From Summer Colour to Flowers That Last All Winter

A friendly guide to sowing, growing, cutting and drying everlasting flowers in Hungary.

Come Into the Garden With Me…

Today, we're growing everlasting flowers - the sort of flowers that give us colour in the garden in summer and then quietly refuse to disappear when the season is over.

The plant we're talking about is the beautiful strawflower, Xerochrysum bracteatum, which you may also see under its older botanical name Helichrysum bracteatum. The Holland Kertészet selection is sold simply as Everlasting - Mixed, and that name tells us exactly why people have loved it for generations.

Fresh, the flowers are bright and cheerful. Dry them properly and those papery petals can keep their shape and colour for months - sometimes right through the dark part of a Hungarian winter when the garden outside has gone quiet.

And this is a very friendly plant for beginners. It loves sun, copes well with heat once established, grows happily in ordinary well-drained soil and produces stems that are just asking to be cut for bouquets.

So this book is going to be partly about gardening and partly about bringing the garden indoors. We'll sow the tiny seeds, raise the young plants, grow them through a Hungarian summer, cut them at the right stage and then dry some for later.

By the end, I want you to look at a bunch of papery everlasting flowers and think: I grew those in July, and here they still are in January.

Ready? Come into the garden with me.

1. Meet the Everlasting Flower

Everlasting flower, strawflower, paper daisy, golden everlasting - this plant has collected quite a few names over the years. Botanically, the name most often used today is Xerochrysum bracteatum, although many seed packets and older books still call it Helichrysum bracteatum.

It comes from Australia, where sunshine and dry conditions are hardly unusual. That already gives us a clue about the sort of garden position it appreciates here in Hungary.

The flowers look a little like daisies, but touch them and you'll understand immediately why strawflowers are different. What looks like a ring of petals is actually made up largely of stiff, papery bracts surrounding the tiny true flowers in the centre.

Those bracts are the secret to the flower's wonderful drying ability. They don't collapse in the same way soft rose or cosmos petals do. Cut at the right stage, they keep both shape and colour remarkably well.

What colours can we expect?

A mixed packet can give you white, cream, yellow, gold, orange, salmon, pink, rose, red and deeper coppery tones. That uncertainty is part of the fun. You don't know exactly what each seedling will become until the buds begin showing colour.

2. Finding the Right Place

Before we sow anything, let's choose where these plants will eventually live. Everlasting is not shy about what it wants: sunshine, warmth and drainage.

Give it sun

Full sun gives you the strongest stems and the best flower production. A sunny Budapest garden, a warm terrace in Pécs, or an open bed on the Great Hungarian Plain can suit it beautifully, provided the roots are not sitting wet.

Soil matters - but not in a complicated way

Everlasting does not need extremely rich soil. In fact, overly rich conditions can encourage soft leafy growth when what we really want is a sturdy plant full of flowering stems. Ordinary fertile garden soil is fine as long as it drains well.

If you have heavy clay that stays wet after rain, improve the structure before planting. In a container, use a good-quality potting mix and make sure water can escape freely through proper drainage holes.

Heat is not the enemy

This is one of those plants that can actually look happier when summer begins to feel serious. Once established, strawflowers tolerate heat and periods of dryness better than many soft annuals. That makes them especially useful in the increasingly hot Hungarian summer.

3. The Everlasting We Grow With You

At Holland Kertészet, the seed is offered as Everlasting - Mixed. For this book, that means we are growing a colourful mixture of strawflowers rather than trying to produce one perfectly uniform shade.

I like that very much for this plant. Everlasting is one of those flowers where a mixture feels natural. A handful of orange, cream, rose and gold looks as though summer has been bundled together in one vase.

Fresh flowers or dried flowers?

Both. That's one of the reasons this little packet earns its place in the garden. You can cut stems fresh for bouquets through summer, and you can harvest another group specifically for drying.

If you're planning dried arrangements, think about colour combinations before you sow. Warm oranges and golds feel autumnal; white, blush and pale yellow are softer; deeper reds and copper shades can make a dried bouquet feel wonderfully rich.

How much should I grow?

More than three plants. Everlasting is at its best when you have enough stems to cut without making the garden look empty. A small row in a cutting patch or a generous group in a sunny border gives you much more freedom.

4. Let’s Sow

The seeds are small, but they are not especially difficult. The biggest challenge is simply starting them warm enough and not burying them too deeply.

