How do you dry flowers?
Flowers can be dried in several ways. Depending on which flowers you want to dry and for what purposes you want to do this, there are different types of drying available. Here is an overview of these.
With dried flowers you can conjure up great decorations or just preserve memories. Read here how to do it.
Air dry
Without a doubt, the easiest way to dry a bloom or bouquet of flowers is to let the flower dry in the open air.
- If you only want to dry one flower, it is sufficient to tie a bow or ribbon around the stem of the flower and knot an eyelet at one end. You should fix a bouquet with a rubber band before you tie a ribbon with an eyelet around the stems. The stems lose water as they dry and become thinner. The elastic band keeps the bouquet in its original shape.
- Hang the bloom or flowers in an airy, but as dark as possible place. Sunlight leaves the Colours the flowers fade too much.
- When your flowers are completely dry after about three weeks, you can spray the dried flowers with a little hairspray. This gives a nice shine and protects the flowers from dust.
There are several methods of properly drying flowers. Read here which ...
Single flowers - this is how they are dried
If you want to dry a single flower to keep it in a photo album or diary later immortalize, a flower dries best if you dry the flowers and petals between sheets of paper. Only flat flowers or single petals are suitable for this method of drying. For example, you can dry the petals of a rose one at a time. For example, daisies, violets or pansies are suitable for drying whole blossoms.
- Place each flower between two sheets of blotting paper or kitchen paper to dry.
- Put a double page of newspaper above and below it and weigh the pile down with a few books or a heavy stone.
- After three to four weeks, the flower will be completely dry and you can use the petals.
Washing powder dries flowers
You can also dry large blooms and flowers either with washing powder or with silicate powder or silicate gel. When using silicate powder and silicate gel, you must carefully follow the package insert from the respective manufacturer. You can get the powder or gel in craft stores and garden centers.
- If you want to dry your flowers or blossoms with washing powder, only use washing powder that is declared as a colored detergent. Heavy-duty detergents can severely fade the color of the flowers. A mild detergent powder is ideal.
- Place the flowers in a bucket or a tall container and fill the container loosely with the washing powder. Add so much washing powder that the flowers are completely covered.
- The washing powder will now dry the flowers and blooms for the next two weeks. Then check whether your flowers have dried sufficiently.
If you have the impression that your flowers are not yet completely dry, you can leave them in the washing powder for a week. You can then use the washing powder normally to wash your laundry.
