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9 best dried flowers to add long-lasting style to your home

Say hello to the sustainable and stylish interior trend that means you can enjoy your favourite blooms all year long

Emma Ledger
Friday 07 May 2021 15:51 BST
<p>Whether you want to brighten up a boring bathroom or to celebrate a special occasion, a dried flower bouquet is a stylish choice that’s always in season</p>

Whether you want to brighten up a boring bathroom or to celebrate a special occasion, a dried flower bouquet is a stylish choice that’s always in season

If you don’t already have some dried flowers in your pad, you’ve been slacking. Lovely, long-lasting and requiring none of the maintenance of other botanical decor, dried flowers are huge in the interior design world, and they’re all over Pinterest and the ‘gram.

Whether you want to brighten up a boring bathroom or celebrate a special occasion, a dried flower bouquet is a stylish choice that’s always in season. Unlike fresh blooms you won’t need to keep topping them up with water or have to throw them out once they’re past their peak, meaning dried is a better choice for the planet, too.

As long as they are handled with care and kept out of direct sunlight, wind and humid conditions (keep that hairdryer away), you’ll be able to enjoy your beautiful dried delights for years to come.

Thanks to their growing popularity, there is now a bigger range of dried flowers to choose from than ever. You can keep things neutral with natural wheat stem for an English country garden feel, inject a burst of colour with colourful florals, or get a little more creative thanks to bright dyed bouquets.

Since these blooms don’t require water you can also have more fun with your choice of vase without worrying about any messy spills. Tinted glass vases look striking, showing off the different hued stems. Alternatively, a playful pottery creation – it doesn’t even matter if there’s a hole in the bottom – can add a wow factor.

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While they are robust, dried flowers are certainly not invincible. We tried and tested blooms from a wide selection of brands, noting the style, strength of any colour, overall value for money and, crucially, how well they fared in the post.

Fuss-free, sustainable and beautiful, the best-dried flower bouquets will give your home an instant facelift.  Here are our picks of the bunch.

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

The Magic Flower Company sandstone letterbox bouquet

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This specialist Suffolk florist creates “magic flowers” which aren’t dried as such, instead, they have their natural sap replaced with a glycerine mixture and the colour of the petals enhanced with organic dyes, making them last up to a year.

Our favourite from their impressive range is this neutral bunch with touches of yellow and calming green. It arrives in perfect condition, flat packed in a letterbox delivery box and wrapped in brown paper. There’s a huge range of blooms, but it doesn’t feel like kitchen-sink overload. Eucalyptus sits alongside preserved golden solidago, pampas, a dried palm, delicate cream gypsophila, dried yellow achillea and white bunny tails.

It’s up to you how hands on you get with your flower design. Keep them all together for dramatic impact, or get snipping and go for several smaller arrangements with a more pared-back vibe. They also offer custom bouquets, and specialise in preserved roses that anybody would think are fresh.

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Your London Florist thistle meets artichoke

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This chic centrepiece of nudes and natural tones is the perfect option for lovers of pared-back style and Scandi minimalism. Ordering is quick and easy, and they arrive beautifully arranged wrapped in brown paper, just like a fresh bouquet. The striking green of the eucalyptus almost makes you forget that they don’t need any water. The frothy pampas grass gives great height and fullness, while the dried artichoke and thistles add texture and interest. Fan them out in a hand-painted vase and pop them pride of place on the mantlepiece of kitchen table for maximum wow-factor.

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The Petal Patisserie ice cream sherbet sundae letterbox dried flowers

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For flowers that look good enough to eat, the sugar-sweet ice cream sherbet sundae is the way to go. Arriving in a plain brown rectangular box marked “fragile” – which gives no clue to the dazzling pastel rainbow of dyed stems inside – this is your chance to get creative by trimming and arranging the individual stems. Inside is an ombré palm spear, preserved Ruscus stem and pistachio and peach Phalaris grasses. This is not the biggest bunch, and they’re best suited to smaller sized vases with narrow openings – check out The Petal Patisserie’s Insta for more ice cream-hued inspo.

