An everlasting garden wonder.

Byline: Elizabeth Shaheen

Some gardeners grow annual flowers to provide them materials, with floral decorations in mind, perhaps as a way of having ready-grown gifts on hand to give to friends and family, or simply as a hobby.

While for others, such plant material can be economically-fruitful, for say a cottage industry or for some pin-money, for the jam jar.

In the shops, dried flowers are a popular commodity, for they are now an accepted feature of most styles of interior design. Due to the fact that they have a longer shelf-life than fresh flowers, they are both marketed with equal dynamism.

Whatever our reasons for growing annual and biennial flowers and exotic grasses may be, there are many that are very suited to drying and some species, such as the strawflower (Helianthus annuus) and statice (Limonium sinuatum) do it for us; for they grow ready-made for the dried-flower-arrangement.

Such flowers are referred to as the 'everlastings'. It is a natural name for them, for they gift flowers with stiff, papery petals. These are carried atop inflated green stems and foliage.

'Bracteantha' species and cultivars are the most common flowers grown for drying for everlasting arrangements.

The 500 or so species are widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and particularly Australasia and South Africa.

Their natural habit is in dry, sun-filled sites and they are ideal for Bahrain's soils. The flowers are borne atop woolly or hairy stems.

Bracteantha bracteata syn Helichrysum bracteatum 'Monstrosum Series' afford wonderfully tall specimens up to three feet tall.

The exquisite, flowers arrive in vivid russet-reds, amber-orange, sulphur-yellow and linen-white.

'Dargan Hill Monarch' bestows papery flowers that appear as if dried sunflowers and 'Summer Solstice' have pastel colours representative of a muted sunset.

A delightful double form is Bracteantha bracteata 'Silvery Rose', with shimmering-pink flowerheads and 'Sky Net' exhibits pretty china-pink flowers that are washed over in a vanilla-white. Both are equally tall at around 30 inches.

'Bright Bikinis Series' - one wonders as to where the breeders look for inspiration when naming their plants - provide three-inch-wide, double-red, pink, orange, sun-yellow, and swan-white flowerheads, above one feet stems.

At five feet tall, the cultivars Bracteantha bracteata 'Tetraploid Double Series' are incredibly vigorous with pink, crimson-red, yolk-yellow, fiery-orange and crisp-white flowers.

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) hails from the Mediterranean and its flowers are encircled by a ruff of vivid-green bracts.

Flowers open from buds reminiscent of those of an onion's flower-bud to pompons of intense-orange or sun-filled yellow. This Mediterranean is an extravagant flower for drying.

I just couldn't be without statice in the spring-summer garden and the annual species I grow are Limonium sinuatum? Which sometimes acts as a perennial and self sows? And Limonium suworowii, syn Psylliostachys suworowii, more commonly named and representative of 'pink pokers'.

I simply love bells of Ireland (Moluccella laevis) which hails from Central Asia. It secured its common name because of its - all-Ireland-green-colour.

It is a beloved flower in the florist trade because of its greenery and likewise with many-a-gardener, both in the border and cut for the vase.

The golden sun held within wild achillea is preserved when dried and in our garden some of the plants are still above ground in winter - and now they will remain so.

I always have achillea in the spring-summer garden for it self-sows so willingly.

The parchment-pale scaffolding of dried Scabious gives a spunky look to an array of dried flowers and the endearing poppy offers both its flowers and picturesque seed-pods for drying.

Thankfully, it looks as if our garden will never be without the dramatic plant love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus). Its blood-red flowers drip, in long swishing tassels. The flowers symbolise immortality, for the name denotes 'underlying', since it dries so beautifully thus preserving its summer lavishness into the depths of winter.

There is a vivid green form 'Viridis', and 'dwarfs' with erect flowerheads 'Green Thumb' and 'Pigmy Torch'.

Chinese lantern is another that shows up the following season with no effort from me and its adorable pumpkin-orange lanterns were made for dried displays.

Last spring, wheat grew in our wildflower garden and it dried so well. Many friends took samples home with them.

The bone hue and its grassy-look provide exciting elements to a dried arrangement.

As, too, do Timothy grass, quaking grass, canary grass, hair grass and hare's tail grass.

Larkspur, too, dries well, as do cornflowers, Sweet William, globe amaranth, love-in-a-mist, xeranthemum, rose bay willow-herb, mint, echinops, chamomile, anaphlis, sunray, feather flower, rudbeckia and foxglove.

The list is endless and although I am talking today about annual flowers in your garden that can be dried, don't ignore their seed-heads and the trees, shrubs and perennials? And their seed-heads? For many of these will compliment one creation or another.

Also, some garden prunings are excellent raw material for dried flower displays.

In the garden, you can set aside an area purely for dried flower production, and if you do so then grow the plants in regimental rows in keeping with the type of flower or foliage.

Maintain straight flower stems, employ taut netting supports, pulled horizontally over the arena for ease of cultivation.

As the plants grow you can raise the netting up the supporting poles.

It is so gratifying to walk into a shop that specialises in dried flowers; one becomes mesmerized by the phenomenal number of different species suspended from hooks in the ceiling, and beautiful wicker baskets spilling over with dried-flowers.

Yet another of life's sheer pleasures!

Copyright 2009 Gulf Daily News

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company