Fall’s Most Fashionable Flowers: 8 Ways to Style a Surprising Design Darling

Move aside, fronds, grasses, and seedpods. Just when it looked as if wispy foliage had taken floral arrangements hostage for the season, we noticed something surprising: blowsy billows of hydrangeas.

Hydrangeas are the comfort food of flowers. Impossibly frumpy and fusty, these bobblehead pompoms are the antidote to the slender, the desiccated, and the severe dried floral arrangements currently in fashion. We’re ready for a little coddling, and so are our favorite interior designers, stylists, and architects.

Here are 10 of-the-moment ways (culled from our archives) to style old-fashioned hydrangeas to warm up a room:

Poured Forth

Above: In a pitcher instead of a vase, dried hydrangeas are in motion, spilling out against a static backdrop of Farrow & Ball wallpaper. Photograph by Beth Kirby of Local Milk.

See more in Old Soul: A Revolution-Era Hudson Valley Home Gets an Update from Jersey Ice Cream Co.

Cloud Formation

Above: Billowy dried hydrangeas float above a soapstone kitchen sink. Photograph by Beth Kirby of Local Milk.

Pillowy flowers undercut the severity of sharp corners, symmetry, and a white-on-white color scheme. See more in Old Soul: A Revolution-Era Hudson Valley Home Gets an Update from Jersey Ice Cream Co.

Branching Out

Above: Textile designer Helen Dealtry has a studio in downtown Hudson, New York near her house and often paints her watercolors from cut flowers she picks up at nearby Cedar Farm Wholesale. Photograph by Alison Engstrom.

See more at Hudson Eclectic: An Artist’s Circa-1830 Home in Claverack, New York.

Fresh Cuts

Above: In a tall, smoky glass vase in the corner of a second-floor landing, freshly cut pompom hydrangeas are a reminder of the midsummer garden in Bellport, New York. Photograph by Jonathan Hökklo.

See more in A Colonial House in Bellport with Uncommon Style from French Designer C. S. Valentin on Remodelista.

Seeing Green

Above: Shades of chartreuse, with hydrangeas, amaranth, Queen Anne’s lace, moss, and summer berries. Photograph @nonihana.

Tokyo-based  flower stylist and wire-work artist Yukiko Masuda creates bouquets and teaches classes on floral arrangement in her Tokyo studio. See more in Studio Visit: Quiet, Moody Flower Studies by Yukiko Masuda.

Catching the Light

Above: Hydrangeas light up a far corner in a living room of a farmhouse that Brooklyn-based architect Roberto Sosa and his partner, Jeffrey Coe, own in upstate New York. Photograph by Mylene Pionilla.

Snowy hydrangeas in a vase can catch and reflect the sunlight in a bright corner. See more in Architect Visit: An Antiquarian Farmhouse in Upstate New York Transformed.

Glass Half Full

Above: Photograph by Justine Hand.

A clear glass vase is a neutral backdrop for hydrangeas, neither competing nor disappearing. See more on Dried Hydrangea Garlands for Fall.

Deep Reds

Above: For a similar variety, Hydrangea ‘Fire and Ice’ has flowers that start out white and then deepen to red by season’s end. See more at Monrovia. Photograph by Jonathan Gooch.

Add a moody note to anchor a corner with deep red, purple, or blue hydrangeas. See more on Remodelista in Kitchen of the Week: Cookbook Author Anna Jones at Home in London.

See more growing tips in Hydrangeas: A Field Guide to Planting, Care & Design in our curated guide to Shrubs 101 in our Garden Design 101 section. Read more:

• Tiny Bouquets: 8 Ideas for Floral Arrangements in Miniature Vases
• See Justine’s step-by-step tips for styling Dried Hydrangea Garlands for Fall
• Flower Arrangements 101: A Crash Course for Easy and Elegant Florals
• Everything You Need to Know About Hydrangeas