11 dried flowers and seed heads for arrangements and crafts - Gardening with Brendan

There's been something of a renaissance in using natural materials such as dried flowers, seedheads and foliage for long-lasting arts and crafts, bouquets and wreaths.

For me it was about having something tangible as a memento of the year gone and a reminder of the effort put in over the seasons.

I've been surprised by how easy the process was, and how well most of them turned out.

As a general rule, if drying flowers cut early on a dry day and hang them upside down away from direct sunlight in a room with airflow for a week or two. Here's a few of my favourites.

Lunaria - A stand out, Honesty is a great biennial plant that produces an abundance of purple flowers around April. But the real magic happens when the flowers die back and turn into disc like seedpods. Peel the outer layers to reveal the iridescent, moon-like inner layer that give the plant its celestial name.

Billy Buttons - Craspedia globosa are odd looking perennial plants native to Australia and New Zealand. Easy to grow from seed, they produce unreal and woolly looking globes of golden flowers on sturdy stems that dry very easily and keep their colour.

Echinops - The spiky perennial globe thistle plant produces steel blue flower heads on silvery stems that are best picked before just before the flowers open. They are very sturdy and dry out in no time.

Eryngium - Another thistle like plant, Eryngium grows green and then as the flowers appear the plant turns a purplish blue colour with a metallic sheen that is so vibrant and striking in the garden or dried that it looks like it couldn’t possibly be a real plant.

Strawflowers - Helichrysum is the most popular dried flower and for good reason. The papery metallic bracts resemble flower petals and come in a wide variety of colours from white, yellow and orange to all shades of pink and red.

Rudbeckia - If you want something tall and gothic it might be worth trying Rudbeckia Black Jack which grows on dark stems with black seedheads that look great dried once the golden petals fall off. The giant perennial Rudbeckia Herbstonne meanwhile produces large, oblong seedheads on sturdy stems.

Bunny tail grass- Lagurus ovatus is the easiest to grow of any on this list. It produces grass tufts with masses of wiry stems topped with fluffy seedheads that feel like soft animal fur.

Starflower scabiosa - Ironically, Scabiosa Stellata flowers it is the least impressive of the pincushion scabious plants, with a bit of a boring little cream coloured flower. That all changes when it transforms into a seedhead in the form of a geometric globe that look like nothing else.

Sanguisorba - The 'blood stauncher' medicinal plant grows tall with little pops of red or pink thumb shaped flower heads that turn brown when they dry and look good in autumnal arrangements.

Hydrangea - They may not last as long as some of the others but hydrangea flower petals will dry slowly to an interesting skeletal mass that should keep for months.

Nigella – Love-In-A-Mist produces alien looking ferny globe seedheads that add interest.

If you’re feeling a bit creative why not give one or more of these a try next year.