While you can always purchase dried, pressed flowers for your crafting projects from online sources, I chose to grow my own flowers for making pressed flower art! As a a fervent flower gardening enthusiast, it just seemed like the natural thing to do.

So let's talk about which flowers and plants I grew in my garden for making pressed flower art, as well as a list of other potential flowers and plants that lend themselves to being dried, pressed and used to create beautiful, original art!

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Best Flowers For

 Pressed Flower Art 

 NASTURTIUM 

I purposefully sowed nasturtium, mainly because they're known to make great pressed flowers, but also because they're beautiful and fairly easy to grow. I'd never grown them before, so I thought they'd be a nice addition to my summer flower garden -- and bonus -- they're edible!

Nasturtiums are climbers, so I added bamboo arches and metal trellises for the plants to have room to climb. 

  

Nasturtium flowers come in a number of different colors. Mine were mainly different shades of orange. 

Seed Source: 

Jewel Blend Nasturtium Seeds

 

THYME

 

When thyme is growing it looks like creeping woody stems with tiny green leaves. When pressed, the stems look like tiny plants in and of themselves. Depending on your needs you can cut the stems as long or as short as you want.

 

As thyme continues to grow, if you let it get unruly and don't prune it regularly, it will begin to flower. So not only is thyme great "as is" straight from the garden for recipes, you can dry it and/or bring it in after flowering and display it in a vase! 

You can also press thyme at this flowering stage of development as well. 

DILL

I've also used dill from the garden for drying, pressing and for making pressed flower art. As with thyme, you can use as is, or after the plant has flowered, as shown above. I prefer the look of pressed dill after it has flowered. Each sprig looks like a tiny little tree! You can use the sprig whole, or cut off each individual set of flowers and use them separately. 

LAVENDER

Not only does lavender smell great -- it also makes for a great dried flower arrangement, or as pressed flowers!

 

 

I also found lavender easy to grow in a pot. Anything this beautiful and this easy to grow works for me!

 

Seed Source: 

Non-GMO Heirloom Lavender Seeds 

 

CELOSIA

 

This was my first year growing celosia, and I've been very happy with the ease of growing it and the way in which it dries, especially the smaller pieces.

Not only do celosia make great pressed flowers. They are also known as overall great dried flowers that keep their vibrant color to use in dried floral arrangements. I'll be sharing some dried celosia fall floral arrangements soon! 

Seed Source: 

Celosia Plume Pampas Mix

GOMPHRENA

Growing gomphrena, also known as globe amaranth, was also a first for me this year.

While I love how the flower looks and how it dries, I was frustrated with the difficulty I faced growing it from seed. I ended up with only three plants. I'm not sure if I'll be growing it again next year. 

Also, depending on how large your globes are, you might need to add extra pressure on them while drying to be sure that they flatten enough for your pressed flower art (especially if the art will be in a frame, as is most pressed flower art).  

Seed Source:

Gomphrena Raspberry Cream

 

ZINNIAS

Zinnias are some of the easiest flowers to grow.

I grow zinnias from seed every year.

While you can use any sized zinnia for pressing, I prefer to use the dwarf variety (meaning the small variety). I find that smaller pressed zinnia blooms work better in my pressed flower art designs. 

 

Here's a closer look at the pressed flowers that came with the pressed flowers bookmark kit. I was pleased to see there was a great variety in the colors and types of dried flowers provided.

So to recap, there are many different types of flowers you can grow and use for pressed flower art. But if gardening's not your thing, just check out some of the resources listed above and order your already pressed flowers online. After that, the only limit is your imagination!

 

 Well, that's it for today, friends! 

I hope you've enjoyed reading about 

  Best Flowers To Use For Pressed Flower Art 

and that I've inspired you in some way.  

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