How to Dry Allium Blooms

Alliums are stunning in your spring garden, but they’re just as beautiful when you dry them and use them in arrangements year round. Here’s how to dry allium blooms.

I first became fascinated with dried allium blooms quite a few years ago after seeing a few of them displayed in a vase at a friend’s house. I was amazed at how beautiful and delicate each globe-shaped bloom looked and the fact that they had been perfectly preserved without being damaged. Some people call dried alliums “nature’s fireworks” and the title really is fitting. I’ve since started growing quite a few different varieties of alliums in my garden, and each year I dry a few to display around the house. They make beautiful, natural arrangements with plenty of texture and they seem to look good no matter where you use them. If you love the botanical look of allium seed heads too, here’s how to dry your allium blooms to use as decor.

How to Dry Allium Blooms Step-by-Step

The first part of the process is to grow alliums in your garden. This is super easy to do and only requires a few minutes of your time to plant some bulbs in the fall. Once your alliums are planted, you just have to wait for them to grow and bloom in the spring. Here in USDA zone 6b, most of my allium varieties bloom in mid-late May, but every gardener’s experience will be slightly different.

Once your allium varieties have bloomed it’s time to prepare for the drying process, so here’s what you do: Wait.

That’s it. Leave your allium blooms in your garden on their stems until they have dried completely, or almost completely. You may be worried that strong winds and summer storms will damage the delicate seed heads, but their delicateness actually allows the wind to whip right through them in most cases, causing no damage whatsoever.

When your alliums look like this, they’re almost ready, but not quite. They probably need about another week for each seed pod to dry fully and open up.

When you see that the seed pods have dried and opened up to expose the tiny black seeds within, they’re ready to be harvested.

To remove the seeds, I usually just shake them out, bang them gently against the side of my gathering basket, or brush them gently with the side of my pruning shears. I don’t worry about getting every single seed out, but it’s a good idea to try to remove most of them so you don’t end up with little allium seeds all over your house.

Once the seeds are removed, you’ll see that each open seed pod is quite pretty and really resembles little petals.

By early to mid July, you should be able to take your pruning shears and cut the strong, sturdy stems near the base of the stalk, giving you spectacular, tall dried blooms to use to decorate your home.

More easy dried florals to gather: How to Dry Lavender From the Garden

Best Allium Varieties for Drying

There are many different varieties of alliums and some are better for drying than others. The ones you’re most used to seeing dried are the giant varieties, with blooms reaching diameters of up to 10 inches. These are strong blooms that dry beautifully, although in my experience, they take quite a few years of being established before each plant will produce multiple blooms, so you’ll end up with fewer dried blooms at first.

Mid-sized varieties, with flower spheres of about six inches are reliable for drying and usually produce multiple blooms as soon as their second year. These are the ones you’ll see displayed most often around my home.

Some of the smaller varieties with blooms that are only about two to three inches in diameter often have more delicate stems and end up dying back down to the ground as they dry out right after blooming, so they aren’t idea for this drying method.

If you like a more dainty dried bloom, I’ve been known to gather and dry chive blossoms, which actually work beautifully for this!

Read next: How to Get Perfectly Dried Hydrangeas Every Single Time

Ideas for Displaying Dried Allium Blooms

Dried alliums work beautifully in both traditional and more modern interiors. I think a bundle of dried allium blooms from your garden would even make a lovely, unique hostess gift for the right person. How special would it be to gift something that you grew yourself and that will last for years to come?

I like to display them in large bunches or even in simpler arrangements of two to three blooms in vases around my home. Clear glass vases provide great textural contrast, and more traditional vases are strikingly unexpected.

Some people like to spray paint dried alliums in red, white, and blue to make a festive arrangement for the Fourth of July, or you could do just red and white for Canada Day. I’ve spray painted my dried blooms in gold in the past and used them as ethereal, natural decorations on my Christmas tree, which worked out beautifully. I still display allium blooms at Christmas, but these days I usually just leave them their natural color.

Do you dry allium blooms from your garden? How do you like to display them?

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