- Modern Everlastings: Guidance on Dried Botanicals from 4 Far-flung Farmer-Florists
- Video: Tips & Recommendations for Dried Flowers • Tutorial with Joy Longfellow
- How to Air-Dry Cut Flowers | Easy Instructions from Johnny's
- Beyond Blossoms | Expanding & Diversifying Your Dried Floral Menu
- Video: Savannah Grass (Melinus nerviglumis) for Cut-flower Production | from Johnny's Selected Seeds
- Ammobium | Key Growing Information
- Artemisia (Sweet Annie) | Key Growing Information
- Artichokes | Key Growing Information
- Atriplex hortensis | Key Growing Information
- Bells of Ireland (Moluccella laevis) | Key Growing Information
- Black Tip & Silver Tip Wheat | Key Growing Information
- Greater Quaking Grass (Briza maxima) | Key Growing Information
- Bupleurum | Key Growing Information
- Cardoon | Key Growing Information
- Carthamus (Safflower) | Key Growing Information
- Celosia (Cockscomb, Cristata, Spicata) | Key Growing Information
- Roman Chamomile | Key Growing Information
- Northern Sea Oats | Key Growing Information
- Ornamental Broom & Dry Field Corn | Key Growing Information
- Craspedia (Drumstick Flower, Billy Buttons) | Key Growing Information
- Dill | Key Growing Information
- Dusty Miller | Key Growing Information
- Echinacea (Coneflower) | Key Growing Information
- Echinops (Globe Thistle) | Key Growing Information
- Eragrostis tef | Key Growing Information
- Eryngium (Sea Holly, Eryngo) | Key Growing Information
- Eucalyptus | Key Growing Information
- Gomphrena (Globe Amaranth) | Key Growing Information
- Hare's Tail Grass | Key Growing Information
- Helipterum (Paper Daisy / Rhodanthe) | Key Growing Information
- Larkspur | Key Growing Information
- Lavender | Key Growing Information
- Sweet Marjoram | Key Growing Information
- Matricaria (Feverfew) | Key Growing Information
- Savannah Grass (Melinis nerviglumis) | Key Growing Information
- Milk Thistle | Key Growing Information
- Monarda (Bee Balm: M. didyma & M. citriodora) | Key Growing Information
- Mountain Mint | Key Growing Information
- Nigella | Key Growing Information
- Oregano (Greek) | Key Growing Information
- Ornamental Basil | Key Growing Information
- Ornamental Gourds | Key Growing Information
- Ornamental Kale | Key Growing Information
- 'Frosted Explosion' Ornamental Grass | Key Growing Information
- 'Green Drops' Ornamental Panic Grass | Key Growing Information
- Ornamental Pearl Millet (Cenchrus americanus) | Key Growing Information
- Feathertop Grass (Cenchrus longisetus) | Key Growing Information
- Persian (Ornamental) Cress | Key Growing Information
- Rosemary | Key Growing Information
- Rudbeckia hirta | Key Growing Information
- Common Sage (Salvia officinalis) | Key Growing Information
- Salvia farinacea (Mealycup Sage) | Key Growing Information
- Salvia viridis (Annual Clary Sage) | Key Growing Information
- Scabiosa spp. (Pincushion Flower) | Key Growing Information
- Foxtail Millet (Setaria italica) | Key Growing Information
- Spilanthes | Key Growing Information
- Statice | Key Growing Information
- Strawflower | Key Growing Information
- Summer Savory | Key Growing Information
- Talinum paniculatum (Jewels of Opar) | Key Growing Information
- Tall (Single Stem) Sunflowers | Key Growing Information
- Thyme | Key Growing Information
- White Sage | Key Growing Information
- Wild Marjoram | Key Growing Information
- Winter Savory (Satureja montana) | Key Growing Information
- Xeranthemum (Paper Flower, Immortelle) | Key Growing Information
- Yarrow | Key Growing Information
- Video: Harvesting Strawflowers for Use as Dried Flowers | from Johnny's Selected Seeds
- Video: Carthamus (Safflower) for Cut-Flower Production | from Johnny's Selected Seeds
- Video: Gomphrena Types & Tips | from Johnny's Selected Seeds
BEYOND BLOSSOMS: Fresh + Dried Grasses, Herbs & Vegetables
Expanding Your Floral Design Menu
Whether you're growing flowers for use in fresh-cut or dried floral design, traditional blooms provide just one form of material. Ornamental grasses, grains, herbs, and even a few vegetables can become important components in a diversified flower business. These crops yield up a wealth of useful plant material that can be reliably produced on an annual basis. They can be used to substitute for or to augment other types of interesting focal-point and filler materials that are cut from the landscape, such as woody plants, rushes, sedges, cones, and berries.
Here are a few recommendations for herbs, grasses, and vegetable varieties you can grow as additions to your floral menu.
On This Page
More Info on Fresh + Dried Ornamental Plants & Florals
Dried Flowers: Instructions for Air-Drying
ArticleIdeal for Drying & Crafts Product List
Broom Corn Product List
Ornamental Corn Product List
Ornamental Gourds Product List
Ornamental Grasses Product List
Specialty Pumpkins Product List
Herbs • For Texture & Scent
Herbs can be useful in both fresh and dried floral designs, crafts, and other value-added products, providing texture or shape or scent or color.
Some are more appropriate for cutting than others, however, by virtue of certain features: perhaps they have the stem length or vase life needed for fresh cuts, or do not turn brown when dried. Basil, for example, is available in numerous attractive cultivars, but only a few have the vase life to make them candidates for arrangements. The same is true for sage.
The flowers of 'Ellagance Purple' lavender retain their intense, deep violet-blue, and are borne abundantly atop large, dense spikes of silver-green that hold up well for crafts and arrangements. Other herbs are rich in the essential oils that produce the finest potpourri, sachets, or other aromatherapeutic products.
These are some other highly recommended herb varieties that provide texture and scent.
Grasses & Grains • Lend Movement & Contrast
Ornamental grasses add movement and contrast to fresh flower bouquets. Two of the best are Panicum 'Frosted Explosion', with its airy, sparkly plumes, and Pennisetum 'Purple Majesty', with its award-winning, statuesque spikes.
Millet, barley, wheat, and rye can be used fresh and dried. Several inexpensive cover crop varieties are also attractive enough to be used in floral design, or you can grow specially selected varieties from the Ornamental Grasses in our flower section.
Sturdy glumes and awns of diverse colors and lengths.
Ornamental Vegetables • An Element of Surprise
As cut flowers, artichokes and cardoon lend an unusual form as a statement. A wide array of peppers can also be grown for cutting and drying materials for arrangements. Many customers who buy cut flowers in summer will be looking to purchase pumpkins, gourds, broom corn, and specialty squash for decorative purposes in fall.
Here is a small sampling of types and varieties to try.
Get Creative
Whether you're supplying customers in the floral industry or providing the means to your own creative ends, you can plant and grow an ample supply of both fresh-cut flowering plants and dried materials of diverse types. See our additional recommendations and instructions in Air-Drying Cut Flowers and other plant materials for arrangements and crafts.