Flowering branches are the hidden gem for many flower arrangements. These woody stems are packed with blossoms you can use to fill and add texture and lines to your arrangements. Here are my favourite natural flowering branches for vase arrangements that you can grow at home.
Spring is a busy time for those who grow a cut flower garden. The bulbs you planted last spring are finally blooming, and you have more seedlings growing inside than you have sunny windowsills to put them.
Many of the cut flowers we focus on are annuals, and we sometimes forget about the low-maintenance shrubs and trees we can also use for flower arrangements.
Many decorative branches for vase arrangements bloom in the spring, but you can also use their foliage and fruits later in the season to include in your arrangements.
Here are a few natural branches for decoration you can use in your arrangements, which you might already have in your garden or neighbourhood!
10 Flowering Branches for Vase Arrangements
Cherry
- Botanical name: Prunus spp.
- Mature size: 15–25 ft. tall, 13–26 ft. wide
- Bloom time: February to May (depends on the cultivar)
- Flower Colour: Pink, white
- USDA Zone: 5-8
We’re very lucky in Vancouver for the sheer amount of ornamental cherry trees we have growing in our streets and parks. Often, I’ll take a few snippings from the neighbourhood to enjoy within my house. They work wonderfully as a forced flower.
There are many different cultivars of cherry trees, so you can have a wide range of blooms. Some bloom early, others late. Some have single blossoms, others have double. Most cherry trees have varying shades of pink blooms, but you can also find many white blooms.
My favourite varieties in Vancouver are the Shirotae Cherry (Prunus serrulata ‘Shirotae’), which has double, pure white blooms from late March to April, and the Kanzan Cherry (Prunus serrulata ‘Kanzan’), which has double, pink blooms from mid-April to early May.
While I talk about cherry trees specifically, note that you can use the branches for other ornamental fruiting trees, such as plum, peach, or apricot.
Hawthorn
- Botanical name: Crataegus
- Mature size: 15-50 ft. tall, 5-30 ft. wide
- Bloom time: Spring
- Flower Colour: Pink, white, or red
- USDA Zone: 4-8
Hawthorn trees are one of my favourites in my neighbourhood. The blooms are small but extremely prolific, making them excellent ornamental trees. They bloom in vibrant shades of pink or red, as well as white. In the fall, they produce small red fruits.
Hawthorn trees are known for being very easy to grow, and many varieties are disease-resistant. The one thing to note is that they have pretty vicious thorns on their branches, so harvesting the branches should be done with care and thick gloves.
Harvest the branches when the flowers are still in bud or just beginning to open. They can easily be forced to bloom indoors as well.
Crabapple
- Botanical name: Malus spp.
- Mature size: 15–20 ft. tall, 12–20 ft. wide
- Bloom time: Late spring
- Flower Colour: White, pink
- USDA Zone: 4-8
I have a deep love of crabapple trees, stemming all the way back to my childhood when I grew up in my family’s tree nursery. Crabapples are very hardy and disease-resistant and were one of the only ornamental fruiting trees you could grow in the cold climate of Alberta, so we had many in the nursery.
There are many cultivars of crabapples, and many are also grafted. The trees range from small to medium, so they worked wonderfully growing within the garden.
In the spring, you can cut the branches and enjoy the fragrant and delicate blooms. You can also use the small apples they produce in your arrangements from mid-summer to fall. To see the apples better, remove all the foliage before arranging.
Rosehips
- Botanical name: Rosa spp.
- Mature size: 6” to 20 ft. tall and wide
- Bloom time: Late summer to early fall
- Flower Colour: Orange, red, pink, yellow, brown, purple, or black
- USDA Zone: 2-11
Chances are, you have at least one rosebush in your garden. While roses remain the queen of cut flowers, few people jump on using rosehips for arrangements.
Rosehips are the rose plant’s fruit that comes in the fall. They are typically a vibrant orange-red, but can also be pink, yellow, or purple, depending on the rose plant variety.
To get the rosehips, you’ll have to leave some roses on the bush rather than snipping them all off. You can harvest any time when the berries appear full but before they start shrivelling. To show off the rosehips, remove all the leaves. Be careful of the thorns!
Japanese Andromeda
- Botanical name: Pieris japonica
- Mature size: 9-12 ft. tall, 6-8 ft. wide
- Bloom time: Late winter to early spring
- Flower Colour: White, pink
- USDA Zone: 5-7
When I first moved to Vancouver, one of the shrubs I was most infatuated with was the Japanese andromeda. The arched panicles of small bell-like flowers reminded me of lily of the valley, except growing plentifully on a flowering shrub. Some dislike the smell of the flowers, but I enjoy it.
Japanese Andromeda likes partial sun and does not tolerate drought well. It grows well in the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. Here, it’s best to plant in the fall, but those in colder climates should plant in the spring.
The flowers come in a creamy white or pink. Due to their cascading shape, these branches work well as a line element in a bouquet. Harvest the flowers when 80% of the blooms are open. Any dropping or browning indicates the flowers are past their prime.
Camellia
- Botanical name: Camellia
- Mature size: 2–12 ft. tall, 2–10 ft. wide
- Bloom time: Late fall, winter, and early spring
- Flower Colour: Red, pink, or white
- USDA Zone: 7-9
Camellias are extremely lush and very much a welcome sight in the early spring when we’re in desperate need of some colour. Camellias are evergreen shrubs with dark, glossy leaves. They produce red, pink, or white flowers (and some rare yellow) that can bloom for several weeks on the plant.
