What you need:
Your flowers
Paper towel
Scissors
A strainer ( for not so pretty petals)
Food dye ( for not so pretty petals)
So if your flowers are still in a good condition but are looking a tiny bit droopy. Now's the perfect time to dry them. Remove them from your water and cut the stems to 4-6 inches depending on how long you like your flowers. For flowers that have drooped and the stem bent, I recommend cutting one inch from the flower.
If you have a flower that has pristine inner petals and not so great outer ones. Pull off any not so great ones ( by this I mean a little bruised and not rotting! rotting flowers go in the compost or buried in your garden) and place them in a small bowl of cold water and a drop of food colouring overnight ( in the morning strain them and allow them to semi-dry ( no water dripping from them :D) and place them on a paper towel. Your now dyed petals can be dried in an airing cupboard ( or warm, dry and well-aired room for a week on a paper towel.
Why do we dye them? Whilst natural coloured flowers are for spell work- you could use these to create spring Equinox cards ( Easter cards) once dry to recycle them and make your cards extra special.
Your remaining petals on your flower that are healthy, can either be dried on the flower or plucked off like the not so pristine petals and dried.
Don't forget to use your vase water on your garden :) reuse and recycle.
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| My flower power operation :D |
What you need:
Your flowers
String/ dental floss
A Warm dry space where you can hang your flowers without them being tampered with.
( I use our airing cupboard, which has our boiler in and a wire hanging shelf)
Scissors
With stemmed flowers, tie 1/4 of an inch from the end of the stem; using a thin but strong string approximately 10-15 inches long ( you can also use Dental floss or embroidery silk/floss). Tie the stems tightly
You will then need to suspend your flowers in your dry aired space. You want your flowers facing the ground and your stems facing upwards so that the moisture runs down towards the head of the flower- preserving the colour of the petals- your flowers will close slightly as they dry so on the second day of drying, return to your airing cupboard and gently open up your flower by hand- always open slightly wider then you'd like as the gravity will close the flower again. Make sure to suspend your flowers so they have enough space for air to circulate between them. With small/ thin stemmed flowers I group and tie these in bunches of three before suspending, For larger/ thicker stemmed flower allow more space for air and avoid grouping together
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| Choose richly coloured flowers for the prettier results! |
With petals or flower heads without a stem, place on a paper towel in a dry and air circulated ( but not breeze-y) room- do not put your petals in a box with a lid on as the petals will sweat and the moisture will destroy them. You can ensure your petals won't escape your paper towel by creating a little envelope out of the tower ( fold diagonally and then fold in or staple your outer corners. make sure not to seal your envelope as the air will need to circulate. You could also use a small cooling rack if you have room and put the paper towel sheet on top and simply leave your petals on top.
I usually leave my flowers for 1-2 weeks in their drying space - Monitoring after week 1 so they don't disintegrate when I touch them. Depending on the size of the flower they will take longer or short to dry.
You can dry your own herbs using this method too! for smaller herbs use the same method as the healthy petals.
Silica Gel pellets
You can actually dry flowers in silica gel pellets and if you like preserving the colour as much as possible then this is the method for you. For this, you will need an airtight large plastic container, 1/4 filled with pellets, your flowers ( keep petals in your makeshift paper towel pouch or in a smaller container with pellets in) and some extra pellets. Place your flowers/petals on the bed of pellets, then cover in more silica pellets. Check your flowers after two days and monitor how dry they go. You could only use this method on items you do not wish to consume.
2020 Short Tutorial Video ( From @Witchybird on TIKTOK)
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