The everlasting flowers are dried and used to decorate your home.

My mother used to have a large glass jar (the ones you used to keep medicine in), in an even larger glass cabinet in my childhood home on the west coast of Sweden. The jar was filled with beautiful everlasting flowers. I found them so fascinating. How was it possible to keep what looked like newly sprung flowers in a jar for years like that?

Read more: Growing annual flowers from seeds

The name everlasting says it all. These flowers keep their shape and color after you dry them. I decided to grow large everlasting cornflowers in my garden. They are quite tall and have lovely different colored flowers. The flower petals are quite hard and dry already when still attached to the plant.

This is how I do my winter sowings of vegetables and summer flowers:

I have been growing my everlastings in a whole separate bed this year, just so that I can harvest as many flowers as possible. We have a tradition here in Sweden where we put the everlastings between the outer and inner windows in our homes. The flowers are placed on fabric that absorbs some of the moist between the windows. We don't use this fabric in all of the windows, but I do try to put flowers in most of them. It looks so lovely!

I decided to put some of my everlastings between the windows, and it looks really cute!

I went to a flower shop a few months ago, and noticed that they were selling everlasting flowers there too. That must be just the best summer job for kids, growing and selling everlastings. The people in the store had also decorated a large vase with everlastings. They had simply used a glue gun to stick the flowers to the vase. I immediately went out and got myself a glue gun too, I have to try it!

I grew my flowers in a narrow bed close to the stone wall in the garden.

The flowers come in many different colors. I think they look the most beautiful when they are not quite yet in full bloom.

I'm going to give most of the flowers to my daughter Alba, it's perfect for a cool seven-year-old who likes beautiful things.

Easy to grow

Everlastings are very easy to grow, they don't need that much to thrive. I sowed the plants in troughs and planted them outside in early summer. After that, I fertilized the soil with diluted urine. This summer was very dry though, and I wasn't able to water as much as I would have liked. Harvesting is extremely easy, you just cut the flowers off. You get the best results if you cut them off when they are still slightly closed. This is because they will blossom fully after you harvest them.

You can find everlastings in most garden shops. There are plenty of seeds in each seed packet. I just love these beautiful flowers, they bring an explosion of colors even in the darkest and coldest of winters!
/Sara Bäckmo