How to Dry Flowers and Keep Their Beauty

To extend the enjoyment and beauty of your flowers you can dry them. It is better to wait till the flowers are in full bloom when you pick them but buds can also be dried. Late morning or afternoon is the best time of day to cut flowers because they will be open and moisture free. They also won't be droopy or wilted from the hot sun. You want to keep the shape as close as you can to the original flower and make sure they are dry if you tie them together. Check the flowers you select for damage from insects or disease. Imperfections will be more noticeable after the flowers are dried. Darker shades maintain their color better than pale shades but if you prefer to use pale shades you can paint them with spray paint.

An easy way to dry your flowers is to air dry them. Eight to ten stems should be gathered together with a rubber band at the cut end of the flowers. When the flowers dry the stems will shrink. Using rubber bands work wonderful because they will shrink to fit the size of the bunch. Once the flowers are banded together, you can insert a florist wire inside the rubber band and bend it to make a hook. Use the hook to hang the flowers upside down on pegs, pieces of lattice or cuphooks. The weight of the flower keeps the stem straight when they're hung upside down.

They need to be out of direct sunlight so a dark and ventilated room would be ideal. Hot attics and damp basements aren't good places to dry flowers. Not all flowers can be dried in this manner. Some of the best flowers to air dry are baby's breath, hydrangeas, strawflower, golden rod, globe amaranth and statice. You can experiment to find flowers that dry the best for you. The drawback to the air drying technique is it may take up to four weeks till you have usable dried flowers. Some of the color and form of the flowers may also be lost.