All my flower loving friends listen up! Do you ever wish you could save your gorgeous bouquet from your most recent event? What if I told you that you can? There are natural ways to preserve your flower arrangements in a few quick and easy steps. Who said flowers can’t last forever?
Hang Drying Flowers
To hang flowers, all you need to do is take the stem (or stems if you're hanging multiple) and tie them together with a rubber band or string. Next, tie another piece of string to the stem in a secure knot with a piece of string long enough to tie to another surface like a ceiling hook or bulletin board. I like to hang my flowers from my ceiling ladder in my she-shed. It makes for a great chandelier and statement piece. If you don't have a she-shed ceiling ladder (first, i highly recommend you make one, but don't worry if not) you can easily thumbtack your stem to a bulletin board or frame. You can even tape them to your wall for a lovely wall mural. There are many different ways to preserve your flowers, and drying them is a great start!
What Flowers Dry Best?
Some of my favorite flowers to dry are roses and lavender, they both tend to dry very nicely and quickly. When choosing which flowers to dry, I choose the ones that have a more straw-like material and less thick petals. For example, I wouldn't dry a tulip or a sunflower because of how thick they are and how watery their stems are. It is possible; however, to dry a sunflower or tulip, but I wouldn't guarantee a perfectly preserved product. The petals on the other hand, are a different story. You can dry all sorts of plants: Flowers, herbs, houseplants, and more. It's really up to you. Have you ever tried drying tobacco? It smells incredible, and you can even smoke it once fully dry, if you’re into that sort of thing. There is really no limit to what you can try to dry, as long as it is not too thick or wet. The larger the plant, the longer it will take to dry. One important thing to remember is to dry your plants and flowers in a dark room. The sun can wash away and fade the pigment from your flower, so to keep them as close to their original color as possible, try to avoid the windowsill or ant space so the sun can easily reach your drying beauties.
Pressing Flowers
One way to preserve your prettiest petals is to press them. As much as I love tulips and sunflowers, there is no way to preserve the whole flower, stem and all. It's far too wet of a flower, but don't let that stop you from trying! After all, they say anything is possible. You can always preserve just the petals of flowers by pressing them between two pieces of paper with a heavy medium on top. There are flower pressing boxes out there for purchase, but to save money you can press a flower’s petals for free by putting them inside the pages of a book. My favorite flowers to press are pansies and violas. They have such a gorgeous face and retain pigment very well. They are simply gorgeous when pressed. I wouldn't hang dry a pansy like I would any other flower since their stem is very short and they are so dainty. I press the flowers i cannot hang, but i can still press some flowers i would hang, but iw woudlnt necessarily do it the other way around. But again, who is stopping you from trying?
What can you do with them?
So now what? You have some dried and pressed flowers but what can you do with them? The answer: many things! I love to use my dried flowers to use as package tags to any gift. It adds a lovely organic touch to any gift and most of the time people love to keep them! You can also use dried flowers for many crafts and creations. Modge podge your pressed flowers onto glass ornaments, cups, bottles, or cards. Keep them in a clear frame and display it on a nightstand or shelf. Keep dried herbs and flowers to add to your bath for a relaxing and aromatic fragrance! Some people use them for spell jars and metaphysical purposes. What you can do with dried flowers is endless. Be creative and try something new. It's environmentally friendly and a fun thing to do with family and friends!
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