Grow a selection of flowers in your garden for drying which will give you a varied palette of colours, as well as an assortment of textures and shapes.
Achillea: large flat heads of deep yellow flowers. Air dry by hanging or standing
Helichrysum: large daisylike flowers in a range of red, orange, pink, white and yellow. It is one of the easiest of flowers for air drying
Lagurus: grows in tufts with slender stems bearing soft, fluffy white flower spikes. Hang to dry
Echinops: easily air dried globular, spiky flower heads with a steely blue metallic sheen
Lunaria: purple flowers followed by flat and silvery moon-shaped seed pods which are easily dried by hanging
Moluccella: erect spikes of small fragrant flowers, surrounded by bell-shaped pale green papery calycles. Dry with silica gel
Nigella: many-petalled flowers, generally blue, with feathery foliage. Hang dry for their balloon-shaped seedpods
Helianthus: the dramatic large heads of dark sunflower seeds, set in concentric circles, look spectacular when dried for flower arrangements. Use silica gel