# Sunflower Bouquet Ideas
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Summer Arrangements
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Contrasting colors add cheerfulness to summer bouquets. The bright yellow colors of sunflowers contrast well with dark purple flowers, such as dahlias, gladiolus, lilies or Japanese iris, which all flower in the summer. Add sprigs of white Queen Anne’s lace to fill out the bouquet. For a rustic bouquet, use a tin watering can or small tin bucket. For a more upscale look, choose a ceramic teapot or a simple glass vase.
For a bouquet composed only of sunflowers, use a narrow, glass vase and fill it completely with sunflowers. Place the stems into the vase all at once, twisting the arrangement slightly as you do so to create an interesting visual effect.
Autumn Color
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Use branches as well as flowers in autumn arrangements. With their brown centers and yellow petals, sunflowers work well in fall arrangements. The Home Decorating Institute’s “Creative Floral Arranging” uses a traditional harvest basket with foam at the bottom and a layer of Spanish moss. Insert sunflower stems first, stair-stepping them in height from the base of the basket up to the handle. Add other harvest flowers, foliage and fruits to round out the bouquet. Your choices may include dried leaves, chrysanthemums in shades of yellow, orange and rust, apples stuck on skewers and spiraling grape vines.
Dried Sunflowers
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Buy dried flowers at craft stores or dry your own at home. According to “Creative Floral Arranging,” European floral design uses flowers grouped in separate areas of a bouquet and viewed from one side only. Create a garden box in this design with dried sunflowers, cattails, stalks of grain, poppy pods, rose hips and huckleberry branches arranged in a rectangular box or an oval shaped basket. Arrange each element in small groupings. Place the tallest plants in the back and center of the box, medium tall elements, like the sunflowers and poppy pods, in front of the grain and smaller elements, like the rose hips and berry branches, trailing on the sides and front.
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