How to Make A Dried Hydrangea Arrangement

Learn how easy it is to make a dried hydrangea arrangement in a basket from cut blooms and a little paint. It's a great way to extend the life of your gorgeous hydrangea blooms from the garden.

One way to make use of a large bounty of hydrangea blooms is to gather them into a pretty display basket. After all, it's a shame to waste so many beautiful flowers.

It's easy to dry hydrangeas and they last a long time. Easy, quick, and basically free, those are the best projects, and I think you will agree that this dried flower arrangement is pretty sweet.

I have this huge hydrangea shrub (h. paniculata 'Limelight') that blooms profusely every year. This is the absolute easiest hydrangea to grow. It doesn't produce the huge blue or pink blooms of h. macrophylla. It's a white hydrangea but blooms faithfully every year, even after the worst winters.

P.S. Annabelle hydrangeas, another white bloomer, are also very reliable and easy to grow and dry.

This post contains some affiliate links (that means if you make a purchase after clicking a link, there’s no additional cost to you, but I will earn a very small commission. ) i.e. as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

By the end of summer, blooms are just starting to dry on the shrub. This is the best time to cut and dry them, through October, for use in your decor. Bring some in, place them in a vase with a few inches of water, and let them dry naturally.

How to Make a Dried Hydrangea Basket

Maybe you have a plain vanilla wicker basket hanging around as I did. It just wasn't pretty enough to stand up to the hydrangea blooms.

I tried spray painting it with gray paint. Then I dry brushed it with white, and then black paint.

I still wasn't happy, so I added this brown wax, giving it just the right patina and dimension.

In addition to the Limelight flowers, I cut some branches from a Pee Gee hydrangea (h. paniculata grandiflora), another easy to grow hydrangea. I love their unique texture.

I tried spray painting the dried hydrangea flowers with a can of pink paint, but it looked fake and unnatural.

Instead, I opted for using some red craft paint, dabbing on the paint with a big brush so they look like red berries.

Creating a Dried Flower Arrangement

Use some masking tape in a criss-cross pattern (see above) to support your flowers. This will make creating the dried hydrangea arrangement easy.

Then just go to town, placing the limelight flowers all over, one stem at a time. Then add in some of the painted pee gee blooms for a little added color. Stand back and look at the arrangement for balance and adjust accordingly.

This dried hydrangea basket fits perfectly on top of our antique cupboard in the dining room.

If you are using a smaller basket, vase, or other vessel, I think it would look great on an entry table or a coffee table.

Note: Make sure your flowers are placed somewhere away from direct sunlight so that they don't fade and change colors.

Originally I thought it would be a nice holiday piece. However, now I think I'll leave it here all year long. Maybe I'll add a nice red or burlap bow for the holidays.

I love that I was able to use so many of my limelight blooms and add some natural beauty to our dining room at the same time.