Pressing and drying flowers

Flowers and foliage can be preserved by pressing them flat or drying them whole. Pressed flowers are used for cards, pictures and bookmarks; dried flowers for arrangements, wreaths and confetti. Both crafts have been practised in Britain for centuries, and dried flowers returned strongly to fashion in the 2020s.

Picking

Material is picked on a dry day, once the dew has gone, when flowers are just short of fully open; they continue to open as they dry. Damaged or damp flowers are discarded, since they go mouldy.

Garden flowers are the usual source. In the wild, it is an offence to uproot any plant without the landowner's permission, and a number of rare species may not be picked at all. Picking is also forbidden in nature reserves and many parks. The botanical societies' code of conduct advises taking only common flowers, and only a small proportion of what is there.

Pressing

Flat, thin-petalled flowers press best: pansies and violas, primroses, forget-me-nots, daisies, buttercups, cow parsley, hydrangea florets, larkspur, and ferns and leaves. Thick flowers such as roses are taken apart and the petals pressed singly.

• The flowers are laid face down between two sheets of absorbent paper, such as blotting paper or plain newsprint, without overlapping.
• The paper is placed inside a heavy book, with more books on top, or in a flower press of two boards tightened with bolts.
• The paper is changed after a few days if the flowers are very moist.
• Pressing takes two to four weeks in a warm, dry room.

Pressed flowers are papery and fragile, and are lifted with tweezers. They are fixed with a small dab of white craft glue.

Air drying

Flowers that hold their shape and colour include lavender, statice, strawflowers, sea holly, globe thistle, yarrow, roses, larkspur and gypsophila. Seed heads such as poppy, honesty, teasel, love-in-a-mist and alliums, and ornamental grasses, dry well with no help.

• The lower leaves are stripped and the stems tied in small bunches with an elastic band, which tightens as the stems shrink.
• The bunches are hung upside down in a dry, dark, airy place, such as an airing cupboard or loft, for two to three weeks. Darkness preserves the colour.
• Hydrangea heads are cut late in the season, once they feel papery, and left upright in a vase with a little water, which is allowed to evaporate.

Other methods

• Silica gel: flowers buried in the crystals in an airtight box dry in a few days and keep their shape and colour. A dust mask is worn when pouring, and the crystals can be dried in an oven and used again.
• Glycerine: stems of foliage such as beech or eucalyptus stood in one part glycerine to two parts hot water stay supple, turning darker as they absorb it.
• Microwave presses dry flat flowers in minutes between pads of felt and fabric.

Keeping preserved flowers

Sunlight fades dried and pressed flowers, and damp makes them limp and mouldy, so they are kept out of direct sun and away from kitchens and bathrooms. Framed pressed flowers last longest behind glass. Dried arrangements gather dust and become brittle, and most are past their best after a year or two. Dried petals make biodegradable confetti, which many wedding venues require.