The other day, the sweetest customer left me a hand-written note and called my flowers “art.”
I never considered myself an artist. My drawings look like they were made by my four-year-old, not a 30-something-year-old woman.
After I started growing flowers, it did not come naturally to me to take beautiful flowers from the garden and arrange them so they looked even better.
My brain can’t think in beauty; it thinks in patterns and formulas like I’m putting together a puzzle.
So, my early-day bouquets likely looked like they were made by my four-year-old.
My son gave me a sweet bouquet of mostly weeds.
I learned how to make bouquets from watching a few YouTube videos and then practicing A LOT. Eventually, I found a loose pattern and formula that my puzzle-loving brain agreed with.
Once I learned how to integrate a few simple techniques into my bouquets, arranging flowers became like a moving meditation. The stress of my job, my life, the noise in my head — it disappeared, and my hands knew what to do before my brain caught up.
But before you can integrate any of that into a bouquet, you need to grow more than just dahlias.
Dahlias are my favorite flower, and I grow a crap-load of them. However, my bouquets got significantly better when I started growing more than *just* dahlias.
My first year making bouquets 🫠
A bouquet, five years later
While dahlias are the Michael Jordan of the bouquet, you need the other teammates (or in this case, the filler flower) working in cohesion around the star in order to be successful.
Grow Texture, or, as I Call it: “The Twinkly Bits”
I love dahlias for their variety of shapes and colors, but adding texture to a handful of blooms brings out so much more beauty.
Here are my favorite easy-to-grow filler flowers that add texture:
Ornamental grass: The easiest way to add a bit of texture to flowers. My favorite, and the only one I grow now, is frosted explosion.
I refer to ornamental grass as the “twinkly bits” of a bouquet, because it catches the light in a way that makes you want to reach out and touch the bouquet. One stem goes a long way.
Cosmos: These are another way to add texture. They are delicate-looking blooms, and they dance when you move the arrangement.
Cosmos thrive in late summer and early fall, and will churn out the stems if you stay on top of cutting them regularly. Plus, the pollinators love them.
Cosmos and frosted explosion, and other textural elements of the bouquet, literally pull your hand toward the flowers.
Both are easy to grow, and both produce ample seed if you’re motivated to grow them again next year.
Certain dahlias add a lot of texture, such as anemone-type dahlias. Some of my favorites include Bloomquist Golden, Summertime Sandia, and Sandia Brocade.
Dahlia variety: Bloomquist Golden
Depth: Give Your Bouquet Some Height
Depth in a bouquet means your flowers and fillers are sitting at different heights rather than all crowding the same plane. The easiest way to create it is with a spike flower — something tall and vertical that gives the eye a place to travel.
My favorites are Veronica, Celosia, and Amaranth.
Veronica is a perennial that blooms in a remarkable shade of blue-purple and dies back completely in winter, then sends up new growth in spring.
Growing tip: When you cut it, cut all the way to the ground — it'll send out more stems. Also, Veronica will tolerate shade better than most other flowers, so save the sunniest parts of your yard for other flowers. Also, it's more susceptible to powdery mildew than most plants, so give it good airflow and cut regularly.
Celosia is a cut-and-come-again heat-loving annual. Plus, it also produces SO much seed that saving some for next year is easy.
I always plant my celosia where it gets the most heat possible
Growing tip: It needs as much heat as possible, so plant it in the hottest, sunniest corner of your yard, and it will thrive.
I grow two kinds, a Celway Mix and Flamingo Feather. (I prefer the spike varieties over the brain-looking varieties.)
Crimson amaranth is the perfect fall addition to your bouquets
Amaranth is bulkier and more dramatic — it adds texture AND depth.
I grow two colors of amaranth: crimson and bronze. Both are incredible.
Bronze Amaranth has incredible texture and color
Growing tip: Plant the seedlings close together, about 2 to 4 inches apart. If you give them too much space, you'll end up with stems so bulky that they will resemble something out of Jack and the Beanstalk.
Bridge Flowers: The Color Connectors
I'm not sure "bridge flowers" is an official design term, but it's how I think about flowers whose coloring ties together everything else in a bouquet.
