Drying Flowers

By Mary Jo Baur



There are several methods you can use to preserve flowers, leaves and grasses.  The easiest way is to air dry.  It is best to harvest flowers for drying around noon, after the morning dew has evaporated.  It will not work well to pick them on a damp or humid day.  Any flower should be nearing its peak, not in full bloom yet.  You can hang a bunch of flowers upside down using a rubber band to hold the stems together; but first pull off most of the leaves and don't put too many in one bunch because you need to allow air to circulate around the flower heads.  Some types of plant material can also be dried standing up in a vase.  This works for gypsophila (baby's breath), hydrangeas, delphiniums, and also grasses, rushes and grains.  Whether you hang or stand, you must leave them in an area that is cool, dry, well-ventilated and most importantly, dark.  Exposure to light will fade the colors very quickly.

Another way to preserve flowers is to press them.  This works well for leaves, ferns and flowers that are naturally flat, such as pansies and violas.  I wouldn't use daisy-like flowers since their center is thick and dense, although you could pull off the petals and press them separately.  Again, gather them when it is dry out, then press them between paper towels to absorb the moisture for several days weighting them down with heavy books.  You can buy flower presses, but they are usually small and I find using big books as weights works just as well.

A third way to keep flowers is to put them in silica gel.  You can buy it at floral supply stores.  Silica gel is the consistency of sand.  You put some in the bottom of an air-tight container, place your flowers in it, and gently add more of the silica gel to the box.  Do not allow the flowers or leaves to touch each other; cover them completely.  This method is best for roses or peonies. After several days (follow the directions on the product), check to see if they are dry.  Very gently brush away the gel and lift the flowers out.  This method does a good job preserving the color, but there will still be some amount of fading.  Since you do not dry these flowers with their stems on, you will need to add wire to the flower heads if you want to arrange them in a vase.  You can use them as is, if you are hot gluing them to a wreath, for example.  


So give it a try if you want to preserve flowers by one of these methods; but I have to say, to me nothing beats fresh flowers.