Don’t doom that bloom!

We’ve all seen those beautiful dried flower arrangements and wreaths, noting with dismay the high prices. You love the smell of gently fragrant dried roses and lavender, but don’t want to spend the fortune it would take to place them throughout your home. Lucky for you, this 2torial shows you how to easily dry flowers yourself.

Dried flowers are great for inclusion in wreaths, swags, or just about anything you can think of to accent from tops of presents to table settings. Drying flowers isn’t an involved process, and the results are rewarding. So don’t toss the Valentine’s bouquet your sweetheart sent you just yet–learn how to preserve it for many more months of future enjoyment.

Because flowers differ in petal thickness and color retention, it’s important to remember that not all flowers will dry the same. You may have some turn brown and brittle, and others remain vibrant and sweet.

Often, their dried state depends on the length of the period between when a flower was picked and when it the drying process was begun. Try different stages of a flower’s “after-picked-life” to see which dries the best consistently. Keep in mind that fully bloomed flowers are more likely to fall apart than ones just past the bud stage. Also, the time of day affects a flower’s drying success, since many flowers go through changes throughout the day, such as opening and closing their petals according to light and moisture.

Pick and Clean the Flowers

The flowers you decide to dry can vary as you experiment to see which dries the best. Roses dry nicely, but often a darker shade of red or brown. Flowers fade and become brittle after a period of months, so dried flowers don’t last forever. But you can help take steps to prevent speedy deterioration by taking care of the flower before you dry it.

• Gather petals, bulbs, buds, and leaves. Getting together an assortment of flower parts and whole flowers should be easy after a walk around your neighborhood. Don’t pick your neighbors flowers and don’t pick your state flower–instead look for wild flowers and weeds which bloom. Sort them out according to thickness. Stick to small posy-like flowers for pressing.
• Cleanse the bulbs and buds. Sometimes, bulbs come in with tiny bugs attached to them, commonly called aphids. These are harmless to you, but pose a threat to the rest of your dried flower factory, as they will transfer to the other flowers and feast away. Pour a few drops of dishwashing liquid into a bowl of lukewarm water and soak your bulbs and buds in it, especially roses. (Unless they came from a florist, in which case inspect them to ensure no bugs are on them before noting that flowers form florists are usually clean.) Leave them in for a few hours and then gently rinse the soap off. Lay them on paper towels spread out to dry. Rinsing small, thin flowers or petals this way is effective too, but take care not to leave small flowers in too long, as they’ll wilt. Soak them for fifteen minutes at a time.
• Brush off dirt and other muck. For smaller flowers, using an old toothbrush to lightly brush off earth and mud may be desirable. Check to make sure nothing is hiding in the crevices of petal joints.

Air, Press, or Hang

When your flowers are clean, you’re ready to dry them out. For small flowers, leaves, and petals, get out the old phone books.

• Line your pages. Open your phonebook to a page towards the end and line both pages open with paper towels, so the flowers will have top and bottom liners. Carefully spread your little flowers around the page, making sure each has plenty of room to spread or move. If flowers cross each other, they may become moldy. Close the book and keep it under other heavy books in a safe, cool place. Leave them for a period of 2-3 weeks, or longer if you feel they need more pressing.
• Hang your bulbs. Obviously, you cannot press pulpy flowers or you’ll end up with a moldy mess that hardly resembles the flower you brought in. That’s why you need to hang them from hooks, from the wall or other contraptions. Hang them upside-down and make sure they are out of reach from kids, pets, or awe-struck guests. If you can, tape a paper towel to the wall and let it rest against that. Leave them, again, for 2-3 weeks or until you feel they are dry and happy.
• Air your buds. Buds, though thick, have thinner petals and so don’t always dry well if you hang them. Set aside a small space that can be undisturbed for the next few weeks (such as a small basket) and line it with paper towels. Lay the buds down to air-dry, for a period of 2-3 weeks, longer if needed. For the first two weeks, turn the flowers every few days so that the side they lie on gets properly aerated and doesn’t turn brown.

Seal and Adorn

You may wish to take extra measures to ensure that your dried flowers last a long time. Here are a few tips, and also some ideas on what to do with your dried flowers.

• Spray fixatives on the bulbs. Don’t bother with smaller flowers–they tend to be too weak to withstand a spraying, but since they are pressed they keep much longer. Using cheap hairspray or clear acrylic spray found in most craft stores, lightly spray the entire flower and set aside for 3-4 hours to harden and protect. Make sure you don’t over or under spray.
• Use stick pins to affix flowers. Pinning dried flowers to anything can be a risky endeavor–you don’t want to break or crack a petal. Use small, thin-needled pins driven through the center of the bulb or bud and hide the end amongst the center petals.
• Glue pressed flowers onto cards to make stationary. Use white card stock and create a simple but beautiful cover of pressed petals, leaves, or whole flowers to personalize a card.
• Create fragrant, colorful wreathes. Bulbs and buds are nice to use to attach to wreathes, as well as dried fern and eucalyptus leaves. Carefully tie ribbons around the dried flowers to make a pleasant and wonderful alternative to expensive store-bought wreathes.