Learning how to preserve flowers can be a fun and useful craft to learn. Whether you’re wanting to treasure a precious bouquet, dry your own home-grown flora or just fancy getting crafty with flowers, there’s a range of different flower preservation techniques to try.
How to preserve flowers
There are a few different methods for preserving flowers, and then a whole world of creative ideas and projects to make with them. However, whatever you intend to do with your preserved flowers, there’s one important step that all methods require – drying flowers!
Plants are made up of approximately 90% water, varying slightly among different varieties. The key to good flower preservation is removing as much of this water content as possible while retaining the flowers structural integrity.
Once your flowers are dry using your chosen method, some people like to give their flowers a light covering with hairspray, which helps to add a bit of strength as well as a slight shine.
- Air-drying flowers
- Drying flowers with sand or silica
- Drying flowers in the microwave
- Drying flowers in the oven
- Pressing flowers
- What to do with dried flowers
How to dry flowers
Whichever method you choose to dry your flowers, pick your flowers in the mid-late morning on a dry day. This will be when your flowers are looking their best.
Air-drying flowers
Air-drying is by far the easiest method to follow when learning how to preserve flowers. It’s a simple process, and one that doesn’t require any specialist equipment – although you might need to get a bit creative.
All you need is a way of suspending your flowers upside down. This could be as simple as a coat hanger, a clothes horse, a grill or grid of any sort, or a length of wood with some nails or push pins inserted.
Whatever you use, the important thing is to ensure your flowers are freely suspended. Make sure your flowers aren’t leaning or pushing against a solid surface such as a wall which can warp its shape.
It’s advisable to cut your flowers with as much stem as possible, as you can always cut this down later to suit your arrangement. Remove any excess leaves from the stem as this will cut down on drying time.
You can then use some string or twine to hang a single flower or small bundle. The easiest way to do this is to tie your twine into a loop. Loop one end over itself (essentially creating a cow hitch knot) and insert this around your stems.
Gravity will keep the flowers contained in the loop without applying too much pressure. Some people recommend using a rubber band to keep your stems together, but we’d advise against this as the elasticity risks pressuring and damaging your stems.
Then simply suspend in a dry place that is out of direct sunlight. The drying times required can vary widely depending on the type of flower you’re using.
Multi-layered and complex flowers such as roses, dahlias, tulips and peonies can take a few weeks (if not a month or longer) to fully dry.
Flowers with thinner simpler petal structures such as cornflowers, lavender, poppies or verbena could be dry in little over a week. You’ll know your flowers are dry when the petals have a papery feel to them and make a rustling sound when moved.
Air-drying flowers is one of the longer flower preservation methods, but providing they are out of direct sunlight it normally keeps the flowers' structure pretty well and doesn’t lose too much colour.
Drying flowers with sand or silica
The method of drying flowers with sand is best suited for when you want to dry out particularly big or complex flowers one at a time. It can take a while and be a bit messy, but it’s one of the better flower preservation methods for retaining your flowers' natural colour. It’s certainly a great method for if you don’t have space to suspend flowers all around your house.
Start off by getting a suitable sized box for your flowers – a shoe box is a good size. It’s advisable to not use a plastic box as this can prevent some of the moisture from escaping.
Next comes your sand. You can use any type of dry sand in theory, however you want to choose a fine grain sand. The finer the better, normally 0.05mm - 0.25mm in diameter. Many sands designed for aquarium or pet uses will do the job and are non-toxic.
Natural white silica sand is also a particularly good option (think of the silica gel packets that keep your shoe box dry).
Start by filling your box with a good bottom layer of sand, a few centimetres should be sufficient. Place your flower in the box, and starting with the stem, gently pour sand over the stem and around the flower head. Continue until your flower is completely covered.
You need to pour the sand gently over your flower so that it is completely covered but not crushed by it. You may find it helps to use a thin tool such as a paintbrush or wooden skewer to support your stem as you pour.
Then leave your box in a dry dark place for approximately two weeks. Carefully locate and hold onto the base of your stem while gently lifting the box so that the sand pours out in the opposite direction. You can use a makeup brush to gently brush any trapped sand out of your petals.
Drying flowers in the microwave
If you don’t have time to wait for your flowers to dry, you can use a microwave to nuke that moisture out of them!
It’s an incredibly simple way to create pressed dried flowers in a matter of minutes.
Cut your flowers heads off their stem, and place on a piece of copier paper. Cover with a piece of kitchen towel and place a small glass of water on top. This will help to balance the drying so it doesn’t crisp up and burn your flowers.
As all microwaves are slightly different and flower moisture levels vary, it’s all a bit experimental. Try microwaving for short periods of time (e.g. 10-20 seconds) and check regularly. Be careful as the glass can get hot.
If you want your flowers to retain their shape, it’s not too tricky but requires some more materials.
Take a microwave-safe dish or container (plastic ones are fine for this) and fill the base with silica gel… or fresh cat litter – it is designed to absorb moisture after all!
