Like to Dry Your Own Flowers?

If you have a bunch of fresh flowers, consider drying the flowers to be able to continue to enjoy them for some time to come.  It's easy and only needs a little patience.  Let's get started!

Step 1: prepare the roses

You will need to prep your roses in order to dry them.  This involves removing any leaves (these do not age gracefully!!) and any damaged or loose petals that may be in your bunch of flowers.  A clean bunch of flower heads is what you should aim for.

Step 2: tie them up!

To dry the roses as a bunch, tie them up gently with something like a hair tie or a rubber band around the base of the bunch. Otherwise, you could dry them as individual flowers.  (This is usually done for large flowers - think proteas, for example.)  Using a tie that can be removed easily or just snipped off will help to reduce any petals falling off the roses unnecessarily later on.

Step 3: hang the roses

This is the trickiest bit.  You will need to find a cupboard to hang your roses.  They must hang upside down in a dry atmosphere.  So make sure you don't allow steam or moisture of any sort to enter the cupboard (after all, you are trying to dry the flowers!!)  Keep the roses undisturbed in the cupboard (keeping them in the dark will help to keep the colour of the roses at their best)

Step 4: a few extra tips

While it is quite straight forward to dry your flowers, a little bit of inside info always helps.

• Don't worry about any bent heads.  Hanging them upside down will straighten them out.
• Selecting roses that are still at rosebud stage or just semi-closed will help your roses keep their petals.  Fully open flowers tend to lose their petals when dry. (This means you can't have roses in a vase for 2 weeks and then decide to dry them.  Plan to do it in advance and select the right specimens to dry for great results).
• Treat your roses as delicate creatures - they will be brittle once dried and can't take rough handling.
• A light spritz of unscented hairspray will give them some protection.  However, it is important to do it from a distance of say around 20 cm.  This is to avoid wetting or rehydrating the roses.

Your dried roses can be used to create wonderful and interesting floral arrangements for special occasions or just as pretty arrangements in your home.