Dying in Bloom: A Story of Preserved Flowers

drying process of my lovely roses.

During the middle of covid-19 pandemic my lovely partner gifted me a gorgeous bouquet filled with pink and white roses, various flowers that I'm not familiar with. Either way the arrangement was gorgeous and vibrant, it radiated love. When it was first delivered at my home it was blooming, a day or two passed and it still is blooming and wonderful, but during the fourth and fifth eventually it was on life support, i’m not knowledgeable on how flowers on bouquets last but I assume only a week or so, before their death I searched on google how to preserved them; they’re basically different ways to do so; one is picking the petals and pressing them inside a book which is something i was doing before but no knowing that this was a form of preserving them. The second was tying them upside down and letting them air and dry out for 2-3 weeks, up to a month if you prefer. It has been a therapeutic experience deconstructing the bouquet and tying each flower stem upside down on a clothes hanger. The objective is when they’re upside down the water on their stems start to travel down to the flower’s petals and face thus the process of drying out; sometimes it can become pale, or darker. One of the easier to dry that I’ve experienced is probably Baby’s Breath, you just tie a bunch together and hang upside down and they dry beautifully, more beautiful than when fresh in my opinion. 

So if you’re thinking of doing air drying flowers yourself, I say just go for it! It’s such a fun process and takes little to no tools needed, just some string, ribbon or what ever you have laying around that can be used to tie the stems to the hanger, just make sure to dry them upside down and keep them out of sunlight but a well ventilated area, I keep them hung on my cabinet door for weeks. This is so important to keep the shape, I mean, would you rather prefer them droopy? I personally don’t. However I know not a lot will understand the beauty of dried flowers compared to fresh cut bloom, but damn, they’re so comforting in a way, a gothic barn vibe for sure. 

I admit I absolutely have no green thumb whatsoever, but I do this both for my mental health since they calm my anxiety and studies show that flowers really do reduce stress and anxiety levels, I admire their beauty and such as well, but most importantly is how they make me feel and I guess that’s a key when you’re doing something, I’d like to think that drying flowers is one of my new-found ‘hobbies’ since it does benefit me so much mentally. This is such a fun thing to explore and soak up all the information about it. I would very much recommend drying your own, give yourself peace, and again like I said, just go for it.