With hard papery petals that retain colour long after the stem has been cut and the flower has dried, strawflowers are magical blooms that look gorgeous whether in the garden, in the vase, or used in a dried flower wreath.
Strawflowers, also known as Helichrysum, love the sunshine. They thrive in a hot climate, like the Lowveld garden, and in our corner of the world they can be grown all year round.
These flowers are a part of the cottage garden collection of blooms, and like snapdragons and nigella, strawflowers are abundant annuals and when you leave them to go to seed, the flower will spread itself prolifically, ensuring that your garden is always full of blooms.
These flowers are pest resistant (at least I have never had a pest problem, even when the weather is extremely hot and dry), and the plants are small enough to fit in between perennials, to add an interesting pop of colour and texture.
If you are looking for a cheap and easy way to bring your garden to life, while also having blooms to cut and bring indoors, these are the ones you want.
Types of Strawflowers
Unlike many other types of annual flowers, strawflowers are fairly straight forward; they are available in two varieties but they come in many colours.
The two varieties that you can choose from include the Giant and the Dwarf, which refers to how long the stem will grow and how many heads you will get per stem. The size of the heads can also differ, but not by much. With that in mind, a Giant Strawflower head is not as big as you might imagine the word Giant should be referring to.
If you are growing your strawflowers to cut them for bouquets or to create a dried flower wreath, then you should buy the Giant variety. But if you just want to add some extra colour to your garden, then the Dwarf variety is an excellent space filler.
Deep pinks, brilliant shades of orange blended with red, soft whites, and striking yellows are your most common colours.
You will usually buy your flowers in a mixed colour packet, so you will get a combination of beautiful colours, but if you are planning a garden with a specific colour in mind, you can find individual colours in more specialised seed stores.
Sowing
Strawflowers are easy to grow from seed, and they are perfect for a first time gardener.
These plants are also brilliant self-seeders which means if you let a couple of your plants go to seed, you will always have strawflowers in your garden with no effort from your side.
In a warm, frost free climate, you can plant strawflowers all throughout the year.
The seeds are quite small, and so all you need to do is place them on top of the soil and cover them lightly with more soil.
Keep the soil moist and within about 14 days your first shoots should pop up. If you leave the plants to scatter their seeds, make sure that you keep watering the area the seeds have fallen, so that the seeds can germinate.
Strawflowers can be directly thrown in the garden or they can be grown in trays. I would suggest growing in a tray if this is your first time growing strawflowers, as this will guarantee better germination.
Growing
These plants don’t need much attention.
The seedlings will stay quite small and even look a little bit flat, but after about 4 weeks and once they have their true leaves, you can transplant them.
Strawflowers are going to bush out a little bit so make sure that you give them enough space to branch out. A safe spacing would look like 15 to 20 centimetres between each plant.
Strawflowers are known as hot weather plants but should temps go beyond 35 degrees Celsius, the leaves and flowers will droop pathetically. You will want to make sure that during intense hot weather the plants get enough water.
And as with all kinds of plants, you can give your flowers a dose of plant food or banana water every couple of weeks to keep them looking good.
To get your plant to bush out nicely, it helps to nip the plant. You can do this by letting the plant grow to about 15 centimetres and then clipping the top off, or you can remove the first bud. This will encourage the plant to make side shoots earlier than it would have if left to its natural devices.
I like to nip my strawflowers before their first buds. In the past I have had my plants growing one long stem and nothing else if I don’t nip it.
While your strawflowers are growing, you should regularly either cut the stems for bouquets or to make dry flower wreaths, or if you are not keen on doing that, you should dead head any flowers that look like they are going to seed. This will prolong the life of your plant.
These are seasonal blooms, but here in the Lowveld they can survive for longer than a season, provided you keep deadheading or picking your flowers.
Harvesting Seed
What I love about growing flowers and veg is not just that I get a bountiful harvest if things work in my favour, but that I get to collect the seeds.
If you play things right and you get flowers or vegetables that are really healthy and beautiful, the seeds you collect will be genetically good and perfect for your environment, since the plant was able to thrive in your garden.
Strawflower seeds can fly.
They have little “wings” that when caught in a breeze will travel all over your garden. You will know that your strawflower seeds are ready to harvest when the petals fold back and you start seeing those little fluffy wings. Not all of the seeds will be mature at this point, so have a look for the brown seeds. The white seeds will be immature and smaller, and they won’t be worth collecting.
Make sure that you remove the fluffy bits and store the seeds in an air tight packet, in a cool dark place. It is important to only store the seed, as bugs could be living in the fluff, and they will consume your seed.
Seed Suppliers
Kirchhoff Seeds – https://www.kirchhoffs.co.za/product-category/flowers/helichrysum/
Adene’s Farm Flowers – https://www.adeneflowers.co.za/products/consumer-goods/ (search for strawflowers)
Seeds for Africa – https://www.seedsforafrica.co.za/products/helichrysum-swiss-giant-mix-annual-straw-flowers-beautiful-flowers-200-seeds?_pos=1&_sid=c6983b519&_ss=r
