Strawflowers make good bouquets!
Strawflowers make good bouquets both fresh and dried, and the papery blooms are unusual.
Some flowers last well when cut fresh and placed in water, and there's a group of flowers called flowers for drying that can be cut and used almost forever when properly dried. One of these is the strawflower, Helichrysum bracteatum, often seen as a dried flower.
One of the seed companies I worked for had a bouquet of dried strawflowers in a secretary's office which she said had been there for years, and they still looked pretty good.
But strawflower can look good in the garden too, and there's one variety that's a good grower and very colorful. It's called Bright Bikinis and is listed in most seed catalogs, and sometimes found on the seed rack.
It's a dwarf version of the much taller old strawflower, which often got nearly 3 feet tall. Bright Bikinis gets around 15 inches tall and has semi-double blooms on sturdy plants in bright red, gold, pink and shades of those colors.
The older tall mixture has some additional colors, including maroon, salmon, white, bronze and yellow. Thompson and Morgan's catalog lists one called Summer Solstice, and it may simply be the old tall variety judging from its description.
There are many flowers that can be used for drying, but strawflower is one of the easiest to grow and very easy to dry.
Pick the flowers just as the buds are beginning to open, remove any leaves and then hang the flowers upside down in a dry, but airy location, out of direct sunlight. It usually takes a few weeks to get them dry enough to bring in for use as a dried bouquet.
Meantime, you can continue to enjoy the beauty of the strawflowers in the garden or as a fresh flower indoors. Most blooms are fairly large, 2 to 3 inches across, and the colors don't fade quickly. In the garden it helps to pick off the spent blooms to help continuous blooming.
Strawflowers are easy to start from seed and the seed germinates well. Plant in a warm location from March through July, cover the seed lightly, and water well to start. After the plants are about 2 to 3 inches tall you can thin them out to about a foot apart. Continue to keep well watered until the plants are growing well, then water only as needed. Fertilizer helps a little as the plants start to grow but hold off on fertilizer after the plants start to bud.
Disease and insects aren't usually a problem, but sometimes snails chew on the small plants. Plants will bloom all summer long and well into the fall in most inland areas.
FLOWER POWER FACTS
Some flowers last well when cut fresh and placed in water, and there's a group of flowers called flowers for drying that can be cut and used almost forever when properly dried. One of these is the strawflower, Helichrysum bracteatum, often seen as a dried flower.
One of the seed companies I worked for had a bouquet of dried strawflowers in a secretary's office which she said had been there for years, and they still looked pretty good.
But strawflower can look good in the garden too, and there's one variety that's a good grower and very colorful. It's called Bright Bikinis and is listed in most seed catalogs, and sometimes found on the seed rack.
It's a dwarf version of the much taller old strawflower, which often got nearly 3 feet tall. Bright Bikinis gets around 15 inches tall and has semi-double blooms on sturdy plants in bright red, gold, pink and shades of those colors.
The older tall mixture has some additional colors, including maroon, salmon, white, bronze and yellow. Thompson and Morgan's catalog lists one called Summer Solstice, and it may simply be the old tall variety judging from its description.
There are many flowers that can be used for drying, but strawflower is one of the easiest to grow and very easy to dry.
Pick the flowers just as the buds are beginning to open, remove any leaves and then hang the flowers upside down in a dry, but airy location, out of direct sunlight. It usually takes a few weeks to get them dry enough to bring in for use as a dried bouquet.
Meantime, you can continue to enjoy the beauty of the strawflowers in the garden or as a fresh flower indoors. Most blooms are fairly large, 2 to 3 inches across, and the colors don't fade quickly. In the garden it helps to pick off the spent blooms to help continuous blooming.
Strawflowers are easy to start from seed and the seed germinates well. Plant in a warm location from March through July, cover the seed lightly, and water well to start. After the plants are about 2 to 3 inches tall you can thin them out to about a foot apart. Continue to keep well watered until the plants are growing well, then water only as needed. Fertilizer helps a little as the plants start to grow but hold off on fertilizer after the plants start to bud.
Disease and insects aren't usually a problem, but sometimes snails chew on the small plants. Plants will bloom all summer long and well into the fall in most inland areas.
FLOWER POWER FACTS
- Plant: Strawflower
- Best features: Good as cut flower and dried flower
- Degree of difficulty: Easy to grow
- When to plant: Sow seed early spring to mid-summer, plants up until August
- Where to plant: Full sun
- Soil specifications: Good soil
- Fertilizer and water: Fertilize sparingly, water well to start
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Sunday, April 24, 2005
