Have you found yourself receiving a bouquet of flowers or picked a stray flower on a hike? Arranged flowers often make for a beautiful room decoration, but don’t usually last for too long. Unless, that is, they are carefully dried and put on display for many more years!
I have dried or pressed every single flower and bouquet given to me over the last few years, so I’ve picked up a trick or two to make sure they will last.
For Pressing:
Pressing is not my go-to form of preservation, but it allows for more spatially friendly ornamentation, such as framed wall mounts.
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Begin this process by getting a hold of your choice of flowers, two sheets of wax paper, and a few heavy books (a perfect use of those old textbooks you haven’t touched in months). Cut the stems of your flowers to the desired length.
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Place one of the wax paper sheets on your workspace, waxy side up. Take your flowers/petals and orient them in whatever position you want them to be dried in. You won’t be able to change their orientation after they have dried because they will be super brittle! Any attempt to “fix” the petals will likely result in them ripping. I recommend placing them face down with petals completely open.
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Once you have positioned your flowers to your liking, set the second piece of wax paper on top of the entire set up, sandwiching the flowers between the paper. Place your book on top of this and press down firmly for a few seconds. This helps flatten the buds, allowing for easier transfer to the inside of the book. Next, open the book to roughly the middle and set the flowers, still inside the wax paper, onto the page and close the book.
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Finally, set the book containing the flowers under something heavy — it could be two or three other books or a heavy box.
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Now comes the easy part! Wait for two to three weeks for your flowers to completely dry out.
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When your flowers have dried to perfection, now comes time to remove them. This can be a bit tricky as they might have stuck a bit to the wax paper surrounding them. Carefully remove your flowers and you’re set to use them in all forms of decoration!
For Air Drying:
Air drying flowers is my absolute favorite. I have numerous bouquets hanging upside down on my bedroom walls and in old glass bottles and jars.
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Start by gathering all of the flowers you desire to dry, along with some yarn, thin string, or a rubber band (I sometimes use mini hair ties!). Tie the flowers up in little bunches, preferably the same bunches that you will eventually place together for decorations. The trick to creating these bunches is to arrange the flowers in the positioning that you like best before they are dry. Once completely dry, leaves and petals become brittle and can easily break if you take the bouquets apart.
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Once you have bunched your flowers to your heart’s desire, find some sort of pole or stick, my preferred item is a clothing hanger. Take the string that you have tied to your flowers and tie the opposite end to whatever pole you have dedicated for this project.
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Now you are ready to hang them up! Find a place in your house or room that has relatively good air flow and attach the pole you used previously (this part is why I prefer to use clothing hangers, the hooked top makes it super simple). Make sure your flowers are not touching any walls or curtains, as this will impact the shape they take when drying.
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Waiting time! Let your flower babies rest for at least two to three weeks, or until all the moisture has dried up.
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Now you have beautiful new room decor! Place them in the vase they used before drying, in an old bottle, or keep them attached to the strings used for drying and dangle them on your walls!
Now you have the knowledge to press and dry all of your once-vibrant flowers! I hope you are able to take as much joy in old flowers as I do, and hopefully your pets don’t enjoy chewing on them as snacks, as mine love doing.