How to Preserve Plant Foliage for Winter Arrangements

Many people are aware of methods for preserving flowers such as silica gel. Often, however, the home gardener dries beautiful flowers only to have no suitable materials preserved for background or filter. As a result, flowers are often arranged tightly and unnaturally to hide thin wire stems or other mechanics of arranging. Trees, shrubs, garden plants, grasses and house plants are all sources of foliage for fall and winter arrangements. Select foliage well. There is no need to preserve foliage with insect damage, disease, tears or cuts.

Although leaves may be pressed, or branches air dried, leaves become brittle and difficult to handle. The most successful method for preserving foliage is by the use of glycerine. Foliage properly treated with glycerine becomes soft and pliable, lasting many years. Although different proportions of glycerine and water are often recommended, the one generally most successful can be made of one-third glycerine and two-thirds water. The process is begun by heating the water just to boiling immediately before mixing and inserting the stems. If desired, the material may be mixed and then heated just to boiling.

Have branches ready before heating is complete. Stems should be placed in a solution at least two inches deep. Large woody stems should be split and some of the bark removed. Long stems may be placed in vases or buckets where the depth of the solution is between 6 to 10 inches. The maximum length of a stem that may be glycerinized is about 18 inches, although with experimentation you may find that greater lengths are possible for some plants. Leaves of other plants may not absorb glycerine if stems are more than 2 to 3 inches long.

A few plants such as rubber plant, ivy, magnolia and rhododendron absorb glycerine best as individual leaves. These should be totally submerged and weighed to remain beneath the glycerine solution. For this process the solution is not heated. Anti-freeze is sometimes used as a substitute for glycerine in this process. However, it may given an unnatural tinge to the foliage. Most leaves develop a shade of brown during the preservation process, so do not expect the green to remain.

Very careful tinting or use of absorption dyes is sometimes used to add color to preserved foliage. Remove the foliage from the solution when it is well saturated with the glycerine. This may range from one to 6 weeks after insertion. Generally, about 2 to 3 weeks is suitable for most plants. Holly, mahonia, rock-spray cotoneaster, fern and salal are a few types to try. Some tree foliages good for glycinerizing include beech, maple, oak tulip tree, mulberry and poplar. These preserve best in mid to late summer.

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