When should drying start?
Flowers should always be dried before they begin to wither. Enjoy the fresh flowers for a few days, but don't wait too long for them to start preserving.
also read
- Preserving a bouquet of flowers: three great options
- Preserving Plants: Six Simple Ways
- Preserving colorful flowers permanently
Drying in glycerin
You can place individual flowers in a mixture of two parts water and one part glycerine or put them in the liquid.
The flowers soak up the water and the glycerine also ensures that they dry. With this type of preservation, the colors are well preserved.
Soaking in dry salt or silica gel beads
With these special drying materials, it is very easy to conserve flowers.
For this method you need:
- Drying salt or silica gel beads
- A tightly closing vessel. If you only want to dry one flower, a jam jar is ideal.
- Pour a layer of salt or gel about two centimeters thick into the container.
- Put the flower in it and fill it with drying material.
- You should proceed very carefully here so that the delicate petals are not damaged.
- Close tightly.
- After about three days, the drying process is complete and you can carefully remove the plant.
Preserve flowers with wax
This method is extremely popular with florists and hobby gardeners, because the wax coating gives the flowers their very own charm. In addition to an old pot, you need dipping wax from the craft supplies or, alternatively, candle scraps.
- Melt the wax in a water bath.
- Always monitor the temperature. This should not exceed sixty degrees.
- Hold the flower by the stem and immerse it.
- Erect briefly and shape the petals with a needle.
- Hang upside down and let dry.
Tips
When preserving, note that the different flowers have different drying times. Small flowers with fine petals dry very quickly, while large flowers or thick buds take a relatively long time to preserve.
