A number of plants grown in Britain are imported, but even those grown locally are often hybrids of heirloom plants. The plants with the brightest foliage and biggest of petals usually spring to life in Spring and Summer, then peter out by August, September.
All is not lost. You can harvest your colourful petals, dehydrate the flowerheads, possibly some stems, and frame them to use as real botanical art you can enjoy when the garden goes to ground.
Why Frame Real Flowers?
Yes, real flowers. Not dried flowers bought from an online marketplace or a flower preservation specialist. Those are intended to be eco-friendly alternatives to regular vase floral arrangements, or for preserving wedding bouquets or florals from funerals. Dried flowers can last for years. They only need to be kept dry to prevent mould and kept out of direct sunlight. The UV of the sun’s rays causes the colours to fade.
Preserved flowers are for 3D displays. Press dried flowers are for framed art (2D).
The best way to keep press dried flowers looking top-notch is to pop them in a frame, perhaps behind some UV acrylic glazing.
The Best Flowers for Dried Botanical Art
Any flower can be dried, but not all are suited to framed botanical art because they will be pressed. Bellflowers, for example, aren’t usually suited to botanical art, unless you are happy to pick the petals apart to use them flat. The only exception to bellflowers is the Adriatic bellflower, which opens up into a flat star instead of a bell-shape. Quite a unique look.
Other flowers that make for creative dried floral art include:
Daisies
Daisies are a group of plants that each have flat disc-like flowers with individual petals protruding from the centre. This category includes sunflowers, asters, chrysanthemums, zinnias, and even the pesky dandelion. Weeds can make pretty art.
Pansies
Pansies come in an assortment of colours. More are late to bloom, opening up in Autumn. Some are Spring bed perennials though that bloom from April to late May, early June. The flowers on these can be up to three inches in diameter, each having five petals. Depending on the species, the petals are multi-colour.
Violets
These have deep green leaves the shape of a heart and five petaled flowers that are a blue-to-purple shade. Some have white petals though. There are a few types, but the most common are the Dog Violet and the Sweet Violet. The Dog Violet is unscented and the Sweet Violet is scented. But you will only smell it once because it contains beta-ionone, a chemical that temporarily affects smell receptors.
Delphiniums
Nicknamed as 'Queen of the Border' these are common throughout England. They grow as tall perennials that come into bloom in Spring. The flowers are pastel shades of purple, pink, blues, and yellows.
The above is only a few that stand out as being relatively easy to press dry and work with to arrange dried floral art. Any that have flat shaped petals can work and you can use multiple parts of a plant once it’s dried out. Stems, leaves, and flowerheads.
Arranging Your Flowers Creatively
Something that’s much easier to do with dried flowers is creating your own flower arrangement. You can mix and match anything you like.
Flatten the yellow petals of a buttercup, attach them to a deep purple stem of the Black-stemmed Dogwood and glue on a few leaves from a Photinia Little Red hedge. You would be left with a yellow flower on a deep purple stem that appears to be growing red leaves. You can’t grow that.
Choose the plants you want to work with and pick them about 11 o’clock in the morning. That’s an ideal time because the damp morning dew is gone and you are getting to it before the afternoon sun comes out, dehydrates it and causes plants to wilt.
Shortly before noon is when outdoor plants are their perkiest.
Once your flowers are dry and glued with craft glue onto card, they can be popped into a frame to protect them from moisture and light exposure. Picture frames protect dried flowers from mould and if you select a UV protective glazing option, it will keep the colours of your flowers vibrant for longer as sunlight will cause the colours to fade.