Preserved foliage
Dried or preserved greenery adds a sense of calm to a bouquet or dried flower arrangement. Green is a calming colour and can soften an otherwise vivid colour scheme.
Natural Eucalyptus leaves
I often air dry stems of Eucalyptus leaves for use in floristry – these come out a little crispy but retain their colour well. Good varieties for hanging up to dry in a warm dry place include Parvi which has small leaves suitable for smaller projects such as flower crowns and posies, and the slightly larger greyish Cineria. Read about making dried flowers and leaves in my workshop.
A simple alternative to a door wreath is a hanging bunch of Eucalyptus foliage.
Bleached Ruscus foliage
Bleached Ruscus aka Butchers Broom is very popular these days to snip down into small pieces for craft or to add interest to a pastel colour scheme.
I saw a lot of large scale dried flower crafts utilising bleached ruscus for shop decor in Copenhagen.
Palms
Exotic Palms add a tropical summery feel in a range of shapes and sizes and natural colours or dyed. Hazel noted the current trend for palms in her blog post about Instagram recently.
Air dried or preserved?
Foliage is often chemically preserved rather than air dried. Preservation is where the greenery is treated with a natural chemical (glycerine) which leaves the bunch feeling more supple and pliable than air dried greenery. The two downsides of chemical preservation are that the colour often fades during this process which means it has to be added back in using artificial dyes, and that preserved foliage can be very expensive. The top photo on this page is of preserved Eucalyptus Cineria.
Some examples of dry Greenery
Below you can see my foliage department where you can find out more. Green grasses are great too and can be a less formal alternative for mixed bouquets.