You want to see what has self-seeded.

For cutting gardens, roses, Oriental or Asiatic lilies, and lilacs have always been popular American perennials, but these annuals are high on anyone's list:

• Achillea or yarrow

• Baby's breath

• Cosmos (sow seed directly in the ground)

• Bells of Ireland

• Dahlias

• Celosia or cockscomb

• Cleome or spider flower (self-seeds)

• Larkspur

• Lisianthus

• Marigolds (sow seed directly)

• Nigella or love-in-a-mist (self-seeds)

• Salvias

• Snapdragons, especially the taller Rocket series

• Sunflowers

• Zinnias. These are a longtime, old-fashioned favorite. They grow quickly and easily from seed, and to me, they're the quintessential cutting flower. Bright, beautiful, and very romantic.