Dried Flower Garden Plan

Drying Cut Flowers

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

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

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