Place your flowers on the dish or container, then cover with more silica gel or cat litter. Place in the microwave with a small glass of water, and heat at small intervals, checking regularly.
Learning how to dry flowers in a microwave is a bit of an experimental art, so do a few test runs first and keep your best blooms for last.
It’s also advisable to only microwave the same sorts of flowers at any one time. If you mix them up then you might find that the drying times for one flower are vastly different for another.
As with using any microwave or kitchen equipment, take care and allow any items to cool fully before handling (silica gel can get hot too).
Drying flowers in the oven
No microwave? No problem. Go back to the classics and learn how to dry flowers in an oven.
It couldn’t be simpler really. Trim off any leaves as these generally just shrivel up. You can leave the stem on if you wish but these too can sometimes be a bit hit and miss.
Preheat your oven to about 95°C/200°F. Place your flowers on top of a baking rack (above some parchment or baking paper to catch any bits that fall off). Pop in the oven for up to 2 hours, take a look after 1 hour and then keep checking regularly
Drying flowers in the oven is the method that can most damage your blooms and cause colour loss. However, it’s a particularly fast and reliable method for making pot pourri.
Pressing flowers
For many of us, learning how to press flowers is a cherished childhood memory – one our parents and even grandparents enjoyed too.
This timeless craft is incredibly simple and can even be done as a fun activity with young children. You can get fancy flower presses, but you can also do it with just a heavy book (and some paper if you don’t want to smudge your pages).
If you're feeling confident, you can also speed up the process by using an iron on a low heat. Simply place your flowers between two pieces of blotting paper and gently iron.
We’ve got a whole beginners guide on how to press flowers which includes step-by-step pictures, as well as a few top tips and handy links to some of our favourite kits.
What to do with dried flowers
Once you know how to dry flowers, the next question is what are you going to do with them?
Fortunately there’s loads of ways to get creative with dried flowers. From making a feature out of just the flowers alone or incorporating them into your favourite craft, there’s plenty of ways to create art from dried flowers.
Create a dried flower bouquet
Of course the number one use for your dried flowers is to create a beautiful display with them.
Making a bouquet of dried flowers does require some patience and care so you don’t damage any petals while arranging, but they can look stunning and last far longer than a fresh bouquet.
Dried flowers look particularly good displayed in old or interesting bottles, so raid your recycling bin for any that could be useful. Using a bottle with a small opening rather than a wide vase will help you to keep structure in your dried flower bouquet.
You might also find it easier to arrange your display by hand. Tie some string or a bow around them before placing them in your bottle or vase. This will help your dried flowers to stay in place and keep the display looking perfect.
If you want to make a really impressive display with your dried flowers, you can always check out our guide on floristry supplies to find products that will help your arrangement look its best.
Display your pressed flowers in your home
If you’ve been making pressed flowers, there’s plenty of ways to turn them into beautiful floral artworks to display in your home.
At its most basic, you can simply place them in a standard picture frame with a piece of white paper for a background. However, you can also get frames specifically designed for pressed flowers.
Pressed flower frames come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They feature a glass front and back, which helps to really show off the intricacy and beauty of your flowers.
You can find a selection of pressed flower frames, as well as loads more creative uses in our roundup of pressed flower art ideas.
Preserve your flowers in resin
Resin craft has massively grown in popularity in recent years, and can be used to create a wide range of objects and accessories. As long as your flowers are completely dry, once preserved in resin they can last forever!
You can keep it simple with projects like our how to make resin coaster tutorial which is a great make for if you’re trying resin crafts for the first time.
If you’re all about the accessories, try our how to make resin earrings tutorial, or make a special necklace with our how to make resin jewellery guide.
But don’t stop there – you’ll find over 40 more inspiring ways to use resin in our list of epoxy resin projects.
Get creative with Modge Podge
Modge Podge is a glue that also doubles up as a sealer and finisher, and is commonly used with decoupage. But it also works fantastically with pressed dried flowers, allowing you to decorate almost anything with your beautiful blooms.
As long as your flowers are pressed completely flat, it’s just a case of glueing them onto your object and sealing on top. See our DIY glass easter egg decorations tutorial as a guide on how to apply dried flowers (it uses PVA glue but Modge Podge will give you a better finish).
If that’s got you thinking about what else you could decorate with your pressed flowers, check out our list of Modge Podge ideas.
Perfect flower preservation
Now that you’ve got plenty of knowledge on how to preserve flowers, it’s time to start collecting and preparing your pretty petals.
Experiment with different types of flowers, leaves and grasses to develop your understanding of how to dry flowers. You could also start creating a collection of preserved flowers so that you have a selection to choose from for your creative projects.
No flowers? No worries!
If you don’t have access to a garden or can’t afford fresh flowers, you can still enjoy beautiful blooms with the help of our complete guide to paper flowers on Gathered.
