For a long memory: drying flowers
Drying flowers only at first glance is a simple task. The flower itself will dry out after some time. But will he preserve his beauty and not fade? Do not remember the petals and leaves? To avoid all these troubles, you need to adhere to some rules.
Roses, even when dried, do not lose their attractiveness and elegance
The rules for drying flowers
Collect only dry flowers when all drops of dew or rain have dried. Wet plants will mold faster than dry.
Harvested plants need to be dried as soon as you pick them. When they are tightened, it will already be much more difficult to spread the petals.
Get more stuff. During drying, many flowers can go to waste. In addition, among the already prepared dried plants, you will have the opportunity to select the best.
In addition to flowers, branches of shrubs and trees, herbs, leaves, berries, moss and even tree roots are suitable for drying. Very often maple leaves, ears, reeds are dried.
In a room with moist air, plants dry slowly and lose their decorative properties.
In a room with moist air, plants dry slowly and lose their decorative properties.
Ways to Dry Flowers
There are several different ways to dry flowers.
Drying with a book. This is the simplest, most popular and affordable method for all flat drying flowers. It is suitable for those samples that initially have a flat shape, for example, for many field ones.
It is advisable to take the old one, where the offset paper: glossy does not absorb moisture well. Make pockets out of plain white paper, place the plants there, and put them in a book, skipping several pages between them. This is necessary so that the remnants of the paint do not print on the flowers.
After filling out the book, it needs to be removed for a month, crushing on top of a stack of other books as a press.
Flowers dried in a book can be used to make jewelry or floral collages.
Drying flowers in the air. To dry plants, you need a cool room. It can be a balcony or a well-ventilated room. Those who live in their home can afford to dry flowers in the fresh air. Thus, you can dry wildflowers: daisies, cornflowers, marigolds – and garden flowers: roses, peonies, hydrangea.
Some mistakenly believe that you need to dry the flowers indoors and in a hot room. In fact, the heat and lack of air will spoil the appearance of plants.
The room should be warm (at least 10 ° C heat), clean and dustless. In addition, it should be dry.
In no case should flowers be dried in direct sunlight. This makes them lethargic and faded: the sun destroys chlorophyll and plants lose their color. Therefore, drying in the sun is suitable only for unpainted parts (roots, seeds).
A bouquet of dried flowers for a wedding also looks beautiful and at the same time will remain for a long time
To dry the flowers in the air, pull a rope or wire between the walls. Hang metal hooks, the distance between which will depend on the size of the flowers. Usually on such hooks the flowers are suspended separately, but drying in bunches is also possible. The most important thing is not to bind the bundles too tight. This can break the stems and crush the petals.
Bouquets can be made not only from dried flowers, but also ears of corn, berries, dried flowers
Drying flowers in the sand
To dry plants in the sand, the first thing you need to sift it and calcine. In the wet sand, the flowers will deteriorate, get ugly spots. Pour sand onto the bottom of the cardboard box, lay the prepared flowers (spread the petals, remove the leaves) and carefully pour the sand until it covers the inflorescences. Store sandbags in a cool, dark place for about two weeks.
In the same way, it is possible to dry the flowers with salt or semolina. The main problem you may encounter here is the difficulty in cleaning dried flowers from these bulk materials.
Natural drying is good for cereals: put them in a vase without water, they will dry out without losing their shape
When drying flowers, make sure that a flower spoiled by mold does not infect other flowers. Remove it immediately from the bouquet. Dry compositions are very fragile, so be careful when working with them, do not place them in a draft. Dried flowers quickly become covered with dust: they must be removed very carefully, for example, with a weak stream of warm water. You can protect the composition by covering it with glass.