Air Drying Flowers.Turn Your Bouquets Into Everlasting Memories.Thank you for visiting my website giftbasketsforfriends.com I hope you will enjoy browsing through the many pages I have and more to come. As you look thought the pages of my website I am sure it will trigger the creativeness within you. Enjoy. You can dry most flowers and leaves, some better than others. Drying flowers is one way you can keep your flowers for ever. When flowers are dried successfully they can be made into floral arrangements or Potpourri. Potpourri can be made from dried petals like Roses, Freesias, Marigolds, and also fragrant flowers, leaves and herbs, like Lavender, Bee Balm, Rosemary for example. Add some dried citrus peel, orange, lemon or lime. This makes a nice display of color and a wonderful fresh fragrance when you walk by. Flowers and Leaves That Dry Well.Here are a few flowers that do well when air dried. Carnation , Chamomile, Cornflower, Delphinium, Feverfew, Gypsophila, Heather, Helichrysum, Jasmine, Larkspur, Lavender, Marigold, Mimosa, Peony, Poppy seed heads, Rodanthe, Rosebuds, Roses, Safflower, Sea Lavender, Sedum, Statice, strawflowers, goldenrod, Celosia (crested and plumed types), Queen Anne's lace, Baby's Breath, Millet, Globe Amaranth, Salvia, Xeranthemum and everlasting flowers. Agapanthus, Hydrangea, Grape Hyacinth and Sweet William prefer the upright drying method. Yarrow, Golden Rod, Achillea and Allium do very well to both upright and upside down air drying.
Once you have successfully dried your flowers, you could make a floral arrangement and place it in front of your open fire while it's not in use during the summer. In the winter you could move it onto your dinning room table as a center piece. How To Air Drying Flowers
1. Remove most of the leaves from the stems. Tie the flowers to be dried in small bunches to avoid squashing or crushing the flowers and so the air can circulate freely. It is best to secure the stems with rubber bands because as the stems shrink the rubber bands tighten around the stems. 2. Thread a piece of string or cotton through the rubber bands to create a loop so you can hang the flowers upside down. The ideal place to hang your flowers is a warm dry place like a closet or pantry. 3. On average it should take about 2 to 4 weeks to dry the flowers. This will depend on were you live and the kind of climate you live in and also the water content in the flowers. Check the flowers frequently until you are happy with the results. Ideally, for the best results in air drying flowers would be to dry each flower individually. Flower Preservation With BoraxThere is another easy way of drying flowers and very inexpensive too, that is with Borax and Cornmeal. Most flowers and leaves can be dried in this way with excellent results.It's always advisable to experiment with the same kind of flowers as you intend to dry. This removes disappointment and disasters. Borax and cornmeal are easily available to buy at grocery stores. Borax on the clothes detergent aisle and cornmeal on the pasta shelf or the bulk buy department. Borax is a natural mineral and is good for absorbing moister as is cornmeal. Drying Flowers with Borax and Cornmeal will preserve there color and stop them from shrinking and shriveling. WARNINGYoung children should not use Borax. Before you start, put your plastic gloves and a small mask on. Borax can be an irritant to the skin and toxic if inhaled in large quantities. Things You Will Need. Method. 1. The plastic container must be deep enough to cover the flowers and have a tight fitting lid. 2. Mix 1 part borax and 3 parts cornmeal for a slower drying time. 3. Make enough solution to cover the bottom of the container and flower completely. 4. Gently wrap a kitchen towel around your flowers, layer the bottom of your container with the mixture, place the flowers on top then fill the box with more Borax and cornmeal until the flowers are covered. 3. It's important to cover the flowers completely because this can effect the drying process. This will take a few days to dry, keep checking until you are happy with the results. 4. Shake the excess powder off and it's done. Borax and cornmeal mixture can be reused a few times for drying flowers. Websites You Might Find InterestingFor more information copy and paste 'How to Dry Flowers with Borax' in ehow.com in search. To find out more on how to dry flowers click on ehow.com and copy and paste 'How To Dry Flowers' in search .
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Everlasting flowers also known as Straw-flowers or Statice are the easiest flowers to dry with good results every time.
