With Valentine's over many of you might be thinking about saving your fresh flowers. Perhaps hanging them in bunches on the wall as a trendy garland? See Pinterest for ideas!. Whether it's for a hobby or sentimental reasons, if your interested in pressing flowers, read on!
1. Hang Them Up To Dry
One traditional technique to drying flowers is to ensure there is no moisture on the stem or petals by hanging the flowers upside down in small bunches and tying them up with string.
Hang them in cool and dry areas around the house e.g. the bedroom or study. Kitchens and laundries with heat and humidity won't be as suitable.
Once the petals have a wrinkled, slightly vintage look they're dry and ready to take down.
2. Bury Your Flowers In Silica Gel
To make sure you keep the vivid colours of your flowers buy some silica gel beds online and steep your flowers in them, in a large container. After a week you should be able to hang your new flowers up or pop them into an empty vase for display.
This technique works particularly well on purple-based flowers such as lilac or lavender.
3. Use the Microwave
This is a quick solution that works well if you have a cat. Confused? Take your flowers and place them in a microwave-safe container. Cover them in cat litter and microwave on high for 2 - 3 minutes. Wait for the cat litter to cool down and pull out your flowers. Voila, you have instant dried flowers.
Of course you could always just let the flowers dry out on their own in a vase. Hydrangeas and gypsophila are great for this - just add a tiny amount of water to the vase and they'll dry out gracefully.
Other options are to press your flowers in a book with wax paper and flower flattened down between the book sheets.
Will you give this a go? Let us know how it goes! Tag us on Instagram or Facebook @lucysflorist and we'll repost your beautiful dried flowers for all to see.
All images credit of Pinterest.
