Favorite Foliage & Greenery for Cut Flower Bouquets

In commercial cut flower growing and in the home cutting garden alike, fillers and foliage are the backbone of an arrangement.

Beyond adding structure and volume, they bring design elements that are less obvious but just as important as the flowers. They make arrangements look full, lush and balanced, often supply background color, and tie all the blooms together. Casual observers may overlook them, but fillers and foliage are the workhorses of bouquets and essential in any cutting garden or flower shop. They usually make up most of the material in a bouquet, so the best ones are easy to grow or find, plentiful, reliable, sturdy and beautiful.

Since we get asked about this a lot, the Hensley's team asked flower farmers in three regions who grow, design and sell their flowers for recommendations and tips. Here's what they kindly shared, followed by a few of our own favorites!

A family flower farm in Oregon's Willamette Valley

“ This family farm uses sustainable practices to grow specialty cut flowers for flower lovers across the Pacific Northwest, from Eugene up to Seattle, with a focus on the best-quality, most unusual and interesting flowers they can grow. ”

The family grows dozens of kinds of cut flowers on a few acres in the Willamette Valley. They started with an ambitious backyard garden years ago and enjoy sharing what they've learned.

Especially for beginners, they suggest crops that are easy to grow and work across many markets, from a roadside stand to bridal bouquets.

Ammi/Daucus

Ammi adds airiness and fine detail to this bouquet.

Erin's Favorite Foliages & Fillers

• Feverfew (Matricaria) & Statice

  Statice and feverfew both last well at the farmers' market, make bouquets look and feel full, are very easy to grow and keep producing a long time, though they succession-plant to keep fresh flowers coming all season.

• Bells of Ireland

  Bells of Ireland has a one-of-a-kind color and a lovely arching habit, which makes it a must for their designs.

• Raspberry Foliage, Ferns, Scented Geranium & Salal

  Raspberry foliage, salal, scented geranium and ferns all make great greenery to build any kind of bouquet on.

• Ammi

  Ammi gives bouquets a light look and delicate detail, and they love using it.

• Sedum

  They use sedum at every stage, green, pink and brown. It lasts and lasts and makes a great base.

• Amaranth & Broom Corn

  Amaranth and broom corn are essential in fall bouquets, but both work all season to add interesting shape and texture.

Connect with the farm

• raindropfarms.net
• instagram
• facebook

Broom Corn & Amaranth in fall arrangements

Upright amaranths such as 'Hot Biscuits' and 'Red Spike' (shown above) are usually more useful and versatile as filler than trailing types, which suit tabletop arrangements and bridal work better.

A diversified flower farm in southern Maine*

This farm focuses on flowers for weddings, events, corporate clients and wholesale customers. The owner is active in farmland preservation, farm tenancy and organic agriculture as an economic driver in Maine, and has served on the board of the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association .

Farming in Maine since the early 2000s, the family grows cut flowers and organic vegetables, hosts weddings and runs a summer day camp that connects kids with where healthy, sustainable food comes from.

Stacy's Favorite Spring & Summer Foliages & Fillers

• Annuals

  • Spring: Bupleurum 'Green Gold'

    A great first flush of foliage to pair with peonies. The first greenhouse-started succession goes into a high tunnel as early as possible at 6" x 6" spacing in well-amended beds, with new successions started every 2–3 weeks.

  • Summer: 'Mountain Snow' (Euphorbia marginata)

    A favorite seed-grown filler. This euphorbia has a good vase life if hydrated quickly after cutting, and midsummer foliage holds well if field heat is removed fast.

    One caution: the sap from cut stems can irritate skin, so wear gloves when harvesting and making bouquets. It's worth it, and customers love the pretty variegated foliage.

    They grow several successions, sown in 128-cell flats at 3–5 seeds per cell and planted at 6" x 6", timing the last one so its small white flowers open just before frost.

• Herbaceous Perennials

  • Spring: lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

    A long bed of lady's mantle produces a sweet, useful filler for a few weeks every spring. It's a long-lived perennial for them, and the bare-root plants they started with have paid for themselves many times over.

