DIY Dried Flower Display

At this point in the season, many of your gardens are past full boom. Leaving these shrubs and flowers can offer many benefits. There is a natural beauty and texture to dried or faded flowers that adds a unique and rustic charm to your garden. Keep them even through the winter for visual interest when many other plants have gone dormant or lost their leaves. Birds will feed on seeds from dried flower heads—a very important source of food for our flying friends. Dried flower heads in your garden will promote a diverse ecosystem by providing habitats for beneficial insects like ladybugs, lacewings, and other pollinators. Leaving some flowers to mature and produce seeds allows you to collect and save seeds for future planting. These seeds will also naturally self-seed your garden.

I like the long dramatic shape of this plant and I chose a color that matched my living room!

It is a balancing act though. Removing spent flowers can encourage new growth and prolong the blooming season of certain plants. Consider a combination of deadheading and leaving some flowers for the benefits I mentioned above.

With the plants you decide to remove, I have a fun little crafting project for you. Create a dried flower bouquet. Here’s what you’ll need:

Dried Flower Display

Supplies:
Dried flowers with stems and branches and/or small tree branches
Spray paint (as many colors as you like)
Cardboard or a drop cloth.
A vase
Gloves/masks

Process: Choose interesting past bloom flowers with stems from your garden. If you don’t have a home garden, forage for flowers and branches on the roadside. The organics need to be completely dry. So collect this material a few days in advance of starting the project.