Well…It’s after Valentines day and those flowers that might have been beautiful 11 day ago are starting to look droopy. I’d like to share a few of my favorite ways of drying your Valentine roses.
I make rose bead jewelry and in order to do that I usually have to dry the flowers before I can do anything with them… I ‘ve been drying flowers for over 35 years, especially roses, so when I stop and think of all of the ways I’ve dried roses…I could almost be an expert 😉
I’ve tried a lot of different ways to dry my flowers. They all work just some are better for me. I have a couple of favorites and a couple of not so favorites, I’ll tell you about them all and give you my opinion on a few.
If you want to dry the whole rose bud, turn your rose upside down. It’s best not to dry the bouquet bunched together or touching because that can promote mold.
It’s also best to keep them in a dark room if you want to preserve the color. If you cut off most of your stem they will dry faster. I also like to take a sharpened pencil and gently separate the petals from each other and the center every couple of days… it’s all about air flow.
I’ve made my own make shift dark room to dry long stem roses. You can see how I’ve punched holes in the top of the box and I cut slits around the sides in order to get good air circulation and I used clothes pens to hold the rose stems in place. This drying box can dry one dozen roses at time.
Another of my favorite ways to dry rose petals is to dry them flat by spreading them on newspaper. This technique is used when making potpourri or saving flower petals from a special occasion. This is the way I like to dry the flowers I’m planning on turning into beads and this way guarantees that my rose petals are mold free. I pull all of the petals off of the center of the roses then spread the petals out making sure they don’t touch each other. Yes, that is a ping pong table, and yes we still play. Just not when I need a large flat space…sorry guys.
See how nice and pink the flowers dried, I’m convinced it’s because I dry most of my flowers in my basement on the ping pong table. 😉
If you’re drying a very small and I mean very small amount of flowers you can microwave them. I don’t like doing this, but maybe that’s because I’m usually drying several roses at a time. I think it’s best to microwave just the petals instead of the entire flower. Cook just a few petals at a time for no longer than 20 seconds, you may have to repeat this. It’s better to be safe than sorry and they burn easily. Believe me, I know, and I’m sure you would hate to burn your special flowers. Let your petals sit over night and they will be ready for your project.
If you plan on making dried arrangements with your flowers or even putting them in a shadow box, I would recommend Silica Gel. You can find Silica Gel in most arts and crafts stores. It’s best to cut the stem as close to the bud as you can. Follow the directions and you will want to completely cover the flower with the Silica Gel. I used it when I was a teenager a time or two but my sister’s cat kept using my Silica Gel box as a litter box… bad kitty… 🙁 I don’t use Silica Gel when I dry roses to make rose beads. It leaves a powdery residue on the petals that I can’t have with the rose petal beads.
The last way of drying or preserving flowers that I can think of is pressing them. This technique is best with small flowers. I take coffee filters, cut the bottoms out and put the flowers in-between 2 filters. The coffee filters are strong, absorbent, and don’t have a pattern embedded in it like paper towels. Then I put the flowers in a book and wait for a week or two. This type of preserving is best displayed in a tiny frame.
Whether it’s hanging your bouquet upside down in a closet, drying the loose petals on a flat area so they can become a beautiful piece of rose bead jewelry, or pressing that special flower in your family Bible. A preserved or dried flower makes a memory become tangible.
Rose Petal Bead from wedding
