Pressing flowers is a wonderful way to preserve sentimental flowers, and it’s a very simple process!
You can purchase a wooden press which is the best method to achieve perfectly pressed florals, however, you can also press them using things you’ll already have at home.
What you will need:
- For beautiful pressed flowers, ensure you pick flowers that are completely dry. Wait until the morning dew has dried, and never pick on a rainy day.
- Get your heavy book, open it to the middle, and sandwich your flowers between acid-free/ unbleached paper.
- Place your second heavy book, or a weight, on top of the book and leave undisturbed for two weeks.
- After two weeks, check to see how the flowers have dried. Sometimes you will have to leave them to press for a few extra days. They should be completely dry to the touch, and paper-thin.
Other hints & tricks:
Some flowers dry better than others - as you experiment you’ll see that some lose their vibrancy and colour, or simply don’t dry at all. You can often feel by touch alone which flowers will dry best - they should be flat, and thin-petalled flowers. Try forget-me-nots, dahlias, cosmos, larkspur, Queen Anne’s Lace, rose petals, marigolds, and pansies.
If you’re drying a bouquet, the best approach is to hang the whole bouquet upside down.