Camellias don’t have a long vase life, so some people skip using them altogether. But they can last up to five days in the vase if you harvest them just when the buds are swollen or have just opened. Their blooms are so lush that it’s worth enjoying them inside while you can!
Flowering Quince
- Botanical name: Chaenomeles speciosa
- Mature size: 3-10 ft. tall, 3-10 ft. wide
- Bloom time: Late winter to early spring
- Flower Colour: White, orange, red, or pink
- USDA Zone: 5-9
Most of the colours of spring aren’t light pink and pastel-like. That’s what makes the flowering quince such a standout. The flowering quine in my neighbourhood is a very vibrant, almost hot-pink. They also come in hues of orange, red, or white.
As a member of the rose family, you will find thorns on flowering quince, so care should be taken when cutting the branches. It can take up to five years for the plant to reach maturity, and it likely won’t bloom the first year after being planted.
Flowering quince trees don’t bloom for long, usually only 1-2 weeks. This makes them a great candidate for forcing early spring flowers indoors.
Pussywillow
- Botanical name: Salix discolor or Salix caprea
- Mature size: 6–25 ft. tall, 4–15 ft. wide
- Bloom time: Early spring
- Flower Colour: Silver-grey, pink, or black
- USDA Zone: 4-8
As a child, pussywillow was one of my favourite plants. My Opa would cut me branches every spring, and I would gently stroke the soft catkins between my fingers. To this day, I love seeing their soft, silver buds.
Willow trees are known for being very easy to grow and for being lovers of moisture. When left unchecked, they can quickly spread. Pussy willows grow best on second year growth, so you can prune up to half of the plant to not only help keep the willow in check, but to ensure you get half a shrub of willow branches to use every year!
Harvest the willow when the bud scales have dropped and the buds have swelled. Pussywillow is very commonly used in Easter arrangements. It also dries wonderfully, so you can hang some branches to dry to use later in the season.
Snowball Bush
- Botanical name: Viburnum opulus
- Mature size: 6–12 ft. tall, 6–10 ft. wide
- Bloom time: Early spring, April to May
- Flower Colour: White, pink
- USDA Zone: 6-8
The snowball bush is one of the cutest flowering shrubs you can grow. It produces clusters of flowers, so the shrub looks as though it’s covered in pom poms. Blooming in the spring, the flowers start green before transitioning to a creamy white and then a light pink as the blooms age.
They also have a notably sweet fragrance. Any uncut flowers will turn into small red berries amidst bright orange foliage in the fall.
Since the snowball bush blooms on old wood, prune lightly only after the flowering period is over. This way, the plant has time to produce more wood for next season’s blooms. If necessary, it can tolerate a hard pruning right to the ground to revamp the shrub and start from scratch.
Snowball bush needs cross-pollination to bloom. Add a few shrubs to encourage lots of blooming.
Forsythia
- Botanical name: Forsythia spp.
- Mature size: 2–10 ft. tall and wide
- Bloom time: Late winter to early spring
- Flower Colour: Yellow
- USDA Zone: 5-8
Forsythia is one of those plants that surprises you. One day, I’m walking the dog in the midst of winter, and then suddenly, there’s a bright yellow shrub blooming when nothing else is. Forget crocus or daffodils—forsythia is the true herald of spring.
Forsythia shrubs are very easy to grow, and you won’t have to put much care into them. Prune them to maintain their size and encourage new growth, using the cut branches in your flower arrangements.
In arrangements, forsythia work beautifully as a line flower. Since they bloom in late winter, they’re also great for forcing indoors. Harvest forsythia when the buds start to swell.
General Growing Tips for Flowering Shrubs
Here are a few tips that apply to most flowering shrubs and trees:
- If you’re starting with potted plants, plant the shrubs in autumn. If starting from bare roots, plant them in the spring.
- When young, it’s easy to overcrowd them. Account for their mature size when planting the shrub.
- Full sun will often result in the happiest, most prolific plants. While some can handle partial shade, you may get slower growth and fewer blooms.
- Once the shrubs are established, they often won’t need any watering unless they go through an extreme drought.
- You can choose to fertilize your shrubs in the spring using a slow-release fertilizer. If you have good soil, however, fertilizer usually isn’t necessary.
Vase Life Tricks
Most of these flowering branches come on woody stems, so their post-harvest care varies just slightly from traditional cut flowers.
Harvest in the morning while it’s cool so the plant is well-hydrated. Strip the bottom foliage of the plant so that nothing is in the water but the branch—anything else will rot and cause bacteria to grow in the water.
This is the most important part: use your pruners to make a vertical cut about ½ to 1 inch long at the base of the branch. This will help the branch absorb water better. Repeat this anytime you give the branches a fresh cut.
Before arranging, let your branches rest and hydrate in a bucket for a few hours. Then, they’re ready to go! Most flowering branches should have a vase life of about one week.
Let me know which of these branches you use in your vase arrangements in the comments below!
More Flower Arranging Tips
From Vancouver, BC, Holly is Garden Therapy’s Content Manager. She has a BFA in Writing from the University of Victoria as well as a diploma in Floristry Design from Burnaby CCE. At home, she loves to grow cut flowers and dried flowers for her business, Dirty Daisy Florals, and is an avid houseplant collector and lover of bees. You can find her at @dirtydaisyflorals and @hollyheuversocial.
