How to Dry Flowers

Giving flowers is amongst the most versatile ways of expressing yourself. Be it a wedding or an anniversary, a birthday or a reception, you can give flowers at each and every occasion. Flowers are also the best means of expressing your love for someone. In fact, red roses have been associated with the meaning of ‘I love you’ since long. The only problem with flowers is that they get wilted soon. In such a case, the best option is to dry them beforehand and use them as adornments. Now, the next question comes, how to dry flowers. To find the solution, in the form of the techniques for drying flowers, read on further.

Best Way to Dry Fresh Flowers

If you are picking flowers for the purpose of drying, make sure to do it when their blossoms are half-open. At the same time, do not separate the flowers from their stems. For the rest of the procedure, read further.

Air-Dry Method

Remove the lower leaves from the stems of the flowers. However, do not remove the leaves that are closest to the flower.
Get together around 8 to 10 stems of the flowers and tie them together, with the help of a string of a rubber band.
Select a well-ventilated area in your house and hang the bundle there, upside down.
Check the flowers after 10 days. By this time, they should have dried out completely.
If you are drying multiple bundles of flowers, remember to leave space between them. This will ensure thorough drying.

Box Method

Take a box, big enough to keep the flowers, and line it with fine, dry sand. You can also use borax or silica gel instead.
Place the whole heads of the flowers in the box, making sure to keep them face-down.
Sift more sand, borax or silica gel onto the flower heads, till the time they get fully covered by it.
Select a warm, dry area in your house and keep the box there. Do not open the box before two weeks.

Microwave Method

Take a microwave-safe container and line it with a bed of silica gel crystals.
Set the heat of the microwave at high, for three minutes. This will make sure that the crystals are dry enough.
Take a heavy glass, wide enough to accommodate all the flowers. Pour an inch of warm crystals in it.
Keeping one inch of the flower stems intact, cut off the rest of it with the help of sharp scissors.
Put the stems into the glass and stick them into the crystals, in such a way that they stand upright.
Pour the remaining warm crystals down the side of the glass. Keep doing this till the time the flowers get completely covered.
Put the glass in the microwave and microwave at "high" for 1 minute 45 seconds, in case of rosebuds, or up to 4-5 minutes, in case of larger blossoms.
Take out the glass and let it cool for around 20 minutes. Thereafter, pour the crystals out of the glass.
Take out the flower petals and clean them carefully, with a fine paintbrush. Finally, lightly mist them with an acrylic spray.

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