Create your own everlasting flowers by growing these annual and perennial plants with blooms that dry well.
If you haven’t seen them already, dried flowers are making a huge comeback in home decor.
Amaranth
Make a bold statement withamaranthin your flower display.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
The tassels look especially eye-catchingcascading over the sides of a large container.
Amaranth flowers retain their color whendried for everlasting arrangements.
The blooms resemble those of lavender, making it one ofthe prettiest salvias to grow in your garden.
Credit: Marty Baldwin
Though this plant is perennial in milder climates, it’s usuallygrown as an annual.
Count on it to bloom all summer long, taking heat, humidity, and drought in stride.
Its rounded flowerheads have a stiff, straw-like texture and look like clover flowers dipped in Easter egg dye.
Credit: Denny Schrock
There are three types: plume, cockscomb, and wheat celosia, which offer different-shape blooms.
Varieties come in bright shades of orange, red, purple, yellow, and cream.
This is one of theeasiest annual flowers to grow from seedand will often reseed itself.
Credit: Lynn Karlin
It’s also perfect fora low-maintenance cottage garden.
When they are fully open,these blossoms attract all sorts of pollinators.
The best time to cut them for drying is just before the blossoms open.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
It performs so well as a dried flower that it’s widely grown for the commercial dried flower market.
The tiny yet plentiful flowers also can stand on their own in soft,cloudlike bouquets.
This drought-tolerant perennial blooms from summer to fall.
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
Snip stems to bring indoors around midday when some flowers on its branches have opened.
Bothmophead and lacecap varietiesproduce beautiful blooms from summer to fall that dry well.
Besides white flowers,several colorful optionsare available, including blue, pink, and purple are available.
Credit: Rob Cardillo
In fact, a recent survey revealed that the rose is the most common flower grown in 16 states.
Plan ongrowing the easiest rosesfor the most abundant flowers throughout the summer and into the fall.
Harvest lavender for drying when the blossoms have just opened.
Credit: Denny Schrock
Its flower clusters are actually made up of colorful, funnel-shape calyces with a tinywhite bloomin their center.
The dried papery calyces are what remain long after the flowers have faded away.
Cut this showy flower during dry weather when nearly all the calyces show color.
Credit: Kritsada Panichgul
They dry best whenpressed with materialsyou have around your house.
You’ll just need tochoose and grow the prettiest pansies for cool-season color.
Use these flowers to brighten up containers and garden beds during the cooler months in spring and fall.
Credit: Doug Hetherington
It’s a tough plant that will evengrow well in heavy clay soil.
Thislong-living perennialflower makes a stunning focal point in both fresh and dried flower arrangements.
Name:PaeonialactifloraGrowing Conditions:Full sun to part shade and well-drained soilSize:To 3 feet tallZones:3-8
Credit: David Patterson
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
Credit: Peter Krumhardt
Credit: Bob Stefko
Credit: Blaine Moats
