Flowers are one of the essential elements for any wedding and most events. They bring a smile to your face when you look at their beauty, or enjoy their scent. But we also sadly know that they will never last forever. They are a perishable and a fleeting form of beauty. Through diligent research and experimentation, I’ve found a way to extend the life of flowers and greenery to months after I bring them home.
This trick is something so simple, you’ll laugh. Drying. Drying is not a new technique, but getting good at it is. Finding the do’s and don’ts of properly drying my greens and flowers has taken some trial and error, but with the advice I can now pass on to you, anyone can succeed at drying their flowers.
Step 1: Let your flowers bloom to perfection. Flowers such as roses, will need to get to their fullest bloom before you can consider drying them. Here I am using the roses from my Save the Rose Family Box. You know the flower will be ready to dry when you grasp the entire flower and it feels like a marshmallow. If the petals have begun to shed, unfortunately, they are too far gone to start the drying process. When choosing to dry your flowers, remember there are certain flowers that will not retain their original beauty when dried. In my opinion and experience, these are flowers like scabiosa, lilies, and hydrangeas. Flowers that are more delicate on average will shrivel into something not quite so appealing as a dried rose, carnation, or eucalyptus greenery. You might even notice my flowers above look a little damaged, with brown around the edges? This is to show you how long I let them bloom. Once dried, I don’t notice the tips that are brown or damaged.
Step 2: Bunch together the stems with a rubber band and hang them upside down. The act of being upside down assures that the blooms no longer are pushed to opening anymore, which at this point could mean losing petals.
Tip: If you leave them hanging against a flat surface, the roses that are touching that surface will dry will give a flat edge to them. So, if you would like to avoid that, hang them with no surface near them, like from a bar, or angle them away from the wall.
Step 3: Give them a month to dry out completely. Or, if you’re in a hurry, our bride, Kayla, used a microwave to dry her flowers out quickly.
Step 4: Your flowers are now ready to be re-designed however you please. Did you know a coat of hair spray will help prevent the petals from shedding? It’s a handy trick that I use on all my dried florals. Use your dried flowers for texture in a fresh cut arrangement or display in a vase.
Learning to dry your own flowers is a gratifying, economical, and environmentally friendly way to breath a second life into your flowers and greenery. I love to save all the roses that my boyfriend will order me as an everlasting bouquet that keeps getting added to. I loved reading about Kayla Lang’s wedding and how she DIY’d her own wedding this February. Kayla had a dreamy minimony at an AirBnB. She shared in her own blog that she dried her wedding flowers and she has her flowers preserved for many, many years to come. Stay tuned for our blog featuring her wedding.
I look forward to seeing your own drying experiments, so be sure to tag @FiftyFlowers on Instagram for us to enjoy and share with our community!
Check out Kayla’s blog post about her wedding using flowers from FiftyFlowers!
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