Turn Simple Dandelions From Your Yard Into A Gorgeous Topiary

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It seems that dandelion art is having quite a moment across social media right now. Clever creators are finding a variety of unique ways to use the flower's habit of slowly making soft, fluffy puffballs from the spent blooms, and turning these into the cutest garland or the most stunning decor pieces. Take, for example, Instagrammer Katerina Skripnik or @skripnik_katya, who used a whole collection of spent dandelion flowers and transformed them into a gorgeous topiary for the home.

To bring this project to life, unless you have a controlled dandelion patch for pollinators or your lawn is covered in them, you might need to go for a walk to see if you can find a field of dandelions growing nearby. You will most likely need to harvest around 50 or 60 flowers, depending on the size of your foam ball. Remember that it's important to pick them at the right stage of development: after they have bloomed and closed up again. 

On top of that, you'll want to gather a nice flower pot, an empty soda bottle, a small amount of quick-drying cement, a straight branch from your yard, a box of wood toothpicks, a foam crafting ball, and some hairspray. You can easily get the ball, pot, toothpicks, and hairspray from Dollar Tree, and all of those should cost you less than $6. The rest of the items you may already have on hand, and the dandelion flower heads are free. However, if you're not keen on using hairspray and you often collect flowers to display indoors, you might like to get some Chrysal Glory Flower and Foliage Finish, which is a flower preservative spray used by florists.

Cut the bottom off an empty soda bottle and fill it with quick-drying cement. Place the branch in the center to act as the trunk of your topiary. Allow the cement to dry, and then place the entire thing inside a pretty flower pot or planter. Take your foam ball and attach it to the top of the branch. You might like to add a little hot glue to secure it. Slot a toothpick into the short hollow stem of each dandelion flower head and then poke the other end into the foam ball. You'll want to cut the stems to the right length before you start, to make this process a bit quicker.

Add more and more dandelion flowers to the ball until it's fully covered. Then it's just a case of waiting until the puffballs emerge fully. This can take at least 24 hours. Once your topiary is covered with those soft, fluffy seed heads, take your hairspray or florist preservative spray and apply even coverage all over the puffballs to preserve their current state.

Once you get the hang of collecting the dandelion flowers at the right stage, you can easily create as many topiaries as you like and customize the design to make it your own. You can replace the foam ball with another shape of your choice, like a pyramid, cone, or heart. You could even paint the foam base in a color that suits your decor. If you have some lovely organza ribbon, you could tie this around the planter, or place some pebbles or colored stones on top of the cement inside the pot. Finally, you might be interested in another way to preserve dandelions for whimsical decor.