How to Make a Dried Flower Wreath

A dried flower wreath keeps the garden going through winter. The grower behind Northlawn Flower Farm makes hers in January from flowers she grew and dried the summer before: white pine, larkspur, love-in-a-mist pods, purple gomphrena and strawflowers, wired onto an 18 inch grapevine wreath in a lopsided crescent. Instead of a bow, she adds a house number plate from her grandmother's home.

The whole method is mini bouquets and one long piece of wire. You do not cut the wire until the end.

Flowers that dry well for wreaths

Choose flowers that hold their colour and shape when dry. Growers call these everlastings.

• Strawflower, gomphrena (globe amaranth) and statice keep bright colour for years.
• Larkspur and lavender add soft spikes and a little scent.
• Love-in-a-mist (nigella) pods, poppy pods and rose hips add round shapes.
• Yarrow, celosia and amaranth fill space with texture.
• White pine, cedar or eucalyptus give a green base that dries in place.

No dried flowers this year? Walk the garden in late autumn. Seed pods, grasses and hips dry well on the plant, and a craft store bunch or two fills the gaps.

Drying your own flowers

Cut flowers in the morning once the dew is gone, before they open fully. Strip the lower leaves, bind small bunches with a rubber band and hang them upside down in a dark, dry, airy room. Most take two to three weeks. Darkness keeps the colours from fading.

Symmetrical or asymmetrical?

Covering the whole ring takes about twice as many bundles. A crescent, like the one here, uses fewer flowers, shows off the grapevine and leaves room for a sign, bow or number plate. Decide before you start, so you know where to stop wiring.

Where to hang a dried flower wreath

Dried flowers fade in direct sun and go limp in damp air. A front door under a porch roof, an indoor door, a mantel or a wall all work. Avoid a door that takes rain or full afternoon sun. Mist with a little hairspray to cut down on shedding.

How long a dried flower wreath lasts

Kept out of sun and damp, a dried wreath looks good for a year or more. Colours soften slowly, which many people like. Dust it now and then with a hair dryer on the cool setting held well back. When a few flowers fade or crumble, glue fresh ones over them. Store it in a box with tissue between seasons, lying flat so the bundles do not crush.

Make it with the grandchildren

Children can sort flowers by colour and build the mini bouquets while an adult does the wiring and glue gun. It is a good rainy autumn afternoon project, and the wreath becomes a gift for a parent's door.

Making it compostable

Swap the floral wire for raffia and skip the glue. When the wreath is past its best, the whole thing can go in the compost pile.

Building a wreath for another season? See how to make a wreath, the fall wreath, or a pinecone wreath, and finish one with a bow for a wreath. For drying, read how to dry flowers.