Drying Flowers

Flowers, keepsakes of a first date or our wedding. What happens to them in the end though? They shrivel up and fade away. But what if you could save your flowers? Would you? Well, here are one or two ways for keeping your flowers so they can stay with you and hold your memories.

When drying flowers of any sort you have to know how they're going to dry. All flowers are mostly made of water and as the water leaves them they shrink. With some flowers, like roses, that really doesn't matter, they keep their shape though lose their color a bit. But with flowers like carnations or mums they won't last too long if they are let to air dry. They shrivel almost to nothing. So when drying you have to remember how to treat each flower.

When drying roses, let them open almost to full bloom. You want the bigger blooms because the rose, when dry, will look fuller. If you have one rose tie a string around the stem and hang it upside down in a low humidity room with little or no light. Make sure air can circulate around it well. A closet works quiet well as long as humidity doesn't build within it. Within two to three weeks the rose should be dry without any mildew or mold on it. You can also do this with bundles of roses. And the drying time is the same as with the single rose. Baby's breath can also be dried this way along with a few others.

Now if you're wondering why you hang the flowers upside down there is a simple reason. If you dry a flower, or batch of flowers, up right, then the flower will dry open in an unattractive way. Many petals will most likely fall off the stem also leaving bare patches in the bud. If you hang the flower upside down it will dry almost like it was dried in bud form. Bud form being how most people like to receive flowers.

Another way to dry flowers is with a drying compound. You cover the carnations or wild flowers with it and the compounds within the mixture take the moisture out of the flower with out shrinking the flowers too much or changing the color. A mixture of borax and cornstarch can also do this if mixed right and nothing gets in to eat the cornstarch. You have to make sure that none are touch and the container holding the mix and flowers are no where near a source of humidity. You'll find a really icky surprise if that happens after two or three weeks.

Another much, much simpler way of drying flowers is pressing them. Usually done with ferns or many flat wild flowers like daisy's or daisy mums this method has been around for a while. You can make your own press with non colored paper towels, wood, cardboard, and clamps as a press or a regular giant phone book. Usually you get the same effect with both.

To make your own press for drying flowers you start with a piece of wood as a base. Try to make it large enough to place multiple flowers on but not too big to have it in the way. Take a piece of cardboard the same size as the base piece of wood and lay that on it. Grab two pieces of paper towels and place on the cardboard. This is the start of where you lay the flowers to be pressed. After you arrange the flowers just right cover them with two or three more pieces of paper towel. Continue this pattern until you think you have enough and top the last layer of paper towels with another piece of cardboard. Add another piece of wood the same size as the base and clamp it all together. The time will vary for drying but you can check it every week if you wish.

Using a phone book is simple also. You can place sheets of paper between the print and place the flowers on the blank paper. This makes sure none of the ink from the book will be absorbed while the flower is drying. Make sure to place the collection of flowers evenly throughout the book so none start to mold too badly. After you're finished filling a book then set a few more books on top of that one to add extra pressure to it. Check every once in a while but nothing is guaranteed on a set drying time.

Dried flowers are wonderful keepsakes, craft items, and art. If they are dried right that is. Keep these tips in mind and hopefully you'll be on your way to wonderfully dried flowers that look as if they've been professionally dried. Happy drying!