What you can make in your first month

Hanging lavender bunch

10 to 15 stems tied with twine and hung on a wall, on display from the day you tie it.

Dried grocery bouquet

A mixed bunch of statice, baby's breath and eucalyptus, hung for three weeks and arranged in your vase.

Water-dried hydrangea

Two or three late-season heads left standing in two inches of water until it is gone.

Wired strawflower stems

Five heads from a pre-dried bunch given wire stems and taped, the repair you will use most.

Which flowers dry well

Easy air-driers

Statice, strawflower, globe amaranth, baby's breath, lavender, yarrow and celosia keep their color and shape when hung. Start here.

Grasses and seed heads

Bunny tails, pampas, wheat, poppy pods and honesty give an arrangement its height. Most arrive at the store already dry.

Roses

Hang them when the buds are half open. They shrink and darken, so red turns nearly black and pink holds best.

Hydrangeas

Cut them late in the season, once the petals feel papery, and stand the stems in two inches of water until it evaporates. Cut earlier, they wilt.

Eucalyptus and other foliage

Hang it like flowers. The leaves stiffen and fade to gray-green in about two weeks.

Poor choices

Tulips, daffodils, lilies and other fleshy flowers shrivel or rot before they dry.

Dried stems laid in a row on pale stone: a fan-shaped palm spear, eucalyptus, a pampas plume, rosebuds, wheat ears and an orange grass plume — Dried stems sorted by kind

Arranging stems that will not bend

Build in bundles

Three to five fine stems taped together read as one flower from across a room. Single thin stems disappear.

Use odd numbers at uneven heights

Three heads of one flower at three heights look grown. Pairs at one height look stiff.

Mix textures

Once every color has faded toward tan, a fluffy grass beside a round flower head and a spiky stem is what keeps an arrangement interesting.

Wire a broken head

Push a 22-gauge wire up into the base of the flower, then wrap the wire in stem tape from the top down.

Cut, never snap

Trim dried stems with snips in one clean squeeze. Bending or tearing them shatters petals further up.

Keep the offcuts

Fallen petals and snapped heads go in a jar for potpourri.

Three ways to use what you dry

Vase arrangementsThe standard start. A narrow-necked vase and the base kit are enough.

Start here

Buy three kinds of flower this week (one tall grass or foliage, one filler, one round flower head), hang them, and arrange them in your vase once the stems snap.

Hanging bunchesA hand-tied bunch hung head down on a wall or door, so the drying doubles as the display.

Start here

Tie 10 to 15 stems of lavender or statice with twine an inch below the lowest flowers, trim the ends level, and hang the bunch from a nail by a loop of the same twine.

Potpourri MakingPetals, buds and leaves mixed with a fixative and a few drops of scented oil, then cured in a closed jar for about six weeks.

Start here

Put a quart of dried petals and buds in a half-gallon jar, sift 2 tablespoons of orris root powder over them, add 8 drops of lavender oil, close the lid and shake. Open it in six weeks.

Cornell Garden-Based Learning: Making Potpourri

Open a card for the first thing to do. The potpourri card has a button that adds its fixative, oil and jar to the kit.

Potpourri recipes, free

Cornell Garden-Based Learning: Making Potpourri Free three-page handout with the layering method and four recipes

A row of dried bouquets tied with ribbon and hung head down along a pale wall — Tied bunches hung on a wall

What trips beginners up

Waiting too long to hang them

A week in a vase first costs color and petals. Hang flowers within a day or two of buying them.

Drying in light or damp

Sun bleaches petals within days, and a humid bathroom or basement grows mold. A dark closet beats a sunny window.

Bunches that are too big

Stems in the middle of a thick bunch stay wet and mold. Roses and other thick stems dry best three or four to a bunch.

Expecting fresh color

Most flowers dry a shade or two darker, and whites turn cream. Blues and purples hold best.

Rough handling

Hold dried stems low, and decide where a stem goes before pushing it in. Pulling it back out strips its neighbors.

Thinking dried means permanent

Color fades over a year or two, faster in sun. Dust with a hair dryer on its cool, low setting from a foot away.

Seven roses hung head down on strings against a dark background, their petals dried to dusty pink and orange — Roses hung one to a string

Fire, pets and dust

Fire

Dried flowers and grasses catch from a single spark. Keep arrangements at least three feet from candles, fireplaces, stoves and space heaters.

Pets

Eucalyptus, baby's breath and lavender are all listed as toxic to cats and dogs. Look up each plant before it goes within reach of a pet that chews.

Spray sealer

The can is flammable and the fumes linger. Never spray near a pilot light or a lit candle.

Silica gel and orris root

Both are fine powders. Pour them slowly and avoid breathing the dust.

Scented oil and potpourri

Undiluted oil irritates skin, and potpourri is not edible. Keep the jar and the finished bowl away from children and pets.

Look up a plant before it comes home

ASPCA: Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants Free searchable list. Look up each flower before it comes into a home with cats or dogs

Where to learn more

University of Missouri Extension publishes a free guide to air drying and silica gel, with tables of which flowers suit each method.
Clemson Cooperative Extension has a short factsheet that adds water drying and microwave drying.
Cornell's garden-based learning program has a three-page potpourri handout with four recipes.

Free guides from university extensions

Why the list looks like this

The flowers are the running cost, and they come from a grocery store, a farmers market or a garden. The four essentials (flowers, snips, twine and a vase) cover hanging and arranging, and the rubber bands and coat hanger are already in the house. The recommended lines fix problems that show up in the first month: a pre-dried bunch gives you something to arrange while your own flowers hang, wire and tape repair snapped stems, and sealer slows shedding. The three potpourri lines sit under Potpourri Making and matter only if you want to make it. Silica gel is for later, when you want to dry open roses and other thick flowers that hanging flattens.

A few stems of dried canary grass standing in the narrow neck of a white ribbed ceramic vase — A narrow neck holds the stems

Stock the drying closet

The first line is the fresh flowers, which you buy locally and not online. For everything else, compare the options and set your tiers. Clicking a card selects it in the closet list, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The three potpourri lines stay out until you switch on Potpourri Making, and the silica gel is for later.

Fresh flowers to dry

Essential · Flowers

Drying starts with fresh stems, and two or three bunches are enough for a first arrangement.

Not sold on Amazon · buy from a store or market near you

Not sold on Amazon. Buy statice, baby's breath, lavender, eucalyptus or spray roses at a grocery store, florist or farmers market, or cut them from a garden. Expect $5 to $10 a bunch.

Floral snips

Essential · Tools

Dried stems shatter when they are torn or cut with dull kitchen scissors. Sharp snips cut fresh stems before drying and trim brittle ones after.

budget

Housolution Flower Scissors, Steel Garden Pruning Shears, Avocado Green

4.7(1,936)

$6.99

Dried Flower Arranging

Your first bunch, start to finish

Which flowers dry well

Arranging stems that will not bend

Three ways to use what you dry

What trips beginners up

Fire, pets and dust

Where to learn more

Why the list looks like this

Stock the drying closet

Fresh flowers to dry

Floral snips

Jute twine

Ceramic vase for dried stems

Pre-dried flower bunch

Floral stem wire, 22 gauge

Brown floral stem tape

Clear spray sealer

Orris root powder

Lavender essential oil

Half-gallon glass jar with airtight lid

Flower-drying silica gel