A few varieties from the Queeny Lime series are a good example. Their coloring is unusual enough — and the center of the flower often differs from the petal tips — that they naturally pull disparate colors into conversation with each other.
The trick I learned early: look at the center of the flower and match it to a color already in your bouquet.
This year I am growing Lime Blotch and Queeny Red Lime zinnias, along with some Dawn Creek varieties.
Zinnia growing tip: Grow way more zinnias than you think you’ll need. The pollinators love them, they’re easy to collect seed from, and you’ll want every stem.
I also grow a number of dahlias that make for easy bridge flowers, such as Bloomquist Alan, Bloomquist Pleasing, and Chewy, which all bridge purples well due to the hint of purple in their centers.
Disk Flowers: Give Your Bouquet Some Breathing Room
A disk flower — the flat, open, daisy-style bloom with a visible center — is one of the most useful shapes in a bouquet because it faces outward and creates visual breathing room between rounder, denser flowers (like dahlias.) It draws the eye through an arrangement rather than stopping it, giving a bouquet that loose, garden-gathered look instead of a tight, formal one.
A bouquet with dahlias, zinnias, frosted explosion and peony foliage
Zinnias do double duty here — they're both a bridge flower and a disk flower, which is most of the reason I grow so many of them.
Cosmos can also check the box of disk flowers, adding a lot of texture as well.
Odd Numbers are Better Than Evens
A fifth bonus rule that’s easy to follow: Always use an odd number of stems.
Odd numbers are more visually appealing than even — one stem of celosia, or three, but never two.
When It All Comes Together
The trial-and-error phase of learning to make bouquets took me a long time and is always a work in progress. But when you have the right elements that complement dahlias, a bouquet comes together smoothly with less force. Everything comes together in a soul-soothing way.
Every spring, I have my annual summer seedling sale to make it easy for you to try growing something new. (Local pick up only.)
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Frequently Asked Questions
What flowers should I add to dahlia bouquets to make them look better?
Adding variety beyond dahlias makes the biggest difference in bouquet quality. The most impactful additions are a texture element (ornamental grass like Frosted Explosion, or cosmos), a spike flower for depth (celosia, Veronica, or amaranth), and a disk flower for visual breathing room (zinnias work well for both this and as a color bridge). You don't need all of these in every bouquet — even one well-chosen addition will change what you're working with.
What is the easiest flower to add to a bouquet for texture?
Frosted Explosion ornamental grass is the easiest texture addition you can grow. It reseeds generously, requires minimal intervention, and does a lot of visual work per stem. Cosmos are also a must-grow for any cut flower garden — they're low-maintenance, prolific in late summer and fall, and add movement to any arrangement.
What does "odd numbers" mean in flower arranging?
Odd numbers — one, three, or five stems of a single element — are more visually appealing to the eye than even numbers. (No idea why, but I’ve experimented enough to agree with it.) Two stems of celosia in a bouquet will look balanced in a way that your brain will read as flat. Three stems create tension and depth. It's a small rule, you don’t have to follow, but it makes a noticeable difference, especially when you're working with spike flowers or accent elements.
What flowers add height and depth to a bouquet?
Spike flowers are the best tool for adding height and depth — they're tall, vertical, and give the eye somewhere to travel in an arrangement. Celosia, Veronica, and amaranth are all excellent options and easy to grow in the Pacific Northwest. Celosia needs full sun and heat to thrive, and the Pacific Northwest doesn’t have the scorching heat like other climates. Veronica is a perennial that comes back each year and is wonderful for the pollinators. Amaranth is the most dramatic of the three and works best planted close together to keep the stems at a manageable size.
Can I grow bouquet filler flowers in a small urban garden?
Yes — all of the flowers mentioned in this post are well-suited to small urban growing spaces. Cosmos, zinnias, celosia, and ornamental grass can all be grown in raised beds or even large containers or in the ground. In the Pacific Northwest, celosia does best in the warmest, most sun-exposed corner of your garden. Veronica tolerates some shade but appreciates good airflow to prevent powdery mildew.