Bunny Tails Dried (Long)

Barn-dried on the farm at Salle Moor Hall — Bunny Tails (long) bunches of 20 stems, each 50-60cm tall, harvested when the fluffy oval seed heads are at their softest and most velvety. Each stem stands elegantly tall with a natural bend and movement, topped with the distinctive plush cream-beige head that gives the grass its name. The everlasting grass that turned dried floristry into a genre.

Lagurus ovatus — Latin for "hare-tailed egg-shape" — is a Mediterranean annual grass that's been adopted wholesale by modern British floristry for one very good reason: the seed heads are irresistibly tactile. Soft, plush, cotton-wool-like to touch, they add sensory texture to any arrangement in a way most dried stems can't. The long-stemmed version brings that same tactile quality but with proper height and movement, giving you the elegant vertical line that big floor vases and dramatic wedding installations demand.

Where the imported dyed versions fall down. Most bunny tails on the market are grown in China or Portugal, then bleached, dyed and shipped thousands of miles. The natural warm-cream colour and gentle sage undertone we grow at Salle Moor Hall is different — no bleach, no dye, no artificial anything. Just the natural colour a Norfolk-grown Lagurus produces, hung to dry in our barn until the heads are perfectly plush and the stems are stable.

Barn-dried at Salle Moor Hall, Norfolk. Grown chemical-free on our own cutting field, hand-harvested at peak fluffiness, hung in the barn to dry naturally. No air miles, no imported stems, no dyes or preservatives — just good English bunny tail grass, grown and cared for entirely by us. Seasonal, available while our summer stock lasts.

Versatile styling. Use as the "thriller" in mixed dried bouquets where you need height and movement. A staple of boho wedding bouquets — the natural cream reads beautifully in bridal photography. Works equally well in Scandi-minimalist interiors as it does in cottage-farmhouse settings, which is rare for a dried grass.

Pairs beautifully with dried wheat for the country harvest aesthetic — golden stiff wheat against soft cream bunny tails is the classic combination. Also excellent with dried Bupleurum for a lime-green lift against the neutral cream, and with dried statice or helichrysum for structured colour beneath the airy movement. If you like the aesthetic but need a smaller scale, our shorter version works beautifully in mantelpiece vases and buttonholes.

Styling tip: natural grasses have naturally-curved stems — part of their character. If you need them poker-straight for a specific display, hold them gently over steam from a boiling kettle for a few seconds and gently straighten while warm. Keep out of direct sunlight to prevent the cream deepening to yellow over years.