Vicky's Garden

When one thinks of dried flowers, what comes to mind most often, are the dried flower arrangements from the 1980s that consisted mostly of German statice and strawflowers. But the custom of harvesting flowers to bring indoors to use throughout the year actually began thousands of years ago as dried flowers, while appreciated for their beauty, were used primarily to freshen the home. Flowers were generally hung in bunches to dry from the rafters and often remained in place providing both a pleasant scent and garnishment to their environment.

Today, drying flowers is more correctly referred to as “preserving flowers” since newer methods go far beyond simply hanging a bunch of flowers upside down. These preservation techniques allow flowers to retain form, color, and size making the reward definitely worth the extra effort. There are dozens of flowers and foliage as well that are conducive to preserving and, in their final form, offer a whole new host of design opportunities that differ greatly from the 1980s dried flower designs.

Methods of drying include air drying (hanging or flat screen placement), preserving with silica gel, freeze drying, pressing, glycerin preservation, water drying, dehydrating, and submerging in sand. Following are example of the two of the more common methods:

Air dried peonies

Air Drying

Hanging fresh flowers upside down or individually laid flat on a screen

Air dried larkspur