How To Use Herbs In Flower Bouquets
Learn how to use herbs and other unusual things from your garden to create interest and magic in your flower bouquets.
Using Herbs In Flower Bouquets
In high school, my creative writing teacher used to say, “A lot of you guys like to talk about all this doom and gloom all the time (it was the 90s…). Sometimes, you know, it’s nice to just give someone a flower.” I agree.
The simple act of giving someone a flower can really turn their day around. Or at least brighten it.
Go ahead and try this. Bring someone a flower and watch their face. You’re gonna get an actual bonafide smile almost every time. I live for stuff like that.
And while most of my garden is filled with edible “usable” and medicinal plants, I like to sometimes just grow a flower. I wish I had the space to grow more, but for now, I stick them in wherever I can.
Because I am have such a small space, sometimes growing something as frivolous and beautiful as a flower is simply a luxury I don’t afford myself.
Although, I seem to be sticking more and more of them in the older I get. At my age, I’ve decided, sometimes looking out your window and seeing something beautiful if just as good as a nice roasted, home grown bulb of garlic—but that’s a story for another day.
Since I don’t grow a lot of typical flowers, one thing I really like to do with bouquets is to throw in something unusual. For me this is usually herbs or branches, since I have a lot of them growing on my land.
Today we are going to learn about a few favorites. Please realize this is just a list to get you started. So many beautiful options abound!
What Kind Of Herbs Can You Add To Bouquets?
Really the sky and your imagination are the only limits here. If you think it’s pretty, if you think it smells nice, or if it adds interest (and isn’t poisonous!), then that’s the herb for you!
Here are a few favorites I like to add to my bouquets.
Types Of Herbs For Bouquets
Rosemary. The stalks are strong and hold up well, and they add great fragrance to your flowers.
Mint. There are so many different varieties, and these can be fun to add an unexpected fragrance to your bouquet.
Olive Branches. These evergreen shrubs have beautiful leaves that enhance any bouquet. There’s also some great symbolism here, since giving someone an olive branch is a gesture of peace, forgiveness, and goodwill.
Rue. This herb has a very interesting scent, kind of a lemony musk. Be careful who you give this to, since it’s an unpleasant odor for some. I love it, but lots of people don’t! The foliage is really interesting with feathery pinnate blue-green-grey leaves. It makes sweet bright little yellow flowers with fun seed pods, too.
Borage. Borage is an edible herb, and great pollinator that attracts bees to your garden. It has beautiful blue flowers that look great with Dahlias. These flowers also look great as garnish for your favorite drinks, even frozen in ice cubes!
Herbs As Bouquets
Sometimes you can leave traditional flowers out all together. Chives and Lavender are a few of the herbs that I like to put in bouquets all on their own.
Oftentimes herbs get overlooked. Take the time to see them. There’s a lot of beauty going on there! They can be showstoppers all on their own without any help from traditional flowers at all.
Garlic Scapes are another herb that look amazing in a bouquet, but can also stand up just fine on their own.
Garlic Scapes. These are some of my favorite things to watch in the garden. The way they whirl, and twist, and turn all over the place. So beautiful!
As a gardener, you want to cut them, though, so that the plant can put all its energy into that glorious bulb instead of into its bloom.
Lots of people use the use the scapes in recipes from deep frying them, sauteeing them, and even turning them into pesto. But lots of years I prefer to just turn them into a bouquet and marvel at their beauty for a week on the counter.
I’m always surprised more florists don’t use them in their bouquets!
What Else Can You Put In Bouquets?
Herbs aren’t the only unusual things you can pull from your garden for a bouquet. In the fall adding things like Asparagus tops and Blueberry branches can also be quite lovely.
Blueberry Branches. In the fall these turn an intense and beautiful red. They look beautiful on their own or mixed with other flowers.
Asparagus Tops. If some of your asparagus goes to seed in fall, it produces huge fern-like golden spears with red berries. These look gorgeous in bouquets, especially when the fall sun streaks through the window and bounces off the leaves.
What Do You Put In Your Bouquets?
What do you like to add to your bouquets? Do you put anything unusual in them? I’d love to see! Comment or send me a message to show something lovely.
To see lots more flowers, and gardening ideas, check out my Instagram page, and Pinterest page.
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I love your borage and dahlia idea. Actually, all these bouquets are stunning and exactly to my taste. I like a lovely mix of cultivated and wild and I think adding the herbs with their powerful scents and slightly scruffy textures makes a perfect balance next to show stoppers like peony, dahlia and poppies. I call these my wabi sabi bouquets. I have a gargantuan lovage plant that contributes to bouquets with foliage and it’s umbel flowers. I grow rose orach which has an amazing color and turns the water violet. Also, like you, I love borage. Thank you for the inspiration!
Thank you so much for the inspiration, too! I love “wabi sabi” bouquets! 😂 I need to check out rose orach, too. That sounds incredible. I’m glad there are other Borage lovers and people who stick herbs in their bouquets out there. Thanks for your sweet comment!