When to start

For an earlier crop in Hungary, sow indoors or under protection in spring, usually around March or April. You can also sow outdoors after the soil has warmed and the danger of significant frost has passed, typically in late April or May depending on your location and the year.

How to sow

Fill a clean seed tray or small pots with a fine seed-starting mix. Moisten it first. Scatter the seed thinly and cover only lightly - a few millimetres is enough. Keep the compost gently moist rather than wet.

Warmth helps germination. Once seedlings appear, give them plenty of light so they stay compact instead of stretching toward a window.

Potting on

When the seedlings are large enough to handle comfortably, move them into individual modules or small pots if necessary. Handle them by a leaf rather than squeezing the delicate stem.

5. From Seedling to Summer Plant

Hardening off

Everlasting likes warmth, so don't rush indoor-raised seedlings into a cold Hungarian spring. Harden them off gradually by introducing them to outdoor conditions over a week or two, and plant permanently outside after serious frost danger has passed.

Spacing

Give plants enough room for air to move between them and for each one to branch. Around 25-30 cm apart is a useful starting point for many garden situations, with a little more room for especially vigorous plants.

Watering while they establish

Young plants still need regular moisture. Drought tolerance belongs to the established plant, not the tiny transplant. Water deeply when needed, then let the upper soil begin to dry before watering again.

Pinching for more stems

If your plants are growing strongly, pinching out the central growing tip while they are still young can encourage branching. More branches can mean more flowering stems. If you prefer fewer, taller stems for cutting, you may decide not to pinch every plant.

6. Growing Through a Hungarian Summer

Now we reach the part of the season when everlasting begins to make sense. The weather is hot, the sun is strong, and instead of looking offended, the plant starts settling into its favourite conditions.

Water thoughtfully

Established strawflowers tolerate dry spells, but good flower production still needs sensible watering. Water deeply when the soil is dry rather than giving a shallow splash every evening. Containers will need checking much more often than plants in open ground.

Feeding

In ordinary garden soil, heavy feeding is unnecessary. Container plants may appreciate a modest flowering feed, but too much nitrogen can produce softer growth and fewer useful stems.

Support

Tall plants in an exposed place can lean after wind or heavy rain. A discreet support, low netting in a cutting bed, or simply growing plants in a group can keep stems straighter.

Keep cutting

The more regularly you harvest usable stems and remove old flowers, the more the plant is encouraged to keep producing while conditions are favourable.

7. When Something Goes Wrong

My plant is tall and floppy

Too much shade or overly rich feeding are the first things I would check. Everlasting wants strong light. In shade, stems stretch; in very rich soil, growth can become softer than we want.

The leaves are yellowing

Check moisture before doing anything else. Constantly wet soil can stress the roots, while a plant in a hot pot may simply be drying too hard between waterings. The same yellow leaf can have very different causes.

Hardly any flowers

Is the plant receiving enough sun? Has it been heavily fed with nitrogen? Was it planted very late? These plants flower best when they have time to establish in bright conditions before the season begins winding down.

Aphids or other small pests

Inspect tender tips and buds. Small infestations are easier to manage early. Remove or wash pests away where practical, and use only products suitable for the pest and currently authorised for home-garden use in Hungary if further treatment is needed.

Grey mould or rotting stems

Crowding, poor airflow and persistently wet conditions are usual suspects. Remove affected material and improve spacing and watering habits rather than simply spraying and hoping.

8. Cutting Fresh Flowers

You don't have to dry every flower. Strawflowers are also cheerful fresh cuts, especially when the centre is still neat and the stems are firm.

When to cut

For fresh bouquets, cut once the coloured bracts have opened well but before the flower becomes old and tired. Harvest in the cooler part of the day if you can, using clean, sharp snips.

Remove foliage that would sit below the waterline and put stems into clean water promptly.

And now the magic: drying

For dried flowers, cut a little earlier than you might expect. The heads continue to open as they dry, so harvest when the bracts have opened but the centre is not yet fully expanded. If you wait until every flower is completely open in the garden, some can become too wide or lose their tidy shape while drying.

Strip away most of the leaves. Tie stems in small bunches and hang them upside down somewhere dry, shaded and well ventilated. Strong sunlight can fade the colours, and a large dense bunch can trap moisture.

When the stems are fully dry, bring them indoors. No water. No flower food. No daily vase maintenance. Just flowers that keep on being flowers long after summer has gone.

