For those with cutting gardens, winter can be a trying time. Even the frost-resistant flowers are pretty much gone by the time Christmas arrives. The solution to those winter blahs is to supplement whatever seasonal material is available in stores with everlastings. Plan ahead of time by growing and putting aside lots of everlasting stems from your cutting garden.

Dried flowers can be used to create all sorts of stunning designs, including dried flower wreaths. Wreath forms are quite varied in shape now, so you don’t have to settle for ordinary round ones.

There are numerous ways we can display everlastings and dried flowers. Dried flower petals can be layered in beautiful glass containers of all sorts. I like to add the petals one layer at a time, alternating colors. The more colors you use, the richer-looking the display will be.

Why not make a wreath using dried herbs and flowers for winter? For this, you could use both culinary and ornamental herbs. Some of my favorites are bay laurel, lavender, and oregano. For flowers, I like a mix of strawflowers, statice, and yarrow. All sorts of color combos work for this. Yellow and pink seems to make a nice combination. Depending on the color of the blooms you choose, red chile peppers could be added to the wreath.

Lavender is one of the most versatile everlastings. It is often used to make lavender wands. This is done by arranging the flower stems in a bundle, and tying them together with an attractive ribbon. In the home, the wand can be displayed in numerous places. They are often used for bathroom décor.

Everlastings can be used in many kinds of designs. They usually need no special preparation, and seem to last indefinitely. That is assuming they aren’t placed in a dusty or humid room. As a matter of fact, the arrangements outlast our interest in having them around.

Most everlastings can be harvested and dried without any special treatment. The exceptions are ones you plan on using as pressed flowers. For this procedure, you can use blossoms that normally wouldn’t be used as everlastings. An example is the pansy. These generally have relatively short stems compared to other flowers. But when pressing fresh flowers, the stem length is not a concern.

Projects made with pressed flowers are particularly beautiful. Some of the ones I’ve seen were used for home décor. There are a number of ways we can use them for beautifying the home. In addition, they can be used for other kinds of projects, such as greeting cards. At that point the art of using dried flowers may seem to diverge from floral design into some other kind of craft. Though there does appear to be a fine line between floral design and crafts, the closer you get to this point the more likely the differences seem to disappear.