Dried flowers maintain a timeless appeal, preserving the fantastic thing about blossoms lengthy after their pure season has handed. Whether or not you’re seeking to seize the essence of a particular bouquet, prolong the lifetime of your backyard blooms, or craft distinctive decorations, studying methods to dry flowers opens up a world of artistic prospects.
Imagine it or not, you don’t want costly or hard-to-source supplies to get attractive dried blooms. The truth is, one of many strategies that holds the brightest colours may already be hanging out in your laundry room.
On this tutorial, I’m going to cowl a few of the hottest strategies for drying flowers in addition to when to choose flowers for the perfect outcomes and common flower varieties that dry effectively.
Selecting Flowers to Dry and When to Harvest
Deciding on the fitting flowers is essential for profitable drying. Ideally, you need blossoms which can be at their peak simply earlier than they attain full maturity or begin to decline.
- Timing: Harvest flowers within the morning after the dew has dried however earlier than the solar turns into too intense. This ensures the flowers are hydrated however not filled with extra moisture.
- Stage of Bloom: Select flowers which can be absolutely open or beginning to open. Keep away from flowers which can be absolutely mature or starting to fade, as they could not maintain their form effectively through the drying course of.
- Situation: Choose flowers which can be free from pests, illness, or bodily harm. Wholesome, blemish-free blooms will dry extra fantastically and retain their shade and form higher.
You’ll wish to plan to dry your flowers instantly after you’ve picked them. The more energizing they’re once you begin the method, the higher your completed outcome shall be.
Flower Drying Strategies
There are a number of methods to dry flowers, every suited to various kinds of blooms and desired outcomes.
Air Drying
That is by far the best as you don’t want the rest however the flower and a spot to dry them in. Nevertheless, you gained’t obtain the brightest colours with air drying. Air drying is nice if you happen to’re going for a extra homespun or rustic look or for sure sorts of flowers that don’t have a variety of moisture in them, to start with, reminiscent of statice or straw flowers.
Supplies Wanted: Rubber bands or string, a well-ventilated, darkish, and dry room.
Directions:
- Step 1: Collect your flowers into bunches, grouping related varieties collectively. Hold the bunches small. Bigger bunches have a tendency to finish up with crushed stems or leaves, which may result in spoilage. Smaller bunches will dry quicker, too, once more, leaving much less of an opportunity for them to spoil.
- Step 2: Safe the stems with rubber bands or tie them with string, leaving sufficient size for hanging.
- Step 3: Grasp the flower bunches the other way up from a hook or hanger in a cool, dry, and darkish space with good air circulation. This could possibly be a closet, attic, or unused room.
- Every of those components is essential. You desire a cool room, as a heat room can result in mould development or spoilage. Naturally, if the tip aim is to dry the flowers, it’s essential put them in an area with low humidity. Working a dehumidifier in your drying room can assist. And eventually, you need the house to be darkish to keep up the flowers’ shade when drying. Gentle, particularly daylight, will bleach the flowers.
- Step 4: Permit the flowers to dry naturally for 1-3 weeks, relying on the flower kind and humidity ranges. Examine periodically to make sure they’re drying correctly and never molding.
- Step 5: As soon as dried, gently take away the rubber bands or strings and retailer the dried flowers in a dry, hermetic container till prepared to make use of. Including a desiccant packet to the container will make sure the flowers stay dry and pull out any residual moisture.
Air drying is without doubt one of the oldest strategies of drying flowers and yields fairly good outcomes. The completed flowers have a country appeal. Nevertheless, it’s not the perfect technique for preserving vibrant colours.
Desiccant Drying
Desiccants are supplies that pull moisture out of the air and objects round them. They’re usually used to maintain industrial items dry and to stop spoilage earlier than they attain the patron. You’ve possible seen a desiccant packet within the field once you buy a pair of footwear or in a bottle of nutritional vitamins.
Utilizing a desiccant to dry flowers is one of the best ways to protect the colour of your blooms.
There are fairly a number of cheap home goods which can be additionally desiccants. These are nice, cheap choices that work effectively for drying flowers. If you’re utilizing a desiccant to dry flowers, the method is basically the identical, regardless of which you employ. I’ll cowl the method later, however first, listed here are your desiccant choices.
Unscented Cat Litter
Cat litter, even the finances clay litter, is manufactured particularly to soak up moisture. You should utilize silica, corn, wheat, clay and wooden cat litter to dry flowers. You desire a litter that’s granulated moderately than pellets. Pellets permit an excessive amount of air in and may crush the flowers below their weight. For those who select a clay litter, be sure you use a nice textured clay.
