Grow Colorful Strawflowers for Fresh Bouquets and Dried Flowers
(Helichrysum bracteatum)
Strawflowers work very well as fresh cut flowers. They produce a lot of flowers making it easy to harvest for both fresh bouquets and dried flowers. They are a cut and come again flower, so when you cut them they go ahead and grow more harvestable flowers.
And they’re perfect dried flowers. Dried strawflowers don’t fade.
They come in a wide array of colors. The flowers are sturdy, papery little rosettes that grow on 3-4 ft. plants. The stems are thick when they’re fresh but when dried they’re shriveled and floppy or weak. I’ll explain below how to work with this. (It’s easy.)
The best quality about these flowers is that their colors can be strong or subtle and are very long-lasting. I have some strawflowers that are years old and they still look fresh and new!
On this page
Strawflowers: the flowers and the plants
Strawflowers have many rows of stiff papery petals surrounding a yellow center, a bit like a daisy. When open they can be 1-2 in. or more wide. They come in a wide range of colors including include white and soft antique white, bright yellow, golden yellow, orange, russet red, purple-red, a variety of pinks, and an apricot/peach blend!
There are tall and dwarf sizes available. The tall ones get 3-4 ft. tall, and the dwarf ones get 2-2 ½ ft. tall. They are well branched, and produce lots of flowers.
They are cut-and-come again flowers, meaning that you cut them and the plant will continue to produce more flowers.
They grow quickly for a long summer bloom here. And they keep blooming into November!
How to grow strawflowers
Annual; Full sun; Water: moderate
This is an annual plant so you’ll need to start new ones each year.
The seeds are small and instructions always say to sow on the soil surface because they need light to germinate. But as I describe in Starting Your Seeds I still cover them up just a bit to hold them in place so they don’t splash out when watering and to keep them from drying out too quickly. (And it keeps me from having to water too often!) And they do germinate for me because enough light gets through.
Full sun for these, they’re heat and drought-tolerant, use good garden soil. I give my plants 18” square spacing for plenty of room for their branching habit. But seed companies recommend a 10 – 12 inch spacing, so you can grow more in a space. And no special pruning.
While this is an annual plant I’ve had some stay alive through the winter, even through snow in my Zone 8 location. So you may have a nice surprise.
How to harvest the flowers
For fresh: harvest strawflowers before they’re fully opened. Once cut, they still open further as they dry. They’re generally much prettier before fully opened.
Apply the usual practice of cutting at a lower node or branch. Remember, when you cut at a lower point on the stem, side branches will yield longer stems with bigger blooms.
Cut them with longer stems so you can add them to fresh arrangements. Any shorter stems, and longer stems, are perfect for drying. To harvest strawflowers for drying pick them when they are still closed up, because they open further on drying and can expose the inner flower parts that can be less attractive. Experience will inform what your preferences are.
To dry: bundle a small bunch of flowers, tie with a rubber band, and hang to dry in a dry, darkish place. When harvesting strawflowers for drying be sure to pick them before they’re fully opened, that is, before the yellow center is even close to showing.
To work with when dry: see below in Special Info.
Favorite varieties
My favorite varieties are the tall ones—the more production the happier I am. From there it’s color choice.
You may be tempted to just get a mix. That’s a good place to start. But if you have some favorite colors you should get those as well. Whenever I grow from a mix, I tend to get more of one or two colors and not some of the ones I really want. So I’ve learned to choose the colors I want and get them.
My Favorite varieties go by color: bright rose, orange, apricot/peaches, and any yellows.
Yellows have been pretty much unavailable until recently. But they’re coming back! Yay! Johnny’s Seeds now has two, a King sized gold and a golden yellow. I haven’t been able to grow them yet, but their photos look like they are a bright sunny yellow.
Sources for strawflower seeds
Johnny’s Seeds: They have the largest selection of strawflower seeds I know of, in single colors plus a few mixes. What’s more, they have brought back yellow! I’ve been missing yellow strawflowers for a long time and they brought in King Size Gold in the last year or so and now they have brought in golden yellow! Yay! The yellows are so showy and cheerful in dried arrangements and wreaths.
Adaptive Seeds: They have a mix, scarlet, and purple-red strawflowers. Their catalog offers many other nice and interesting varieties of flower, herb, and vegetable seeds.
Swallowtail Seeds: They have a small assortment of colors available, but offer many interesting seeds overall.
Special Info: How to how to work with dried strawflowers
When the stems of strawflowers dry, they shrivel and become brittle, making them a little too fragile to work with. The stems break but not the tough little flower! There are a couple of ways I deal with this.
One is to work them into wreaths and other arrangements while the stems are still pliable, partly dry. The flower could still flop around so I need to position it where other wreath materials can support it.
The other way is to store them dry in a box, and come back and do my wreath making later in the year when the weather is damp. I leave my dry, brittle flowers in cardboard boxes in a sheltered spot when the weather is damp and wait until they’re pliable again. This can take a few days. I do this for most of the dried flowers. I often open the boxes to get the stems to soften faster.
And finally, you can always glue the flowers where you want them.
Flowers to go with strawflowers
Most flowers that are good for drying are also good for fresh use. So you get a double whammy out of them! Here are some great ones:
