Flower drying isn’t a complicated process, it just requires a bit of time – how much time depends on the flower and the technique used. Individuals can try pressing flowers and leaves, air drying them, or sand drying blossoms. The result is delicate preserved flowers that can be used in arrangements, wreaths, or artwork.
Gathering Fresh Plants to Preserve Flowers, Leaves and More
Drying plants requires collecting materials at the right time and drying them immediately after cutting them. Don’t cut plants and then keep them in water for later action. Pick plants, flowers, and leaves when they are mature. Choose a hot sunny day with low humidity. Noon is best, after dew has had a chance to evaporate. If it has rained, wait a couple of days for the exteriors of the plants to dry.
After cutting the plants, strip off any leaves or plant parts that won’t be preserved. Avoid setting freshly cut plants in strong sunlight for too long as drying takes place best in the dark.
Air Drying Flowers
Flowers with delicate stems can be air dried by hanging them upside down in bunches in a dark, dry place such as a windowless attic or closet. Limit bunches to no more than ten flowers to avoid having the stems or flowers mildew. Plants should be completely dry in a week to ten days.
Some examples of plants that can be air dried include baby’s breath, Chinese lanterns, corn tassels, goldenrod, heather, hydrangeas, salvia, and yarrow.
Flower Drying with Sand or Cornmeal
Delicate flowers that might curl if hung upside down in bunches to dry should be dried in sand. This includes black-eyed Susans, carnations, daisies, geraniums, irises, lilacs, marigolds, peonies, Queen Anne’s lace, roses, sunflowers, and zinnias.
Put an inch or so of sand into the bottom of a shoe box or a container of similar depth (but not plastic). Use only clean, dry, sifted sand (but not salty ocean sand) or clay kitty litter (avoid clumping litter that could react to the moisture in the flowers).
Cut the stems of flowers short; foliage can sit flat on the sand. Scoop a shallow depression in the sand and carefully set the flower or plant into it face-up. Mold the sand to support the underside of the flower in its natural position. Trickle sand over the entire blossom until the flower is covered by an inch or two of sand. Sand-dried flowers can dry in five or six days but thicker plants may require a week to ten days.
Instead of sand, mix five parts cornmeal with one part powdered borax. Follow the directions for using sand but avoid using as much of the cornmeal and borax mixture. With this mix, it is only necessary to just cover the plant part.
Pressing Flowers and Leaves
Relatively flat flowers such as pansies and violets, along with leaves from coleus, ferns, and deciduous shrub and tree leaves can be pressed. Put about four sheets of newspaper on a flat, hard surface where the plants can dry undisturbed for several weeks. Lay the plant parts on the newspaper so one plant doesn’t touch another. Cover the plants with four more sheets of newspaper and weigh this down with flat boards and whatever heavy objects are available.
For the first few days change the newspaper twice a day. Then change the paper every few days. Each time, check the flowers to see if they feel completely dry. This process could take a couple of weeks or more.
The resulting plants can be used in dried flower wreaths, on cards or wood plaques, or set into vase-like containers. Keep dried plants away from humidity and bright sunlight. When questioning the drying method to use for a plant, compare its shape to the other plants mentioned here.