Straw flowers are not only a feast for the eyes in the garden or on the balcony. These plants are also often used in dried form to bring the summer beauty of nature into the home in the form of dried bouquets.

Everlasting flowers are best dried upside down

Growing the right helichrysum species for drying

Not all of the more than 600 different types of immortelle are equally suitable for use in a dried bouquet. While subspecies such as the so-called curry herb hardly tend to form flowers, varieties such as the helichrysum (Helichrysum bracteatum) produce large flower heads in particularly intense colors. But there are also more subtle types of straw flowers that can still be used as attractive dried flowers. For example, the South African helichrysum (Helichrysum splendidum) offers compact flowers and bright yellow and shiny silver foliage. This everlasting species is also hardy outdoors under suitable conditions.

Do not harvest the flowers too late

Unfortunately, there is a common misconception among some hobby gardeners that you can first enjoy certain flowers in the garden and then use them later as dried flowers. Unfortunately, as with the processing of fruit and vegetables, the same applies here: the fresher you harvest the blossoms, the better and more aesthetic the result will be after processing. Therefore, cut off the flowers intended for drying when the flower head is just beginning to open. As with roses as cut flowers, the blossoms open before and during the drying process.

Drying and preserving strawflowers properly

If you do not cut off all the stems of the helichrysum at one location, then you can hope for self-sowing of non-hardy varieties. There are several ways to hang the flower heads down:

  • suspension individually
  • Hanging in the form of small bouquets
  • Attachment with cord
  • threaded with a thread and a needle

Threading along a thread offers the advantage that the individual hanging stems of the straw flower dry better than crowded together in a bouquet. The stems, cut as long as possible, should be hung upside down in a location that is as airy as possible, whereby exposure to sunlight can lead to fading. Once dry, straw flowers can be sprayed with hairspray, but this also increases their flammability.

tips

In order for you to be able to tie visually exciting dried bouquets, you should cultivate other plants in the garden in addition to straw flowers at an early stage. Good dried flowers for the combination with helichrysum are Chinese lanterns, lavender blossoms, silver thistle and the pretty seeds of the silver leaf.

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:

  • as a free PDF file to print out yourself

Category:

Herbs