Drying time: 5-14 days
Silica Gel Crystals
These are what are within the desiccant packets you discover in shoe bins, and many others. You should buy them in lots of craft shops or on-line. Nevertheless, the markup is fairly steep. If you wish to use silica gel crystals, I extremely advocate utilizing the unscented silica cat litter, because it’s less expensive.
Nevertheless, there are some nicer silica crystals that may change shade as soon as they’ve absorbed sufficient moisture, which is usually a helpful indicator when drying flowers.
Drying time: 5-16 days
Borax
Yup, good ol’ Borax is a pure desiccant. And it’s an amazing possibility for drying flowers, because it holds the colour fastness of the flowers effectively. Plus, it’s mild sufficient that it gained’t crush the flowers an excessive amount of like a clay cat litter would, for example.
Drying time: one to 2 weeks
Drying with Desiccants
Supplies Wanted: Your chosen desiccant, an hermetic container giant sufficient to carry the flowers and your desiccant, and a soft-bristle paintbrush.
Directions:
- Step 1: Fill the underside of the container with a layer of desiccant.
- Step 2: Trim the flower stems and take away any foliage which may get in the best way. Rigorously place your flowers on the layer of desiccant. It’s finest to place particular person blooms face down to carry their form.
- Step 3: Gently pour extra of the desiccant over and across the flowers till fully coated, making certain the petals stay intact.
- Step 4: Seal the container and place it in a cool, dry place for the advisable drying time, relying on the flower kind, measurement and desiccant.
- Step 5: Rigorously take away the flowers from the silica gel. Gently shake or faucet the flowers, after which use a mushy paintbrush to brush off any remaining desiccant.
- Step 6: Retailer the dried flowers in an hermetic container till prepared to make use of.
Shaping Flowers As soon as They Are Dry
Flowers naturally turn out to be compressed once you dry them. You’ll be able to enhance their completed form with a heat mist vaporizer. Maintain the dried flower in entrance of the steam for a number of seconds and gently reshape the petals.
Permit the flowers to fully air dry as soon as once more earlier than utilizing them in preparations.
Urgent Flowers
Aside from air drying, that is in all probability the flower-drying technique most of us are aware of. Maybe you’ve tucked a flower or four-leaf clover right into a guide you have been studying and located it once more someday later.
This technique creates a flat, pressed flower, excellent for issues like home made paper, bookmarks, decoupage and extra.
Supplies Wanted: Heavy books, parchment paper, and absorbent paper towels.
Directions:
- Step 1: Place the flower between two sheets of absorbent paper towels.
- Step 2: Prepare the flower fastidiously to protect its form.
- Step 3: Place the paper towel with the flower inside a heavy guide.
- Step 4: Stack extra books or weights on high of the guide containing the flower to press it flat.
- Step 5: Depart the flowers to press for 1-4 weeks, altering the paper towels each few days in the event that they turn out to be damp.
- Step 6: As soon as dried and pressed, fastidiously take away the flowers and retailer them flat in a dry, hermetic container till prepared to make use of.
Prime Ten Most Common Flowers for Dried Preparations
Sure flowers are notably well-suited for drying attributable to their construction, shade retention, and sturdiness. Listed here are the highest ten flowers usually chosen for dried floral preparations:
Lavender – Identified for its calming perfume and chic spikes of purple flowers.
Roses – Traditional and romantic, roses dry fantastically and retain their form and shade.
Child’s Breath – Delicate and ethereal, child’s breath provides texture and quantity to preparations.
Hydrangeas – Giant, colourful blooms that dry effectively and can be utilized as focal factors.
Statice – Out there in numerous colours, statice has papery flowers that retain shade effectively when dried.
Eucalyptus – Identified for its fragrant leaves, eucalyptus provides texture and a pleasing scent to preparations.
Sunflowers – With their giant, daring heads, sunflowers convey a sunny disposition to dried bouquets.
Dahlias – Vibrant and various in shade, dahlias dry effectively and retain their intricate shapes.
Celosia – Also called cockscomb, celosia has distinctive, velvety flowers that add a dramatic contact to preparations.
Marigolds – Small, cheerful flowers that dry effectively and retain their brilliant colours.
After all, there are such a lot of extra flowers that look pretty when dried. Listed here are much more flowers to make use of in your dried floral preparations. Get artistic and experiment.
Whether or not you like the simplicity of air drying, the brighter colours of desiccant drying, or the time-honored custom of urgent, every technique presents distinctive benefits for various kinds of flowers. Check out every technique and study which you want finest. Let your creativity bloom!
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