How to Dry Flowers

Drying flowers is a simple way to preserve special moments, or to warm up the indoors when the weather outside gets cold. Choosing the Right Flowers for Drying All flowers can be dried, but you do have to pick them at the optimal drying stage. Choose fresh, dry flowers (if they're from a garden, pick them in late morning), and make sure buds are not fully open as flowers continue to bloom as they dry. Pick a large bouquet to ensure you'll get undamaged flowers - some may lose petals in the drying process.

Hang-drying

The traditional method for drying flowers is much the same as the one for drying delicate clothing: hanging. Find a dry, dark spot in your home to preserve petal color. Bind flowers together with a rubber band (which can contract with the flowers as they shrink in the drying process), and hang them upside down with a piece of string or wire. Flowers will air-dry in one to three weeks.

Desiccant Drying

Flowers easily susceptible to the elements can be dried quickly in sand or silica gel pellets. With this method, fill a shallow dish partially with sand or silica gel pellets (which are gentler than sand), place flowers on top, then carefully cover the flowers with more sand or silica. Flowers will dry in one to three weeks. If you opt to use silica, you can also microwave-dry your flowers; after you've covered them, simply microwave flowers on half-power for two to three minutes. Remove flowers from the silica immediately.