How to Make a Dried Flower Wreath: A Step-by-Step Guide with Home-Grown Everlastings

A dried flower wreath is the best possible use for a summer's worth of everlastings. Fresh holly and conifer wreaths look tired by New Year; one made from strawflowers, statice, seed pods and grasses keeps its colour indoors for a year or more, and it costs nothing if you grew the flowers yourself. It is also far easier than florists make it look. You need a ring, a reel of wire and an afternoon — the skill is mostly in the preparation, and in choosing materials that have properly finished drying. Here is how to make a dried flower wreath step by step, which home-grown flowers work best, and what to sow next spring so next year's wreath is even better.

• Time 2–3 hours, plus an evening sorting stems into bundles
• Base Willow, vine or straw ring, or a wire frame · 25–35 cm across
• Materials 30–50 small bundles of fully dried flowers, pods and grasses
• Lasts A year or more indoors out of sun · one season on a sheltered door

Which dried flowers work best in a wreath

A good wreath mixes three kinds of material. Colour comes from the true everlastings, whose papery bracts hold their shade for years: strawflowers (helichrysum), statice or sea lavender, the pink and white daisies of helipterum, silvery-pink xeranthemum, and globe amaranth. Structure comes from seed heads and pods: love-in-a-mist pods, poppy capsules, Chinese lanterns, honesty discs, globe thistle and yellow craspedia drumsticks. Softness comes from fillers that blur the edges: ornamental grasses, gypsophila, flat yarrow heads (achillea), the dangling tassels of amaranthus, and a few sprigs of lavender or other dried herbs for scent.

What to leave out matters as much. Anything that was not fully dry will droop or go mouldy in a warm room within weeks — a stem should snap rather than bend. Big, soft-petalled flowers such as dahlias or roses air-dry shrivelled and brown unless they were dried in silica gel. And skip the most brittle seed heads unless you will hang the wreath where it will not be knocked. If you left plants standing in the garden this autumn, you may already have plenty: our guide to leaving seedheads shows which ones look good long after flowering.

What you need

A base ring is the only thing worth buying. Willow and grapevine rings look natural and let you tuck stems straight into the weave; a straw ring gives a fuller, more traditional shape; a plain wire ring is the cheapest and suits a sparse, modern half-wreath. Add a reel of thin florist's or paper-covered wire, sharp snips, a little extra wire or twine for a hanging loop, and optionally a glue gun for single pods and heads. A sheet of newspaper to work on saves a great deal of sweeping up.

How to make a dried flower wreath, step by step

1. Sort everything before you start Lay the materials out by type and cut every stem to 10–15 cm. Discard anything soft, mouldy or shattering. Sorting first is what makes the wreath look planned rather than random.
2. Make small mixed bundles Each bundle should hold three to five stems: one filler or grass at the back, one or two colour flowers in the middle, and a pod or seed head at the front. Bind the stems tightly with wire. Make all the bundles before you touch the ring — 30 to 50 for a 30 cm wreath.
3. Fix the wire to the ring Wrap the end of the reel wire round the ring a few times and twist it tight. You will keep working from the reel without cutting it, which is what holds the whole wreath together.
4. Lay bundles in one direction and wire them on Place the first bundle against the ring and bind its stems with two tight turns of wire. Lay the next bundle so its heads cover the stems and wire of the first, and bind again. Keep going round the ring, always in the same direction, angling some bundles slightly in and some out so the front, inner and outer edges are all covered.
5. Close the circle neatly When you reach the start, lift the heads of the very first bundle and tuck the stems of the last one underneath them. Wire them in, cut the wire and twist the end into the back of the ring.
6. Fill the gaps and add the showpieces Hold the wreath up at arm's length and look for thin spots. Fill them with single heads pushed into the base or glued in place — this is where the largest strawflowers, lanterns and pods go, so they sit on top.
7. Add a hanging loop and a light spray if needed Twist a loop of wire or ribbon round the back at the top. A very light mist of unscented hairspray from 30 cm away holds loose grass seeds and fluffy heads in place.

A full ring or a crescent wreath?

Making it last

Dried flowers have two enemies: light and damp. Direct sun bleaches even strawflowers within a few months, so an inside wall or a north-facing door keeps the colours far longer than a sunny porch. Damp softens the stems and lets mould in, so keep the wreath out of steamy kitchens and bathrooms, and bring an outdoor wreath in after a wet spell to dry out. On a sheltered front door a dried wreath usually lasts the festive season well; indoors it can go on for a year or two. When the colour finally fades, strip it off and reuse the ring — the base will last many seasons.

Plan next year's wreath patch

A small bed of everlastings produces more than enough for several wreaths. Most of the colour flowers — strawflowers, statice, helipterum, xeranthemum — are half-hardy annuals sown under cover in March or April and planted out after the last frost. The pods are even easier: nigella, poppies and larkspur are hardy annuals sown straight into the ground in spring. Chinese lanterns are perennial, so one sowing gives you a harvest every autumn — see how to grow Chinese lanterns and how to dry them. Add a few grasses grown from seed, and the timing for everything is in the flower sowing calendar. If you are new to growing flowers for cutting, start with our guide to a cut flower garden from seed.

Common mistakes

• Using flowers that are not fully dry. They droop and go mouldy on the wreath. A stem should snap cleanly.
• Wiring single stems instead of bundles. It takes three times as long and still looks thin. Bundle first.
• Changing direction halfway round. All bundles must face the same way, or the stems show.
• Loose wire. Every turn should be tight; dried stems shrink a little and loose bundles fall out within weeks.
• Hanging it in sun or steam. The colour fades or the stems soften. Choose a shaded, dry spot.
• Saving the best flowers for last. Put the showpiece heads on at the end, on top — but make sure you kept enough of them.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a dried flower wreath last?
Indoors, away from direct sun and damp, a year or two. Outside on a sheltered door it will look good for a season; rain and wind wear it down faster, so it is worth bringing it in during a wet spell.

Can I hang a dried flower wreath outside?
Yes, under a porch or on a door that does not take driving rain. Strawflowers, statice and seed pods cope best outdoors; grasses and gypsophila suffer first. A light spray of hairspray helps.

Which dried flowers keep their colour longest?
The true everlastings — strawflowers, statice, helipterum and xeranthemum — whose colour is in papery bracts rather than soft petals. Chinese lanterns and nigella pods also hold their colour very well.

When should I cut flowers for drying?
Most everlastings are best cut just before they are fully open, on a dry day, and hung upside down in a dark, airy place for two to three weeks. Pods are cut when firm and coloured but before they split. Each of our drying guides gives the exact moment.

A home-grown dried flower wreath is a small thing that carries a whole summer into the darkest weeks of the year — and once you have made one, you will plan the cutting patch around the next. Browse the everlasting flowers and cut flower seeds, see all flower seeds or the full seed shop, and find every growing and drying guide on our guides page.