The end of summer will soon be here. And even though you may have enjoyed the beauty of your flower gardens all summer long, you may be wondering how to enjoy the blooms long after summer has ended. Learning how to dry flowers can be the answer to your dilemma.
Dried flowers may not be as fragrant as fresh cut flowers, but they can be as beautiful. Dried flowers can also be a great way to decorate your home by bringing the outdoors inside. Decorating with dried flowers is also less expensive than using silk and you can dry your summer flowers at home.
This article will give you a list of the best flowers to dry and explain how to dry them so you can enjoy them for a long time.
The best summertime flowers for drying include:
- Baby’s breath
- Bachelor’s button
- Cockscomb
- Larkspur
- Roses
- Sage
- Statice
- Strawflower
- Yarrow
You can also dry cat-tail, iris, milkweed, lotus, poppy and Queen Anne’s lace.
Pick flowers which don’t have brown edges or those which have been eaten by insects. You also don’t want misshapen flowers as part of an arrangement so you’ll want to leave them in the garden. Flowers won’t look better after they’re dried than they do when they’re fresh, so you want to choose the best flowers possible.
Choose flowers which are only partially opened. The flowers will continue opening during the drying process. Gather more flowers than you think you’ll need for the dried arrangement. This will ensure you have the right number of flowers in case some don’t look as good as you’d like.
One way to dry flowers, and often considered the easiest, is to hang a group of flowers upside down in a somewhat dry, warm and dark area. Be sure the location is dry because excess moisture can cause the flowers to mold. Expect for the flowers to take at least two to three weeks when you hang them to dry.
You can also use your microwave to dry flowers. With this process you’ll need to purchase desiccating pellets which can be found in the floral section of most craft stores. You may also be able to purchase some from floral supply stores.
Find a microwave-safe container and put a layer of the pellets on the container and microwave them for about three minutes. This will dry them out completely. Then pour the dried pellets into a bowl about an inch deep.
Trim the flowers and place them into the bowl so the stem is standing up in the pellets. Then pour more pellets over the blooms until they are completely covered. Microwave the flowers for two to five minutes. Leave the flowers in the microwave for longer if they are larger blooms.
After the flowers have cooled for at least 20 minutes, pour the crystals off the blooms. Clean the petals until there are no pellets remaining. Using floral wire, tape the flowers to the wire and create your arrangement.
You can expect the flowers to look darker after they’re dried than they were cut fresh. Once they are dried they can be used to decorate your home. Now you realize drying flowers isn’t difficult, you may decide to try to dry other flowers than the ones on the above list.
