While fresh flowers are beautiful, they tend not to last as long as dried flowers do. Dried flowers have the added benefit of longevity, and you can buy them from a seller, or make them yourself!
They also make a great touch to cards, gift baskets, or just around the house!
Of course, some flowers need a bit of special touch when drying them, but many are easy to make.
There are some traditional flowers for having dried, but today we will go over some that you may not be super familiar with. So, take a look at these beautiful dried flowers that you can add to your life!
1. Celosia Dragon’s Breath ‘Celosia Argentea Plumosa’
Celosia ‘Dragon’s Breath’ otherwise known as cockscomb, is a beautiful everlasting flower. To dry these, you need to harvest the stems of celosia once plumed, such as ‘dragon’s breath’, when the flower is almost open.
You should cut crested celosia when the seeds start forming beneath the comb. You should hang both types upside down in a dark, cool location for a month or so, to enable them to dry.
These flowers look gorgeous on their own, or in a bunch.
2. Sundaze Blaze Strawflower ‘Bracteantha’
Straw flowers, such as the Sundaze Blaze should always be harvested before the flower center opens, ensuring that there is enough moisture in the blooms to make them easier to handle.
You should cut the stems so that they are only around 12 to 15 inches long and then remove the leaves. Tie the stems together and hang them upside down in a dark and dry spot with good air circulation.
These flowers are beautifully dried, and their fiery colors make them a beautiful option to have in your home in fall, summer, or spring for some seasonal joy!
3. Pansiolas
Pansiolas, dried, or pressed are an ideal option for making cards, adding to scrapbooks, and crafting in general.
They are easy to use as well, simply pick the fresh flowers early in the day, and pinch them off at the stems, just beneath the blossoms.
Layer them between blotting paper, and paper towels, and press them under some heavy books. Check them until they are dry then remove them and use them.
They are better for arts and crafts than for decor, however. While you could use them for decor, they do not work as well for dried flower arrangements as most of the other options on our list.
4. Baby’s Breath ‘Gypsophila Paniculata’
White baby’s breath is an excellent choice for filling in bouquets of dried or fresh flower arrangements.
You should wait until the morning dew has dried off before you cut some of their long stems as the buds start opening up.
Stems of baby’s breath will shrink over time, so it is best to use a rubber rand to bundle them together before you hang them upside down for a few weeks. They will also need good air circulation when drying.
Baby’s breath is one of the best choice of filler in dried flower arrangements for your home!
5. Globe Amaranth ‘Gomphrena Haageana’
You will find shades of pink, red, purple, or white when it comes to Globe Amaranth blooms.
If you want to use these for drying in home decor or arts and crafts, wait to harvest the stems until the flowers are in bloom, and then hang them to dry in an airy, dark space.
If you fancy making some of your potpourris, then the flower heads of the Forest Pink Variety are one of the best choices!
6. African Daisy Soprano ‘Osteospermum Soprano’
African daisies such as the Soprano is quite flat, making them an ideal option for pressing than very full daisies. They work well in arts and crafts and cards, or even dried flower frameworks!
Layer the flowers between sheets of blotting paper and let them dry beneath books for a couple of weeks (if you’re looking for more ways to dry your flowers, check out our guide to using silica gel). Then you can use them!
Dried daises that retain their shape are also a fantastic choice for wreaths and flower arrangements.
However, getting daisies to retain their shape once dried is not easy!
7. Larkspur Guardian Lavender ‘Delphinium Elatum’
Larkspurs that flower in the summer months look exquisite in dried flower arrangements.
If you cut the stems just before the blooms are totally open, and then completely open and strip away their leaves, tie them together, and hang them to dry for a few weeks, the results will be amazing!
You need to keep them out of the sun and with good air circulation, if there is moisture around, ensure you use a dehumidifier to prevent mildew and mold in these plants.
Be aware that while it is a type of lavender, it is not actually traditional lavender, so if you want lavender dried in a floral arrangement, ensure you are choosing the right type before you do so!
8. Ageratum Stellar Blue ‘Ageratum Houstonianum’
This flower is also known as the floss flower, Ageratum is an annual flower with violet, pink, white, or blue blooms and looks absolutely showstopping! If you press the flowers, it will usually flatten them and make the color fade.
This means that to dry them, it is best to use a preservative instead. Make sure that you lengthen the short stems with floral wires if needed before you remove the foliage and place the flowers facing down into the desiccant for 2 or 3 weeks.
9. Wormwood ‘Artemisia Schmidtiana’
A majority of gardeners will be familiar with this plant, although most will also not be very familiar with it for it’s flowers that are not very showy and are very small.
However, the plants do have a very attractive, gray-green foliage that is almost silvery sometimes, and this is ideal for dried floral arrangements!
If you wish to use wormwood, ensure that you prune them in late summer and strip the leaves from the stems. Then, hang the stems upside down to dry in a dark well-ventilated area.
You could also wait until the flowers appear to prune as well if you wanted.
These plants make for a brilliant filler in wreaths, swags, and arrangements. Our favorite variety of this plant is the silver mound!
10. Love-In-A-Mist ‘Nigella Damascena’
This is a gorgeous, and rather gentle-looking plant, with airy blooms that appear in shades of blue that perch high atop stems that are 12 to 18 inches high on this very beautiful self-sowing annual plant.
The Nigella Damascena makes for a beautiful cut flower to add to fresh bouquets, but what about when it comes to drying? Well, its round, maroon-striped seedpods look amazing in dried arrangements!
You should choose to harvest the seedpods for drying when they feel a bit papery and firm when you touch them.
It is best to do this quickly however as if they are left too long on the plant, the gorgeous maroon tints will fade.
You can dry these pods upright or upside down, making them one of the easiest plants to dry!
11. Cream Veranda Rose
Roses are always a top choice for bouquets and for drying, however, most forget about this rose.
The cream veranda rose is a great choice because it has a very subtle color, making it a beautiful choice all year round.
If you choose to save roses from your garden or from a bouquet, you should pick those that have only just started opening and hang them upside down to dry them.
However, you can also dry roses in a container with desiccant, which may prove to be better in most circumstances and is our recommendation.
If you want to flatten your roses you should press them between layers of blotting paper or newspaper.
12. English Statice ‘Limonium Sinuatum’
These flowers are absolutely beautiful and are unique, they have beautiful papery bracts in a plethora of hues, purple, pink, white, blue, or rose.
The plants can grow to be 18 inches tall when planted in typical garden soil as well!
You should harvest the stems when the bracts are fully colored, if you can see small white flowers peeking out from the bracts then you are picking too late!
These flowers need to be hung upside down in a well-ventilated dark room in order to dry.
To Conclude
There are many choices of flowers to dry and include in floral arrangements or arts and crafts projects, however, these are often forgotten, while pampas grass, ruscus, palm leaves, ming fern, and bunny tails are the most popular, these flowers look amazing!
So, do not pass them by on your next flower drying project, there are so many alternative choices to the common ones. Give one of these a try, you won’t regret it, and your life will be filled with color!
I love sharing my experiences with individuals in this community, and I enjoy sharing some of the best tips I have learned over the years caring for my own garden at home.
In my articles, you will find the best flowers, most fragrant flowers you can plant in your garden, how to care for your favorite plants, informative guides and how-tos so you can have the best backyard in town!
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