How to Preserve Summer Flowers: A Guide to Pressing and Drying

There are many crafts associated with the country, but one of the most delightful is the preservation and display of flowers, foliage and fruit. Beautiful collages can be created from blossoms picked in high summer and leaves gathered during the autumn. Sprays of leaves and larger flowers can be preserved in an almost natural state to make wonderful winter decorations.

Pressing Flowers

When collecting flowers , grasses, seed heads and leaves for pressing make sure they are dry otherwise mold will form. Once collected your material needs pressing as soon as possible.

Special flower presses can be purchased but there is no reason why a beginner cannot obtain good results with traditional methods using blotting paper, books and bricks.

Before pressing your materials need preparing this simply involves discarding thick stalks and separating leaves, flowers and seeds.

Take your flowers, leaves or grasses and place them between sheets of blotting paper. Place these in a book with absorbent pages (don't use a treasured book for obvious reasons..). Close the book and then place another book or bricks on the top.

It usually takes between three to four weeks for pressed flowers to dry. Do not remove the weights too soon and if after the first inspection the flowers do not appear ready leave them for a while longer.

Suitable flowers for pressing:

Acronlinium

Buttercup

Clematis

Daisy

Delphinium

Larkspur

Golden Rod

Mimosa

Hydrangea Florets

Lobelia

Pansy

Suitable leaves and ferns to press:

Grevillea Robusta

Epimedium

Beech

Ivy

Clematis

Senecio Maritima

Centaurea

Achillea

Maple

Suitable grasses for pressing

Barley

Quaking Grass

Hares Tail

Fairy Grass

Leaf Skeletons

An unusual and attractive way of pressing leaves is to make leaf-skeleton pictures. These are also a good idea for personal greeting cards to send to friends.

To make a leaf skeleton you first have to remove all the soft vegetable matter from the leaf, leaving only the skeleton. This is quite a simple process.

Firstly, take 6 large cabbage leaves and put them in a saucepan with 2 pints of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for half an hour. Drain the liquid into a bucket and leave to cool.

You then need to choose your leaves. Make sure that you only choose leaves that are in good condition.

Once you have chosen the leaves place them into the cabbage water. It is advisable to place the bucket away from the house as after a few days the liquid begins to smell.

After a week examine the leaves and gently turn them in the liquid. Once the vegetable matter has softened considerably remove them from the bucket and rinse them gently in clean water. If there is any remaining leaf material gently remove it using a soft bristled paint brush.

Place the leaf skeletons on a piece of clean newspaper and leave in an airing cupboard to dry.

The dried skeleton will be a dirty brown in colour but can be coloured in a vegetable dye or you can lay the skeletons gently in a very dilute solution of bleach and water. After a few hours remove from the bleach solution and lay on a piece of clean newspaper to dry.

Drying flowers

A rewarding pastime is gathering flowers and seed heads for drying and making into home displays.

There are several methods used for drying flowers and the simplest methods require no special equipment.

Flowers such as delphiniums, larkspur, golden rod, bells of Ireland and hydrangea dry naturally when left standing in water until the water evaporates.

Another simple method is air drying. When planning to air dry flowers be sure to gather flowers when they are dry and not too mature as this will ensure a strong colour. After removing all the leaves simply lay the flowers in small bunches in a dry airy place that is away from direct sunlight.

Suitable flowers for air drying

Delphiniums

Larkspur,

Rhodanthe,

Sea lavender

Chinese Lanterns

Suitable seed heads for air drying

Teasels

Foxgloves

Gladioli

Poppy Heads

Barley

Oats

Quaking Grass

Hares Tail

Flowers can also be preserved by using borax. Using borax as a preservative heightens and preserves the flowers colours but does make the flowers more fragile than air drying.

To preserve flowers with borax just place the flower heads in a card board box on a layer of powdered borax. Cover the flowers with more powdered borax and put the lid on the box. Place the box into an airing cupboard. Once the flowers are dry approximately 10 days, place a fine hooked stub wire through the head to provide a stem.

Suitable flowers for preserving with borax

Roses

French Marigolds

Rhodanthe

One of the most successful methods of preserving foliage and seed heads such as old man's beard and sorrel is to stand them in a mixture of glycerine and water.

Pour 1 part glycerine to 2 parts hot water into a sturdy or wide mouthed jug and stir thoroughly. Stand the stems in the liquid being sure to inspect them frequently to ensure that they do not become saturated with the glycerine mixture. Should liquid begin to ooze remove stems, wipe them thoroughly and store them in a dry airy place.

Arranging dried flowers

Knead a suitable amount of plasticene or dry oasis foam and place in a chosen container. Criss cross the base material with rubber bands. You can then push the ends of the dried plants into the base material to give the desired arrangement.

How to create a pressed flower picture

Tools small paint brush, scissors, hammer

Materials pressed flowers, picture frame with glass, hardboard to fit frame, cardboard or other background material, practice paper, brown paper, latex adhesive, tacks

1. Cut a piece of background material and practise paper to size required.

2. Lay out a selection of the pressed flowers. Avoid too much handling. Use a small paint brush to move them around the paper.

3. Build up the pattern of the picture to suit the pressings available. Always retain the natural curve of any stalks and grasses, and avoid putting too many pressed flowers into one pattern.

4. Raspberry leaves five good visual weight at the base of the picture. Keep small and delicate material to the top and edges to avoid a top heavy appearance.

5. When the arrangement is satisfactory, gently dab a little adhesive on the centre of the flower with the tip of the brush handle.

6. For stalks and leaves, dab a little adhesive in several places along their length.

7. Gently press into position with the fingers.

8. When the picture is complete press the glass down over it and leave to dry.

9. Fix the whole arrangement into the frame with the hardboard backing. Secure with tacks. Cover the back completely with brown paper to protect from moths and dust.