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Shida Preserved Flowers Leon bouquet

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Shida only sells preserved flowers, and they lead the way when it comes to giving dried serious cool points. The Leon hand-tied is striking and contemporary and really should come with a warning that its star – the Australian banksia hookeraina – is something that you’ll want to reach out and squeeze. Those showstoppers sit alongside soft green, dyed black and neutral blossoms, architectural palm spears and populus rounds. Inspired by Acne Studios and Fendi catwalk palettes, it's a bouquet with serious fashion sass.

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BloomPost bloomposy

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The handpicked stems in the Bloomposy arrive beautifully wrapped in pink tissue paper inside a box. As the inventor of letterbox flowers, BloomPost knows what works, and the pink, blush and natural colour palette is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. There’s a great variety of texture and tone, which will make any interior pop with interest. If you’re choosing dried flowers for sustainability points you’ll be glad to hear BloomPost strive for a transparent flower industry, plus they offer options such as the Bloomemory which comes with a wooden stand and vase for even longer-lasting appeal. All that and they keep their prices seriously competitive.

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BaeGarden Norfolk rustic bouquet

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While big name online retailers have plenty going for them, often you’re after the charm of a small independent. BaeGarden, a top seller on Etsy, offers a huge array of dried flower choice, from bountiful bouquets to individual stems. We opted for the Norfolk rustic bouquet, a huge bunch that very much lived up to its potential. With wild grasses, jute, protea, amaranth and extra touch of the bronze wheat, it’s a whopper with a decadent, vintage feel.

Most of the flowers and grasses were collected last summer in the friendly and funny seller’s East Sussex garden. It arrives looking even better than the photos, neatly packaged in wrapping paper inside a box. The few petals that fall off when arranging add to the sense that you’re supporting the little guy (or girl).

  1. £27 from Etsy.com
Prices may vary
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Bloom & Wild the Jo hand-tied

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You’d expect greatness from one of the UK’s favourite online florists, and this hand-tied beauty does not disappoint. Full of natural, understated earthy tones – including white gypsophila, pink spray roses, delphiniums and oat grass – these “forever blooms” have an English countryside feel.

The generous bouquet means it could easily be split into two arrangements, but we popped ours in one tall transparent jug to show off the pretty stems. As well as hand-tied’s, Bloom and Wild also offer letterbox dried flowers (from £35), or if you really want to wow someone on their doorstep you can opt for a hand-tied bunch with a vase (from £50). You can’t go wrong.

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The Country Garden Florist the hot pink, standard size

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This online Mecca for all things flowers recently added new lines to its dried collection. The bestselling hot pink arrives hand-tied inside a big box, bursting with fluffy pampas grass, pussy willow, cotton, bright fuchsia palm spears, dyed pink wheat and lovely honesty. This is a maximalist head-turner of a bouquet, which comes in three sizes; budget, standard or luxury (£35, £50 and £65 respectively).

Despite careful packaging, a couple of stems were slightly damaged upon arrival, but there is such an abundance it didn’t matter. We split ours into two arrangements, one a pick-me-up pop of colour, the other just full of untouched blooms. Both elevate their environments to new levels of luxe.

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Mud Urban Flowers mint imperial dried bouquet

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Giving a masterclass in a modern take on trad dried flowers, Mud’s mint imperial bouquet is their bestseller, and it’s not hard to see why. This peachy Instagram dream arrives overflowing with eucalyptus, white hydrangea, and neutral blooms, all wrapped in brown kraft paper and tied with a satin ribbon. At an impressive 40cm tall and 25cm wide, it is also available as a half size, priced at £26.

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The verdict: Dried flowers

There’s a dried flower bouquet to suit every style and budget, whether it's a treat for a loved one or a self-gift. For a fantastic all-rounder, it’s hard to beat The Magic Flower Company’s sandstone bouquet which give the best bang for your buck.

If you’re feeling flush, or if it's to mark a big occasion, The Country Garden Florist’s hot pink bouquet will dazzle any recipient.

Voucher codes

For the latest discounts and offers on bouquets and other flower buys, try the links below:

To have fresh flowers delivered at any time, check out our review of the best letterbox flowers for every occasion

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