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This is the best time of year for foraging the prettiest dried foliage. As autumn progresses, nature is full of an abundance of prettiness in its final flourish, I love the skeletal beauty of this time, the frost and the structures on plants will always win over the wash of autumnal hues for me. It’s also about the only time I feel comfortable foraging wild pieces, knowing that they are on their descent into hibernation. Autumn is also when some very pretty and delicate flowers form, my favourite is Old Mans Beard (below) with its wispy white and black stars as the flower recedes for winter, this is my autumnal version of Cow Parsley (which I am a little obsessed with, Ammi majus – the more delicate version, is my favourite flower, but this abundant weed that covers any ground it can find in summer months with its delicate joyfulness is the thing I look forward to most in nature each spring, I bang on about it so much on Instagram that people tag me in when they find an abundance of it on their travels!).

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I often make seasonal wreaths, you can find instructions on how to put them together in my first post about wreaths here, but this winter I wanted to create something different to the ones I’ve made before. Since I have been collecting dried flowers in vases, and my front porch is full of specimens hanging upside down mid-drying-process, I wanted to make a wreath with purely dried pieces. It doesn’t have any of the razzmatazz of Christmas pieces but rather a quiet natural beauty mirrored in the outside world at this time of year. As you may have noticed, I’m all about references to the outdoors inside my home and I couldn’t be happier with this simple wreath, I’ve moved it around several times over the last week and I love it in each setting. It’s going to stay in the bedroom a while as I love it against the crisp white-ness of the beautiful linen duvet set I was kindly gifted by Chalk Pink Linen recently. 

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They are such simple things to make, not time consuming at all and a really nice way to while away an hour. All you need is a hoop, some twine and the patience to collect pretty dried pieces. My wreath has grasses, eucalyptus, old mans beard, heather, fennel flowers, poppy seed heads and one cheat – artificial cotton flowers. I even had enough left over to fill a vase for the dining room table (below) where I think the dried flowers look equally as cheerful.

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This is probably my last flourish in the house before Christmas takes over, but I think we will keep it up long into the new year. I joked on Instagram this week that I may be starting to become the dried flower version of crazy plant lady, but with so many pretty shapes and structures outdoors at the moment I can’t help myself. Do you forage for treasures in the winter? I’d love to know your favourites in the comments below.

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