Although there is a plant called the Straw Flower, generally speaking, the term Straw Flowers can refer to any flowers that can be dried to make dried flowers for bouquets and flower arrangements.
The best plants for dried flowers are those that have a small calyx and hold their petals tightly; retaining their form and color when dried.
Less expensive than fresh flowers and more eco-friendly, people are seeing the benefits of dried flower bridal bouquets and vases of long-lasting and low-maintenance, home-dried garden flowers.
There are many glorious flowers that can be dried. Here are some to whet your appetite.
1. Strawflower (Xerochrysum Bracteatum)
An Australian native, the Strawflower is a part of the Asteraceae family. The blossoms impart vibrant colors to gardens and craft projects.
Strawflowers resemble daisies, but their petals are stiff and papery. The petals are actually bracts, which are modified leaves.
They are sometimes called Paper Daisy, Golden Everlasting, Everlasting Flower, and Everlasting Daisy. Cultivars can have matching or contrasting centers.
See: https://gardenerspath.com/plants/flowers/strawflowers/
https://www.thespruce.com/everlasting-strawflower-1315716
2. Salmon Rose (Helichrysum Bracteatum)
These papery, shiny, daisy-like flowers have a delightfully calming color.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
3. Sternkugel (Scabiosa Stellata)
This plant has spherical heads, each composed of twenty or so individual, pale blue flowers. The blooms are tightly packed together.
When dried, the globular heads turn into creamy-white spherical posies, as though fashioned from translucent parchment. Truly scintillating in their splendor!
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
4. Floss Flower (Ageraturm)
The Floss Flower has fluffy flowers with a compact form that can be blue, pink, or white.
https://www.gardendesign.com/annuals/ageratum.html
5. Aloha Blanca (Centaurea Americana)
Known as the Basket Flower, this is a robust and tall plant that bears fluffy, ivory-white flowers that are six inches, or 15 cm, across.
The whiskery petals and the sheer dimensions of the flowers make this a fascinating bloom.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
6. Amaranth
Producing pretty purple flowers, the Amaranth can be grown for its flowers or as a grain and greens crop.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/amaranth-health-benefits
7. Rose Gomphrena Globosa
Gomphrena’s unusual spherical heads of papery petals make great cut flowers and can be successfully dried for later use.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
8. Echinops Ritro
Globular heads of flowers with a metallic luster that remain decorative for a long time when dried.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
9. Transformer Nigella Orientalis
This interesting plant originates in Asia Minor. It has deep green, deeply cut foliage and small, yellowish-green flowers.
The seed pods are transformed (hence the name Transformer) into an umbrella shape when turned back to front and have an autumnal shade.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
10. Xeranthemum Annuum
An Everlasting Flower with white, woolly leaves and white, pink, or violet flowers.
The colors are gentle and pleasing to the eye as fresh or dried flowers.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
11. Limonium Sinuatum, Pastel Mixed
Limonium sinuatum produces a wonderful mix of pastel-hued, soft, papery blooms in violet, lavender, blush, rose, and mauve.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
12. Silver Mound (Artemisia Schmidtiana)
This plant has fine silver foliage that tends to form mounds; hence the name Silver Mound. It belongs to the Asteraceae family.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/artemisia/silver-mound-care.htm
13. Astilbe
Astilbe produces tall, fluffy plumes that tower above frilly, fern-like foliage. Some varieties have arching stems, others erect.
The flowers are pastel and range from whites to dark purples.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/astilbe/growing-astilbe-plants.htm
14. Sensation Giants (Helipterum Roseum)
Papery flowers in a mix of white with bright yellow centers and bright pink with bright yellow centers, these blooms can be dried to make superb dried flower arrangements.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
15. Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila Paniculate)
Baby’s Breath creates an airy, evocative spread of blooms.
The flowers are small and delicate. They are great for adding a gentle touch to other dried flowers in an arrangement. The flowers can be rose, pink and white, with single or double blooms.
https://www.thespruce.com/babys-breath-garden-favorite-4082480
16. Lambada (Monarda Hybrida)
This has got to be one of the most beautiful flowers, either fresh or dried. Long spires of white-spotted, deep pink flowers are arranged in whorls.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
17. Globe Thistle (Echinops Ritro)
The flowers of the Globe Thistle have deep purple and blue hues and are large and spiky. It is in the Aster family.
