Drying and Pressing Flowers.

Drying and Pressing Flowers

Drying and pressing flowers is making rather a comeback. For many years it was regarded as old fashioned. There was hardly any choice of dried flowers and what there was just gathered dust in the corners of people's living rooms.

And as for pressed flowers, that was something you did at school in your craft lessons. But now both crafts have become rather trendy. Pressed flowers in particular are great for enhancing cards, decorating boxes and in picture frames, while dried flowers have earned respectability in the floral world.

In all honesty it does help that dried flowers are widely available both in the floral wholesalers and larger department stores, and, they are also very reasonably priced. There are now many specialist growers in this country which produce and dry all sorts of flowers and foliage, so over the last few years prices have come down.

Saying that, there probably is nothing more special than drying out flowers that mean something to you - perhaps a wedding bouquet or a single red rose given on Valentines Day. You will have an everlasting reminder of a treasured moment.

And because more and more people are turning their hands to crafts, pressing flowers have become a perfect past-time and in some cases a very lucrative business.

Selecting Flowers to Dry

Some flowers just work better than others. Flowers with a high water content, like sedum, don't air dry well. Here is a partial list of flowers that are good choices, but you are going to learn by experimenting. Always cut more flowers than you will need, because you will probably lose some in the drying process.

Harvesting

The best time to harvest your flowers is late morning, just after the dew has evaporated from the leaves. Different plants should be cut at different stages of bloom. In general, most flowers do best when cut slightly immature, with the bud not fully open, since the flower will continue to open once cut. Often fully open flowers will drop their petals as they dry.

There are many ways to dry or preserve flowers

What You'll Need To Get Started

• fresh cut flowers
• rubber bands
• paper clips
• string or ceiling hooks
• newspaper or a drop cloth

And if you're going for speed you'll also need:

• a microwave
• silica gel
• an airtight plastic or glass container

Choosing Flowers to Dry

The trick to success in drying flowers, is to choose flowers that hold their shape and their color when dry, like these hydrangeas.

Methods for Drying Flowers

There are 3 basic ways to dry flowers:

• Air drying
• Air drying with the addition of a drying agent (like Silica Gel)
• Combining the use of heat with your drying agent (like silica gel)

Air Dried Flowers

Air drying is the easiest method, but it's also the slowest. Cut fully to partially opened flowers with a length of stem attached. Remove all the leaves bundle together, fasten the stems with a rubber band, and add your opened paper clip through the rubber band. Then, suspend the bundles out of direct sunlight, so they don't fade, for about a week. The better the air circulation, the faster they'll dry.

Silica Gel Dried Flowers

To speed-up the process, you can use a drying agent, like silica gel. Carefully pack the silica gel granules around the flowers and store for 3 to 5 days in an air tight container.

Using Silica Gel With Heat

Or just place the open container of gel and flowers in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the type of flowers. Wait for the flowers to cool, remove from gel, and they're done!

If you keep your dried flowers out of strong sunlight and direct sources of heat, you'll be enjoying them for seasons to come.