[clkeiper]

Cole, first see if you have a local "friend of a friend" who works in a flower shop show you how to make a hand held bouquet. that for me is the easiest way to learn... someone shows me.. or check a you tube video for the basics of making one. I make them and use vegetable rubber bands to hold them together. the kind of bands you buy in a big bag for broccoli. I count off the number of bouquets I need and put that number of bands over my wrist to pull off one as soon as I have a bouquet in my hand. I make a bouquet the size of what my hand holds not the number of flowers in a bunch. it is usually a nice sized bouquet. immediately place the bouquet in a bucket of water. do not lay them down and then gather them up.
zinnia
dahlias
statice is the go to filler for me. it holds up and is durable. babt's breath is fragile. beautiful but fragile.
queen annes lace
Ammi (another form of Q A's lace)
Dara- from Johnny's- colors of Q A's lace
gomphrena
celosia
grasses such as quaking oats
rudbekia for fall flowers. they are gold. don't grow them for summer flowers. there is nothing to match their colors for Summer flowers.
brandy colored rudbekia... same thing. beautiful but wont sell during the Summer
Snapdragons- rocket series or liberty.. tall ones
stock
lilies from bulbs
sunflowers
maybe gerberas... they may be too much work IMO... they are a specialty.
anything for dried flowers... they hold up well in bouquets.
sprengerii fern... but be careful, it has wicked thorns

look around the yard at weeds. don't be afraid to harvest them. goldenrod, grasses, twigs etc.

look through Johnny's catalog for their ideas in one spot. they are a marketers catalog. they don't sell seeds for bedding plants