Love them or loathe them, and to be honest, florists who deal in fresh material generally fall into the latter category, dried flowers are back.
Having lurked in the shadows for a long time, dried is popping up everywhere, in wedding venues, shop displays, bridal bouquets; even on cakes, try as you might, they are impossible to ignore.
They’ve had a makeover too; we are no longer talking about ‘dried flowers’ but instead ‘rustic bouquets,’ where consumers are encouraged to fill their vases with flowers to recreate a ‘dried summer meadow.’ And they are everywhere! Nearly every high street supermarket is now selling bunches of preserved flowers to take away.
So, what dried materials are popular? Not just the most obvious candidates from the 80s and 90s, such as statice, helichrysum and poppy heads, but also nigella, larkspur, spray roses, achillea, delphinium, carthamus and lavender.
How dried flowers are used has also changed, no longer being glued onto wicker fans or used to fill novelty baskets, they are now sold as ready to arrange bouquets, or made into flower crowns and seasonal door wreaths.
At this rate, you never know, you might even get to like them!
If you can’t beat them…
Join the dried flower trend by following the supermarkets lead and make seasonal, ready to go bouquets, autumn is the perfect time for this. Wrap a selection in craft paper and tie with twine or raffia to continue the rustic theme, team them up with a suitable vase and you have an easy, add-on sale. Small, scented posies of lavender and roses are perfect, inexpensive gifts – and of course – one of the biggest advantages of dried over fresh is that they are not perishable.
Get creative!
These displays from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021 show just what can be done with dried materials, from over-the-top exterior shop installations to detailed and unusual floral sculptures.
Mixing dried, in particular the very fashionable pampas grass, with fresh material is very popular for filling out and adding a wow factor to venue arrangements.
More and more brides are happy to walk down the aisle carrying dried flowers in their bouquet.
