6 Plants for Pastel-Coloured Cut Flower Arrangements

Dahlias

With their large, typically double flowers, dahlias are perfect for creating opulent bouquets! There are thousands of different varieties, offering endless possibilities in shapes and colours. The flowers can be pompom-shaped, camellia-shaped, cactus-shaped, anemone-shaped, or peony-shaped. They are often double and lush, with several ranks of petals, but can also be single for a much more natural style. In terms of colours, while some dahlias boast bright hues, many also come in much softer and more delicate tones. Additionally, they are often beautifully shaded, with contrasts and gradients of colour, giving them depth.

For a pastel flowering, we particularly recommend the varieties ‘Wizard of Oz’, which features tender pink pompom-shaped flowers, ‘Maya’, with cream-yellow, apricot, and pink flowers, and ‘Karma Prospero’, with pink water lily-shaped flowers. Also, discover the dahlias from the ‘Café Au Lait’ series: they all offer very soft and delicate shades (‘Café au Lait Rosé’, ‘Café au Lait Twist’, ‘Café au Lait Royal’…). These dahlias will easily fit into the composition of bohemian, country, or romantic-style bouquets. You can pair them, for example, with gladioli, arums, lilies, carnations, and delphiniums.

Dahlias thrive in full sun, in fertile, cool, and well-drained soil. As they are not very hardy (down to -5 °C), unless you live in a region with a very mild climate where the risk of frost is low, it is best to dig up the bulbs in autumn to store them indoors, and then replant them in spring.

Also, check out our advice sheet: “Dahlias: the best for making bouquets”

A bouquet made with ‘Café au Lait’, ‘Café au Lait Rosé’ dahlias, as well as gladioli and arums / Dahlia ‘Karma Prospero’ / Dahlia ‘Café au Lait’

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is valued in bouquets not for its flowers but for its stunning blue-silver foliage! It is the perfect companion for roses, peonies, or dahlias to create romantic bouquets. The Eucalyptus gunnii, for example, has unique, rounded, grey-blue leaves. You can also choose the Eucalyptus parviflora, which features elongated, silver leaves.

Eucalyptus thrives in light, well-drained soils, in warm, sunny locations, sheltered from cold winds. The more compact varieties, such as Eucalyptus ‘Baby Blue’ or Eucalyptus gunnii ‘France Bleu Rengun’, adapt well to pot cultivation and can beautifully enhance a terrace.

You can create stunning bouquets with Eucalyptus by incorporating a few sprigs into a composition with roses and gypsophila.

To learn more about its cultivation, feel free to consult our complete guide “Eucalyptus: planting, pruning, and care”

A bouquet of peonies and Eucalyptus with the blue foliage of Eucalyptus ‘Azura’

Roses

Particularly delicate and elegant, roses are the ideal flowers for creating romantic bouquets! They are often pleasantly scented and come in a wide range of colours. In pastel shades, we recommend the ‘Charles de Gaulle’ rose, with mauve-lilac flowers, the centifolia ‘Muscosa’ rose, with double soft pink flowers, the ‘Iceberg’ rose, with white flowers, or the ‘Paris d’Yves Saint Laurent’ rose, with salmon-pink flowers. In the garden, plant roses in full sun or partial shade, in good garden soil that is rich, loose, and deep, without excessive lime.

In bouquets, roses pair wonderfully with gypsophila, sweet peas, hydrangeas, and eucalyptus leaves.

Discover our entire range of English roses for bouquets, as well as our advice sheet “10 tips for creating beautiful rose bouquets”

A bouquet of roses, hydrangeas, and eucalyptus / ‘Iceberg’ rose / ‘Charles de Gaulle’ rose

Peonies

Peonies offer large, opulent flowers in soft, beautifully rounded shapes in spring. They bloom between April and June, depending on the variety, delighting us with their imposing flowers, delicate tones, and numerous imbricate petals. We particularly recommend the ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ peonies, ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’, both of which produce soft pink, fully double flowers, ‘King’s Day’, with salmon to orange flowers, or ‘Do Tell’, featuring pale pink petals surrounding a bouquet of lilac-pink stamens.

Peonies thrive in full sun or partial shade, in clay soil rich in humus that remains cool in summer but is well-drained, as they are sensitive to stagnant moisture. Choose their location carefully: once planted, they do not like to be moved.

Peonies are ideal for accompanying lilacs and campanulate flowers in shades of pink, white, and mauve, creating a display that is both rustic and romantic.

Discover Virginie’s article on our blog: “6 tips for making beautiful peony bouquets”

A bouquet of ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ and ‘Kansas’ peonies, Geranium maculatum, and Campanula persicifolia ‘Alba’ (photo © Biosphoto – Friedrich Strauss) / Peony ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’

Delphiniums

Delphiniums, also known as Larkspurs, are invaluable for adding a touch of blue to pastel bouquets, which often feature shades of pink or salmon. While some varieties offer intense blue flowering, others are available in much softer tones, such as light blue, lilac, and even mauve. They also provide verticality and height to bouquets and can create beautiful combinations with rounder flowers. You might choose, for example, the varieties ‘Pacific Summer Skies’, with soft blue flowers, or ‘Highlander Cha Cha’, with pale lilac double flowers. For pure white flowering, consider Delphinium ‘Double Innocence’.

Delphiniums are quite demanding plants: they thrive in full sun, sheltered from strong winds, in rich, deep soil that remains cool in summer but is very well-drained. We recommend staking the stems of the taller varieties in spring, as they can easily break under the weight of the flowers.

In bouquets, we suggest pairing delphinium flowers with white-flowering roses, gypsophila, and eryngiums.

To learn everything about growing Delphinium, check out our complete guide “Delphiniums, Larkspurs: planting, sowing, and maintaining them”.

Bouquet of roses and delphiniums / Delphinium ‘Pacific Astolat’ / Delphinium ‘Pacific Summer Skies’

Lilac

Lilac or Syringa is one of the most beautiful flowering bushes of spring. From April to May, and even into June depending on the varieties, it offers generous clusters made up of numerous small, highly fragrant flowers! For a lovely pale blue – mauve flowering, choose the variety ‘Capitaine Baltet’; for pale pink flowers, opt for ‘Belle de Moscou’; for more pronounced pink flowers, you can choose ‘Belle de Nancy’ or ‘Maiden’s Blush’. And for a more original flowering, discover the variety ‘Primrose’, which offers pale yellow flowers, an unusual shade for a lilac!

Easy to grow, lilac thrives in full sun, in any ordinary soil, although it prefers cool, well-drained, deep, and fertile soils. It is ideal as a backdrop in a flowerbed or in a free-flowing, flowering hedge. The most compact varieties (Syringa meyeri ‘Flowerfesta White’, Syringa patula…) can even be planted in a large pot and placed on a terrace!

You can pair lilac with peony flowers for an opulent and generous bouquet in shades of purple, mauve, pink, and white. Feel free to mix flowers from different lilac varieties together!

To learn all about its cultivation, discover our complete guide “Lilac, Syringa: Planting, Pruning, Maintaining”

A bouquet of blue-mauve lilac / Lilac ‘Belle de Nancy’ / Lilac ‘Primrose’