The secret ingredient for fabulous bouquets is foliage! The bigger secret, is foraging fabulous foliage from your landscape! 

As I mentioned in my previous blog, 8 Filler Flowers To Make Your Arrangements Pop, there are three components to a beautiful arrangement... focal flowers, filler flowers and foliage.

Adding a few stems of green foliage to a bouquet can transform its look from okay to professional, making foliage truly special. 

When I started flower farming, I had to plant seeds for all of the foliage I used in my bouquets. That's because we had just built our house in a field the year before. I didn't have established landscaping to forage from.

The bonus of having to pick out all new landscape plants, was that I could choose ones that doubled as foliage for my bouquets! 

There are many benefits of using foraged foliage:

• Many have a long vase life. Hosta and Sedum will last a long time in a vase along with woody stemmed plants like Dogwood, which have a very long vase life when cut correctly. 
• They are perennials meaning you don't have to start them from seed every year or buy expensive annual plants.
• Many landscape plants have seasonal interest. Some perennials flower early in spring, bearing beautiful or fragrant blossoms like Baptisia or Crabapple trees.
• Some bushes like Dogwood and Snowberry bear fruit in summer that also adds interest to bouquets.
• Certain plants have foliage that changes colors later in the season providing a new look for fall bouquets - like Raspberry leaves that turn from green to maroon.

In this blog, I'm sharing with you the plants around my home that I use as foliage but I also continue to plant foliage type annuals from seed each year to use in bouquets such as Bupleurum, Mint, and many types of Basil (my favorite is Amaretto Basil which smells amazing and has a purple tinge).

Beyond my list here, there's an abundance of amazing plants, shrubs and trees that work as well for beautiful foliage. Some of those include: Scented Geranium, Viburnum, Hibiscus, Cedar, Grapevine, Peony greens, and many grasses.

Take time to look around your yard and landscape, and be curious! Do a trial, as I did, by placing cut stems in water to see how long they last.

Have fun with it!

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Dogwood

 

I love Dogwood for many reasons. It's leaves are big which do a great job of supporting the flowers in a bouquet. The shape of the leaves is also very pleasant and soft (unlike an Oak leaf which is pointy) which compliments some of the more textured petaled flowers like cactus Zinnias. Dogwood also produces berries adding interest and in the Fall, and the leaves drop in early winter revealing red stems that can be used as winter decor.

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Hydrangea

 

Hydrangea is a very common landscape bush in Wisconsin. The shape of the leaves is a little more pointy which is why I prefer Dogwood foliage. But it also blooms beautiful flowers which can be cut fresh or dried as an everlasting. 

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Spirea & Ninebark

Spirea (left) is a beautiful landscape shrub that has smaller leaves and bears small flowers in the spring. I usually cut off the flowers once they have died so I can continue to use the foliage all summer. It has a more woody stem so be sure to cut at an angle for more surface area for hydrating the cells. 

Ninebark (right) is another popular landscape shrub that has leaves that grow on one stem versus multiple branches as with the Spirea. The leaves of Ninebark change to a darker maroon color in Fall.

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Hosta
 

I think it's safe to say that Hosta plants can be found in the majority of yards in the Midwest! It's a popular plant that loves shade and is easy to divide for sharing or spreading around your landscape. I transplanted many from our previous home and was gifted many more. Hosta's have beautiful big leaves and it does a great job of supporting the edges of a bouquet. The vase life is not super long and neither are most of the stems but I adore them in a bouquet of Tulips.   

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Baptisia

Ahh, Baptisia, where have you been all my life!? I was not aware of Baptisia until I started the flower farm and by that time, the landscaping around my home was full, so I planted a row of Baptisia in my flower beds. It is my all time favorite for so many reasons: Baptisia looks like a relative of Eucalyptus which everyone wants in their bouquets but is difficult to grow in Wisconsin without a tunnel. It has a super long vase life and looks amazing with every flower. Not only that, it can grow to be 5 feet wide and it does not need special soil or attention because it is native to our area - I even saw it growing in a field near here! It also produces beautiful, tall flowers in the spring that turn to pods in the fall. I highly recommend investing in one. But pay attention to where you plant it, Baptisia does not like to be moved once it's in the ground.

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Sedum

Sedum is a fun landscape plant to use as foliage because it has rubbery leaves, unique color and sturdy structure. It's often overlooked as foliage because it has such beautiful flowers but it works well throughout bouquets and is a lovely compliment to pastel colored flowers. I have never had Sedum die in the vase, in fact, it loves the water and will send out root shoots which means the stem can be planted again in your garden!

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Fern

Ferns are playful and make a big statement in an arrangement with their height. I have found that the vase life is not very long with ferns but I love to use them in early summer when they are fresh and bright green and well hydrated. Usually near the middle of summer, my ferns are looking a little damaged by sun or dry conditions so I stop picking them.

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A Few Tips for Success

For the longest vase life, pick flowers, fillers and foliage in the morning and evening when they are the most hydrated. 

Always cut stems and immediately place in cool, fresh water.

Remove any foliage that will be sitting in the water in your final arrangement. This prevents bacteria from growing.

Change the bouquet water daily. If you wouldn't drink the water in your vase, your plants won't want drink it either.

Remove dead and decaying stems from the bouquet to keep the water fresher.

When cutting woody stems from trees or big bushes, cut them on an angle to reveal more surface area of cells for hydration.

Also with woody stems, cut up the bottom of the stem a half inch or so to make a splice, which also opens more surface area for hydration.