Here’s How To Dry Your Favorite Flowers And Turn Them Into Long-Lasting Decor

You can keep your beautiful blooms alive long after they’ve left the garden by drying them. Turn your favorite petals into timeless decor with just a few simple techniques!
Some common approaches for drying flowers include air drying, pressing, and drying with silica and glycerine. They let you hold on to the beauty of your blooms for seasons to come.
But you must choose the right flowers for the job and cut them at the right time. You should also place them in a prime spot after they’ve dried.
If you don’t know all the proper preservation methods for drying flowers, here are the best tips to keep in mind.
Air-Drying
One way to dry flowers is to air-dry them. It’s the easiest and most environmentally friendly approach. No chemicals are required, and the flowers can be put into compost when they are no longer usable as decor.
Gather fresh flowers that have just bloomed and cut them with at least six inches of stem. Remove the leaves, as too much foliage will slow down the drying process and can cause rotting.
Use a rubber band to tie the stems together and hang the flowers with the blooms facing down. Make sure to hang them in a well-ventilated area away from direct sunlight to retain their color. It will take about two to three weeks for them to dry.
The best flowers to air-dry include bouquets of roses, lavender, strawflower, grasses and grains, baby’s breath, hydrangeas, eucalyptus, and thistle.

chamillew – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Pressing
Another method of drying flowers is to press them, which you can then use for bookmarks, crafts, soaps, jewelry, or baking.
To start, pick flowers on a dry day so they can have as little moisture as possible. Place the flowers between two sheets of wax or parchment paper. Sandwich the paper between two sheets of plywood.
Use wing nut screws and bolts to secure the wood together. A large, heavy book would also work for this process. Before removing the flowers, make sure all the moisture is gone and the flowers are flat and papery. It will take about two to four weeks.
The best flowers for pressing are smaller, delicate blossoms such as pansies, daisies, cosmos, forget-me-nots, and the individual petals of roses and delphinium.
Silica
If you don’t want to change the texture and form of your flowers, silica crystals are the way to go. But depending on how many flowers you want to dry, it can get costly. First, find a plastic container that is large enough to hold your flowers. Fill the bottom of the container with one to two inches of silica. Next, put the flowers face up in the container.
Then, completely cover the flowers with more silica. Once the flowers have dried, brush away any silica dust. It will take one to three weeks. The best types of flowers for the silica method are water lilies, mums, and roses.
Glycerine
Liquid glycerine will make your flowers feel softer and maintain the foliage’s natural shine. In a bucket, mix one part glycerine and two parts water.
Place the cut stems into the mixture. After they have absorbed the glycerine, remove them from the bucket and follow the steps for air-drying. It will take one to six weeks. Glycerine will work for any flower, from small ferns to magnolias and hydrangeas.
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