In Greek, the name translates as ‘Hedgehog’, for obvious reasons.
https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-echinops/
18. Parker’s Variety (Achillea Filipendula)
If you want to add some bright yellow to your dried flower arrangement, this is a good choice.
Hairy, feathery, grey-green foliage and bright yellow flowers in large, saucer-like corymbs certainly make this a pretty addition.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
19. Flamingo Feathers (Celosia Spicata)
Known as Flamingo Cockscomb, Plumed Cockscomb, Flamingo Feather, or Dragon’s Breath.
Celosia Spicata has plumes of ivory-white flowers, the tips of the spikes being delicately shaded into rose pink.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
20. Coneflower (Echinacea Purpurea)
The Coneflower has spiny cones in the center, hence the name.
https://www.gardendesign.com/flowers/coneflower.html
21. Salmon Beauty (Delphinium Consolida)
Tall spires of papery blooms in a scintillatingly beautiful hue of pink are breathtaking.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
22. Hydrangea
The color of Hydrangea blooms changes according to the acidity of the soil. In acidic soils they are blue and in alkaline soil pink. There are also white hydrangeas.
Limelight hydrangea is great as a dried flower.
23. Bunny Tails (Lagurus Ovatus)
You can see why this plant is known as Bunny Tails. It’s a dwarf plant that produces little balls of fluff. What’s not to like!
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
24. Lavender (Lavandula Angustifolia)
Lavender is an herb plant with a fragrant aroma. Lavender has healing properties.
25. Lunaria
Lunaria is also known as Silver Dollar, Honesty, or the Money Plant.
The pods dry to flat silverish discs about the size of silver dollars. They are members of the family Brassicaceae. The flowers are delicate and four-petaled, ranging from pink to purple.
They grow in racemes or clusters on top of the long stems.
https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/lunaria-annua/
26. Pansy
Pansy plants are members of the Viola family.
https://www.almanac.com/plant/pansies
27. Rose Buds
To dry Roses use roses that have just begun to open.
Hang them upside down to dry. To dry a full bouquet, bury your bouquet in a box of silica gel for a week.
28. Craspedia Globose
A quirky plant from Australia, Craspedia has narrow, silvery-grey leaves on wiry stalks and produces glomerules of bright yellow flowers, which make excellent dried flowers.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
29. White Swan (Salvia Viridis)
There are different salvia plant types with many colors, including blues, purples, pinks, reds, whites, and yellows.
Salvia Viridis, known as the White Swan, is a particularly attractive variety, with flowers and bracts that are white in color and elegant in design.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/news/145/flowers-for-drying
30. Sea Holly (Eryngium)
Sea Holly has spiny-toothed leaves and clusters of tassel-like blossoms.
Their green or silvery-blue stems give way to green or blue cones surrounded by spiky silver, white, green, blue, or violet bracts.
The electric blue stems and flowers of Big Blue Sea Holly make it a fantastic dried flower. Cut the stems from your plants after the morning dew evaporates, just before the buds are completely open.
Tie the stems together. Hang them upside down and leave them to air dry in a dark, dry spot. If you want to really keep the color, flash-dry in a hot car.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/sea-holly/sea-holly-flowers.htm
31. Yarrow (Achillea Millefolium)
Yarrow is an herbaceous flowering perennial.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/yarrow-health-benefits-4586386
And Now, To Finalize…
What’s not to love about flowers? They make the world a more beautiful place and often provide gorgeous scents.
Flowers are often gifted to celebrate events and occasions.
If you want to preserve memories of a particularly poignant moment involving a flower, or if you simply want to keep favored flowers for a long time, drying them can be the answer.
Dried flowers make décor statements and gifts.
Just select the strawflowers with the colors and form you want, plant and grow them, enjoy them and dry a few of the blooms to remember them by!
The majority of people who have no interest in the subject, and aren’t green fingered assume that all plants and vegetables require the same growing conditions. This is not the case at all. Each plant has its own unique and interesting history and growing process.
I hope you will find The Natural List useful, and that it will help educate you on the wide variety of different flower and plant species there are across the globe.
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