  • Summer: Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) and Baptisia australis

    Mountain mint and baptisia are both long-lived perennials in their rotation, and the farm keeps adding more of each. They cut about two-thirds of the baptisia flowers in spring and leave the rest to form interesting seed pods for later. Over the summer they harvest two-thirds of the foliage, saving the last third to cut just before the first fall frost, and use the pods to add interest to fall arrangements.

* Connect with the farm:

• broadturnfarm.com
• instagram
• facebook

A small wedding flower farm in Sonoma County, California

“ This farm sits on one colorful acre beside a small creek in west Sonoma County, California.* They grow a wide range of old-fashioned, fragrant flowers organically for their design studio and workshops. Full-service wedding design is their specialty, and growing most of their own flowers means they're involved in every step, from sowing seed and tending and picking flowers to finishing the bridal bouquet before it goes down the aisle. ”

The owner came to flowers from social work and adult education, so the farm quickly became a teaching farm too, with workshops for every level that encourage students to go deeper into flowers in the garden or the studio, plus a blog that's a growing resource for both.

Lennie's Favorite Foliages & Fillers

She relies heavily on foliage for the loose, wild, sprawling look she wants. Three kinds of foliage in a wedding arrangement makes her happy; five makes her happier.

She keeps reassessing the foliage she grows, buys and forages by two measures: how easy it is to get, and whether it adds something unique to a design. Ideally there's a mix of small and large leaves and thin arching and sturdier stems. The more variety, the better.

• Basil 'Cinnamon' or 'Aromatto'

  These basils last well and long, and add weight and soft curves to arrangements. It's great to get so much bulk from an annual grown from seed. The purple is gorgeous and can play up a purple scheme or blend with other colors.

• Bupleurum

  Very easy from seed (just remember it needs darkness to germinate), bupleurum is worth succession-sowing every week or two. It adds lovely movement to arrangements and really shines.

• California bay laurel

  Bay laurel is plentiful in her area, and local ranchers let her forage it sustainably on their land. It's a great base for many arrangements and essential for garlands.

• Dusty miller 'New Look'

  Started early enough, it gives her plenty of hardened stems for almost every wedding by midsummer. 'New Look' holds up very well, softens arrangements and brings in the silvery gray so many customers want.

• 'Frosted Explosion' Ornamental grass

  Ever finish an arrangement and spot chicken wire or other mechanics showing? It happens to everyone. 'Frosted Explosion' is her secret fix: tuck it in at the end to fill space, hide gaps and add a little sparkle.

• Olive foliage

  Olive is another easy shrub to grow and cut in her region. It's always useful for big arrangements, arches, arbors and urns and adds grace; she likes to imagine she lives at a Tuscan villa surrounded by it.

* The farm has since moved to Oregon. Connect with the farm:

• b-sidefarm.com
• instagram
• facebook
• blog

A few more favorites…

• Atriplex. Its color and texture suit moody late-summer and fall arrangements with red and bicolor sunflowers and salmon zinnias. Mature, sturdy stems last a very long time in bouquets.
• Celosia. Plume (plumosa) types are productive and long-lasting in summer and fall bouquets.
• Dill. Easy to grow, and it makes bouquets sparkle like dappled summer sun.
• Eucalyptus. Needs a long time (10–12 weeks) to grow from seedling, but by late summer it can be very productive for fall and winter arrangements and wreaths.
• Mint. Adds a lovely scent and lasts well in bouquets if cut once plants are mature and stems are woody at the base.
• Orlaya. Looks like ammi but a little daintier, with showy outer petals.
• Rosemary. Too precious for most market bouquets, but adds scent and detail to special-occasion arrangements.
• Saponaria. A light, airy early-season filler that looks delicate but has sturdy stems.
• Sage. Early, sturdy foliage from the perennial garden in that popular gray-green.
• Yarrow. Tough, dependable and long-lasting in bouquets if cut when flowers are fully open and pollen shows. It's tempting to cut the first flowers early, but they'll wilt.