Growing Enough to Dry

If you know from the beginning that you want dried flowers for winter, sow a generous group rather than just a few plants. Drying becomes much more satisfying when you can harvest stems freely and still leave plenty of colour outside. In a cutting garden, a short row planted only for drying is a wonderful luxury.

You can also make a second sowing a few weeks after the first. The later plants may flower a little later, but that staggered timing can extend your harvest and stop every perfect stem from becoming ready on the same weekend.

Choose Stems for the Job

For a loose dried bouquet, choose straight stems of different lengths and several stages of colour. For wreaths and small arrangements, shorter side stems are useful too. Don't discard a stem simply because it isn't florist-straight - a slight bend can add movement to a dried arrangement.

Once dry, store spare stems somewhere dry and out of harsh sunlight until you need them. Wrap them loosely in paper or stand them upright in a box rather than crushing them into a cupboard. They are durable, but they are not indestructible.

A Little Piece of July in January

This is where everlasting becomes more than another summer annual. A jar of strawflowers on a shelf in January carries something of the garden with it - the colour, the heat, even the memory of the morning you cut them. Mix them with dried grasses, yarrow, statice or seedheads, or keep one colour on its own for a simpler look.

And when the arrangement eventually becomes dusty or tired, don't feel obliged to keep it forever simply because the flower is called everlasting. Compost untreated plant material where appropriate and grow a fresh collection next year. The pleasure is in repeating the cycle.

9. Seed Saving and the End of the Season

Eventually autumn arrives. Nights cool, flowering slows, and the first real frost brings our warm-season annual to an end.

Saving seed

Leave several healthy flower heads on the plant and allow them to mature and dry. Once fully dry, collect the seed on a calm day and store it somewhere cool, dry and labelled.

Because we're growing a mixture, don't expect next year's saved seed to reproduce exactly the same balance of colours. That is part of the charm. Your garden may make its own version of the mix.

Do I need to overwinter the plants?

No. In Hungarian conditions, it is much simpler to treat everlasting as an annual. After frost, remove the old plants and compost healthy material. Save your dried flowers and, if you like, your seed. Next spring we start again.

10. Your Everlasting Cheat Sheet

Sow indoors in March-April for an early start, or outdoors after frost when the soil has warmed.

Give the plants full sun and excellent drainage.

Water young plants regularly; established plants tolerate dryness much better.

Avoid heavy nitrogen feeding.

Pinch young plants if you want more branching and more stems.

Cut fresh flowers when open and tidy.

Cut flowers for drying slightly earlier, before they are fully mature.

Dry small bunches upside down in a dry, shaded, airy place.

Save seed from mature heads if you enjoy a little surprise next year.

Treat the plants as annuals in Hungary and enjoy the dried flowers all winter.

If you remember only five things…

1. Sunshine gives you strong plants and good stems.

2. Drainage matters more than rich soil.

3. Young plants need water even if mature plants are drought tolerant.

4. For drying, cut before the flower is completely mature.

5. The season does not end when you cut the flowers - that is when their second life begins.

One Last Walk Around the Garden

We began with a packet of tiny seeds and ended with something rather unusual: flowers that can follow us from the summer garden into the middle of winter.

Perhaps yours grew in a sunny border near Budapest, a cutting patch on the Great Hungarian Plain, or a pot beside a terrace near Lake Balaton. Wherever they grew, you now know the rhythm: sow, establish, give them sun, cut often, and save some of the best stems for drying.

Months later, when you pass a dried bunch on a shelf and remember the heat of the day you cut it, the name Everlasting suddenly feels very appropriate.

Perhaps that is the nicest thing about this particular flower. We don't have to choose between enjoying it outside and enjoying it indoors. We can do both. Leave some blooms for the bees and the summer garden, cut some for the table, and hang another handful upside down for later.

By winter, those dry stems may end up in a simple jar, a wreath, a little arrangement with grasses, or even tied onto a gift. Suddenly a packet of seed has become part of the garden, part of the house and part of another season entirely.

And next spring, when you open a fresh packet - or perhaps the seed you saved yourself - you'll already know exactly what to do. You'll sow a little more confidently, water a little less nervously, and probably grow more plants because now you know how many stems you can use.

That's how gardening works. The first year we follow instructions. The second year we begin making the plant our own.

And when you're ready to grow something new… Come into the garden with me.