Dried Flower Garden Plan

This guide features regional native plants for the Great Lakes that are highly attractive to pollinators and are great for creating a garden for creating dried flower arrangements.

Drying flowers means you can preserve the abundance from your garden to be enjoyed later, when nothing is blooming. There are so many ways to use dried flowers, seed pods, and grasses. In late autumn arrangements, adorning fresh holiday wreaths, or even mixed with fresh blooms.

Collecting flowers, leaves, stems, and pods from the garden now will give you a treasure trove of beautiful dried plants to craft with all year long. You’ll be pleasantly surprised when you see how much beauty is left behind once the blooms fade.

Here is a catalog of 16 sure-fire winners to provide you with lovely dried flowers and 4 books to get you started on techniques for preserving and drying flowers.

See the KEY at the bottom for details on the 'Soil' and 'Moisture' codes.

Reference Books On Drying Flowers

  The Book of Dried Flowers : A Complete Guide to Growing, Drying, and Arranging
  Bloom: Growing, Harvesting, and Arranging Homegrown Flowers All Year Round
  Dried Flowers: Techniques and ideas for the modern home
  Dried Fresh Flowers: When to Pick and How to Dry

Common Name	Scientific Name	Color	Height	Light	Soil	Moisture
American Boneset	Eupatorium perfoliatum	White	3-4'		C,L,S	M,O,W
Bergamot	Monarda fistula	Lavender	2-3'		C,L,S	D,M,O
Big Bluestem	Andropogon gerardii	Bronze	5-8'		C,L,S	D,M,O
Blue False Indigo	Baptisia australis	Blue	3-4'		L	D,M
Canada Wild Rye	Elymus canadensis	Straw	4-5'		C,L,S	D,M,O
Dense Blazing Star	Liatris spicata	Pink, Purple	6-12"		C,L,S	M,O
Cream Wild Indigo	Baptisia bracteata	White, Cream	18-24"		L	D,M
Indian Grass	Sorghastrum nutans	Straw, Gold	5-7'		C,L,S	D,M,O
Joe Pye Weed	Eutrochium fistulosum	Pink, Purple	5-8'		C,L,S	M,O
Orange Coneflower	Rudbeckia fulgida	Yellow, Orange	2-4'		C,L	M
Pearly Everlasting	Anaphalis margaritacea	White	1-2'		C,L,S	D,M,O
Plantain-Leaved Pussytoes	Antennaria plantaginifolia	White	6"		C,L,R	D,M
Pussy Willow	Salix discolor	White	10-20'		L,S,C	O,W
Pale Purple Coneflower	Echinacea pallida	Purple	3-5'		C,L,S	D,M
Sideoats Grama	Bouteloua curtipendula	Straw	2-3'		L,S	D,M
Wild Quinine	Parthenium integrifolium	White	2-4'		L,R	D,M

SOIL:   L = Loam       C = Clay       S = Sandy       R = Rocky
MOISTURE:   D = Dry       M = Medium       O = Moist       W = Wet