I've been working with dried materials for about 10 years. I've dabbled for years but am getting more serious now. This growing year (spring '04) I plan to concentrate on grasses and grains. I have a lot of flowers but I usually have to go to a local craft store for grasses, grains and things like willow.

As an aside, yesterday I stopped in my local JoAnn fabric store to get some grass materials for filler for my Christmas arrangements. I was astonished to find that they were tearing down, and almost out of, all things Christmas and putting up Valentines!! It's not even Christmas yet. I guess it should come as no surprise seeing as how this same store was setting up Christmas trees in August.

What is your favorite source for ornamental grass or grain seed? Or, do you have the names of the some good suppliers of dried grass and grain materials? I'd really like some things you don't see often.

Thanks,
Magret

We grow fairly small amounts of a wide range of things, and buy seed from many different sources. I haven't seen dramatic differences in germination rates, so I usually just choose whatever's handy, whatever looks as though it gives the most seed per packet or whatever gets me over the free shipping hurdle.

In annual grasses, we'll probably try to do more with hare's tail (Lagurus ovatus) and Briza maxima this year. I'm pretty sure we got the briza seed from J.L. Hudson's.

Last year was the first blooming year for seed-grown Chasmanthium latifolium. We harvested it when the seed heads were an interesting blend of green, black and reddish-pink. They work really well with wheat celosia.

We make more use of Miscanthus sinensis, bought as starts, than anything else and use the leaves more than the flowering stems. We harvest some when they're still fairly green and dry them flat -- they develop interesting twists. We let others dry until they're brown and have begun to curl. They're excellent for wreaths. We usually add dried artichoke flowers to them.