Dry your own flowers, leaves for projects

By Barb Delisio

OSU Extension master gardener volunteer

The collecting of leaves and flowers, grasses, seed pods and berries for air drying is a year-round pastime. Now, when we have an abundance of these things growing in nature, we can choose what colors, texture, size and amount of plant material we want to dry.

Air drying is one of the easiest and less expensive ways to preserve plant material. Flowers are the most colorful to preserve, giving us great focal points to our arrangements and wreaths. To get red accents, dry cockscomb, globe amaranth, scarlet sage, strawflowers, zinnias, the berries of the magnolia tree and kuza dogwood. Statice, glads, globe amaranths and bachelor’s buttons provide pinks and purples. Hydrangeas offer blue, light greens and pinks; bells of Ireland, lovely pale green. Blue, a great accent color, can be found in blue salvia, delphiniums, statice, blue sage, lavender and globe thistle; orange, in bittersweet, Chinese lantern, marigolds, zinnias and strawflowers. Yellow/gold can be found in strawflowers, marigolds, yarrow, cockscomb, sweet Annie and zinnias; gray/silver, black and white, in artemisia, dusty miller, baptisia pods, honesty, statice, sea lavender and baby’s breath.

Cut the flowers, leaving a long stem, anytime after the dew has dried. Wet flowers will probably wilt. Put the stems immediately in water so they won’t wilt before you get a chance to dry them. Strip them of all leaves; the flowers will dry quicker. If you are drying leaves and grasses, hang them as they are, tied in bunches, upside-down. Gather six to seven flowers in a bunch, varying the stem length so the flower heads do not touch. Wrap a rubber band tightly around the stems. The rubber band will shrink with the drying stems. String ties enable individual flowers to fall out of bunches as the string loosens. Hang bunches by the rubber band in a dry, hot area such as an attic or closed garage with good air circulation until thoroughly dried — usually two to three weeks, depending on the weather. I leave them hanging until I need them so the stems remain stiff. For drying larger blooms like hydrangea and peony, hang the flower heads individually to get a quicker drying time. The peony blossom dries beautifully and looks like a rose, especially the dark red ones.

When you’re ready to assemble your wreath or arrangement, you might want to tape a wire with floral tape to the stem to make the dried flowers sturdier.

For more on this and other drying techniques, visit http://go.osu.edu/dryingflowers.