Learning how to create forever flowers

We’ve been at our new home for just over 2 years now. One of the main reasons that we moved here was for the outside garden space and views. However, the garden was totally overgrown so it’s taken us some time to get it under control and be able to plant in it (although it’s still very much a work in progress).

I’ve found that I totally love to garden, experimenting with different flowers and nurturing them. But I wanted to use what I grow to craft so I went out to discover what I could learn.

I’d previously taken a gardening course over on Create Academy and noticed that they recently added a new Forever flowers course with Bex Partridge. I’ve admired Bex work over on Instagram for a few years so was really excited to take part in her course.

I love how the course has given me inspiration to go out and pick from the garden each day. I then simply hang the flowers upside down to dry in my utility room.

The course was very well structured, beautifully filmed and has a very useful downloadable workbook. It covers what the best flowers etc are to dry, how to dry and several different step by step projects to create (you can see the full class breakdown on the site).

My only wish is that I could download the classes as my WiFi is very poor so at peak times it sometimes buffers too much to watch.

For some of the leaves from the garden I’ve also used my flowers press rather than drying as this helps to keep a little colour and shape. I’ve used this mainly for ferns and eucalyptus.

I’ve not yet put too much of the “making” into practise as I’m waiting for a good quantity to dry out, and I only picked a few stems each day so as to not strip the garden bare and leave none for the bees and butterflies.

However I did have a go at a basic wreath and a candle wreath. For the wreath bases I used vines that I found in hedgerows on a local walk.

I really love how the David Austin roses from the garden have dried, they have such amazing texture and each tends to dry with a slightly different shade of colour.

The larger wreath was my first practise at a hand tied wreath, and I had limited supplies, but it’s certainly good enough to hang up at home!

I also love that I can easily take it all apart and re-use the flowers and leaves as my skills develop through practise.

Sometimes it’s as simple as putting a few dried stems in a bud vase, look how lovely it looks below.

I can’t wait to get more practise in once the other flowers have dried. Next year I will also be planning what I’m growing/planting to ensure that I have lots of varieties that dry well. I love gardening with purpose!

Bex also has a lovely Patreon, I subscribed after taking this course and its helping me to learn even more and get more inspiration.