September 09, 2026
As a dried flower farmer and artist, I have a lot of favorite things...harvesting the first blooms of the season, getting my hands dirty as I weed a flower bed, or standing beneath my rows and rows of colorful blooms hanging overhead in my flower workshop. Surpassing all of those things, however, are my foraging expeditions, looking for the treasures that I didn't have to sow or water...wildflowers. I continually marvel at the beauty in the ditches that we drive by every day. I go after that beauty and have worked really hard at learning how to preserve it. I'm planning to organize all my photos and notes this winter and publish my first e-book about these treasures...the wildflowers that dry well and can add their beauty to our homes. One of my first projects has been to create a wreath using ALL native plants.
I incorporate a lot of natives into my work, whether in dried flower kits or pressed flower art, but I wanted to make something exclusively from natives. This is not simple, as natives can be finicky at times! Many lose their color easily when preserved, and some are stunning alongside the road but turn brown and ugly once dried. Some of my favorites, however, are easy to dry and together create a bouquet that is bright and full of texture.
I grow, gather and dry flowers, create artistic projects from them and curate kits so that others can enjoy the fruit of my land. Some of you may gather your own wildflowers and want to do a similar project. Whether you purchase one of my kits, or take your own foraging expedition, I will walk you step-by-step through the process of creating this "deconstructed" wildflower wreath...let's get started!
Depending on where you live, there are many varieties you can work with, and most of the fun is in the experimentation! The above varieties are some of my "tried and true" native plants that I go to over and over...and most are common throughout the United States. I will go over specific varieties and drying methods in my upcoming e-book, but if you are foraging your own plants, most can be simply cut, placed in water for a bit, and then hung to dry in a dark and dry place. It's that easy! After a couple weeks, your flowers and foliage will be ready to craft with.
Once you have dried flowers and foliage to work with, you'll need to fashion your wreath base. While I typically use pre-made grapevine bases for my wreath kits, I wanted my wildflower wreath to be a little, well...wild! If you have wild grapevines available to you, you can simply cut lengths from the vines and wrap them into a loose, somewhat messy-looking circle shape. Otherwise, purchase some grapevine garland online or from a craft store, which is simply lengths of grapevine tied together with wire--you will need approximately 1 yard for a wreath that ends up being about 12-14" in diameter. You can also "undo" a purchased grapevine wreath by cutting off the vine or wire that holds it together. Once the wire is removed, you'll have a shape that looks like the above center photo. Loosen it up, and then you will gather it together on the left side, as shown. This is where your wildflower bouquet will be anchored.
Using your dried materials, form a bouquet to your liking. I like to place the flowers at differing heights, and then make sure some greenery or dried grasses are loosely spilling out along the top and sides for fullness. This is your wreath, so do whatever looks good to you! It's hard to "mess up" when you're working with such pretty materials! Tie your bouquet stems with a bit of twine to hold it together and place it on the wreath. Knot some twine around both the grapevines and the bouquet to hold them together.
To make the wreath more decorative, I use leather cord to attach the bouquet to the grapevines. The cord pictured above is a 2 mm genuine leather cord, available at craft stores. Using a 3 foot length, begin by creating a loop above the twine holding the bouquet to the grapevines. With the long end, start wrapping the long cord around the bouquet and grapevines, working upwards toward the loop you created. When you get to the top, thread the end you were just working with through the loop. Now, take the short end at the bottom and pull on it...this will pull the top cord down below the wrapping so that both ends are together. Knot them and trim the ends. You're done!
