Dried and Gone to Heaven
Fresh flowers with an afterlife, dried flowers are gaining new respect for their versatility as well as staying power. They impart their own particular look to a room and are being used in a wide range of interior designs from the most modern to the most traditional.
Dried flowers hit the design scene a couple of years ago and have continued to grow in popularity, says RoxAnn Johnson, an Orange-based interior designer who owns Faux Foliage & Florals, which creates dried floral and plant arrangements.
“People like dried flowers for many reasons,” Johnson says. “While fresh flowers are wonderful, they don’t last long and are seasonal. A dried arrangement can brighten up a house in the middle of winter when there isn’t much in the garden.”
Dried flowers are also popular because they are natural. “Unlike silks, when you dispose of dried flowers, they naturally decompose, which is important in this age of environmental awareness,” she says.
Drying flowers and foliage requires experimentation and patience. There are three basic and relatively simple approaches--air drying, glycerin absorption and silica gel crystals--each of which works best for particular types of plants. There are few hard and fast rules, and the results--like flowers--always vary somewhat.
Many gardeners love drying flowers because they can preserve some of their favorites. Doris Loeffler of Villa Park has enjoyed growing flowers for 21 years. For the past couple of years, she has dried flowers and used them to decorate items for her craft business.
“It’s really exciting to cut beautiful flowers and then wait to see how they will dry,” she says. “It’s also a lot of fun to see flowers you grew in your garden on display indefinitely in your home.”
Loeffler’s favorite flower for drying is statice, which remains bright and vivid in color. Other good dryable flowers include roses (especially two-toned varieties), larkspur, Queen Anne’s lace, lavender, coreopsis, Gaillardia red plum, sunflowers, wax flower, strawflower, heather, baby’s breath, mustard, yarrow, German statice, as well as herbs such as marjoram, oregano, mint, poppy pods and tansy.
For variety, you can also add dried plant materials such as eucalyptus, air fern and various moss, like plush velvet, sheet fern and mood moss.
Dried fruits and vegetables can even make good arrangement accompaniments. “Apricots, onions, apples and pomegranates look great with dried flowers,” says Valencia-based Chuck Durica, who is Southwest regional sales manager for Pioneer Imports, Wildflowers Across America, an importer and distributor of dried and silk flowers.
Before cutting flowers from your garden and drying them for use in your home, you should know that once the moisture evaporates, they will change in appearance, says florist Pati Gosnell, who owns Regal Flowers in Orange and teaches a dried flower arranging class.
Rose heads, for instance, shrink considerably and they change color. Deep red roses become a dark grape color, white and pink turn pale yellow and yellow becomes mustard.
In the past, dried flowers were used primarily for country decors, but they are actually a lot more versatile than that, says Johnson. “Dried flowers give a friendly atmosphere to any home. They fit in modern and Southwestern decors, and are especially attractive in Victorian, country and traditional interiors,” Johnson says.
Dried flowers can be used to soften certain atmospheres. For instance, a masculine bedroom with a lot of wood and dark colors can be softened with the placement of a few dried bouquets.
Before choosing flowers for drying, consider your home’s decor, suggests Johnson. For instance, roses with baby’s breath do well in traditional and Victorian homes, while sunflowers are great for the country look, and statice works well in Southwestern decors. For contemporary interiors, an arrangement of larkspur and dried artichokes can be stunning.
When decorating the home with dried flowers, there are a lot of things you can do. To dress up an entryway, dining room or living room, take a shallow terra-cotta pot, put in a crushed Styrofoam base and make an arrangement of roses that are various heights, Gosnell says. You may also want to add heather or German statice. Cover the base with dried fern or Spanish moss.
To make a flower basket, simply place a piece of crushed Styrofoam inside the basket and add a variety of dried flowers you have on hand. “For a country look, try using heather and mustard and adding a raffia bow,” Gosnell says.
Another attractive arrangement that’s easy to assemble is a cut-flower basket. For this, use a large oval basket and simply lay the various flowers inside as if you just cut them from the garden. “Larkspur, roses, German statice and statice, baby’s breath, heather and eucalyptus look wonderful together in such an arrangement,” Gosnell says. If you have a fireplace, a cut-flower basket looks especially nice on the hearth.
During the summer, Johnson suggests decorating the inside of your fireplace with a big basket or pot that contains an arrangement of dried flowers such as baby’s breath, eucalyptus and straw. “Place this at an angle so the flowers look like they’re coming out of the fireplace,” she says.
In high places, such as the top of kitchen cabinets, shelves, high beams, bookcases and armoires, Johnson recommends placing a flower basket on its side, so that when you look up, you can see the flower heads, rather than the stems.
Wall baskets, which are flat on the back, also work well with dried flower arrangements. These often fit well in small spaces.
Dried flowers arranged in a clear glass vase can be very striking in a modern decor, Johnson says. She suggests putting black marbles in the bottom of a clear vase and inserting a variety of items such as artichokes, eucalyptus and curly willow. Gosnell also recommends adding statice, protea, anthurium and pods.
There’s no law that says you must have a container to display flowers. “It’s really popular right now to tie a bunch of dried flowers with a color-coordinating bow and hang them upside down,” Gosnell says.
Hang these bouquets along a beam or across the top of a wall on a decorative rope. You can intersperse them with bunches of herbs, bundles of eucalyptus and straw and even baskets.
Small bouquets can also be used throughout your home, or, when you’re having guests for dinner, set a bouquet on each plate.
For doorway decorations, make festoons with birch branches and attach heather, larkspur, roses and berries. Large festoons can also be placed on a wall at the head of a master bed or day bed. Run matching comforter, bedspread or sheet streamers from the festoon to the bed, Johnson suggests.
Dried flowers can add visual interest when placed in unexpected places, such as on a valance.
Other decorating ideas for dried flowers include attaching them to hats and creating an arrangement on the wall. Not only can the hats be used for decoration, you can also wear them.
In her craft business, Loeffler decorates bird cages with dried flowers--placing flowers on the outside and inside, including petals scattered on the floor.
When dried flowers break off from their stems, they can still be used--to decorate a gift package, for instance.
A few more tips for handling and decorating:
Dried flowers are delicate and shatter easily. Avoid placing them in areas where they will get bumped, such as within reach in a child’s room. Also keep them out of direct sunlight, which will fade them, and away from the damaging effects of grease in the kitchen. Also avoid windy areas.
To get flowers to last for years, spray them with a dry material surface sealer, Gosnell says. Even if you don’t apply sealer, they will keep for at least two years.
Store flowers you’ve dried and plan to use in a cool dry area. They should be placed in like bunches with the flower heads all facing the same direction. Loeffler uses plastic rose containers for storage. Long flower boxes also work well.
Check your dried flowers periodically for bugs, as they can attract critters. If you have an infestation, remove the infected plants immediately and, if necessary, spray the remaining flowers with bug spray sparingly.
