My “No Cost” Dried Flower Arrangements Pay!

By Mildred Guy
Published on November 1, 1978
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Buyers readily pay $15.00 for dried flower arrangements such as this one made of glycerine-treated eucalyptus, hydrangea, goldenrod (dyed red), corn-shuck
Buyers readily pay $15.00 for dried flower arrangements such as this one made of glycerine-treated eucalyptus, hydrangea, goldenrod (dyed red), corn-shuck "flowers", and rabbit tobacco. Some of Ms. Guy's arrangements sell for 550.00 or more.
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Marigolds, covered with mixture of corn meal and borax, dry in about 10 days.
Marigolds, covered with mixture of corn meal and borax, dry in about 10 days.
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Glycerine-treated baby's breath, straw flowers, yarrow, and blue statice. Price: $15.00.
Glycerine-treated baby's breath, straw flowers, yarrow, and blue statice. Price: $15.00.
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This $12.50 arrangement consists of air-dried birch leaves, ornamental grass, sea oats, cattails, and lotus pods in a recycled gallon can.
This $12.50 arrangement consists of air-dried birch leaves, ornamental grass, sea oats, cattails, and lotus pods in a recycled gallon can.

Winter bouquets are a delight to make, can brighten any room, and I’ve found can enrich your bank account too! Furthermore, such dried flower arrangements (at least the way I put them together) need cost you nothing but a little time and effort, yet if assembled with taste and care can sell for anywhere from $1.25 to $50.00 each!

Materials Are Everywhere

If you can see beauty in the natural things that are freely available to all, you’ll soon discover that the raw materials for your winter bouquets are everywhere: along roadsides, in fields, down country lanes, and in fence rows. (Carry clippers, scissors, gloves, and a basket in your car at all times. Who knows when you’ll sight something special?)

Gather Those Plants!

Always get permission, of course, before clipping anything — even “weeds” — from private property (I haven’t been turned down yet, but I always make it a point to ask). And then, when you have a “go ahead,” bear in mind that the prime time for foraging your floral bouquets’ ingredients is during the late morning (after the sun has dried away the dew). Yes, I know: It’s difficult to resist picking and cutting during other parts of the day when you “just happen” to run across a colorful bunch of these or those that you hadn’t expected to find. But control yourself: Your finished work will be the better for it.

And experiment! Almost any nonpoisonous flower, plant, or weed is worth a try. I’ve successfully dried and made arrangements with roses, tulips, buttercups, daisies, lilies, dogwood, delphiniums, zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers, corn shucks, cattails, sea oats, lotus pods, birch leaves, grasses, yarrow, baby’s breath, goldenrod, and — it seems — hundreds of other growing things.

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