Preserving Fresh Flowers From Your Garden

Fresh flowers are a wonderful gift from nature. Many gardeners enjoy cutting fresh flowers from their garden to bring inside their homes. They not only brighten up a room, but they lift up a person’s mood as well. 

Yet once cut, the beauty of the flowers is usually short lived. Fortunately, this doesn't have to be the case. Learn to preserve the fresh flowers from your garden, and you can capture the essence and beauty of your flowers forever.

The process of preserving fresh flowers isn’t terribly difficult. Once you know how, it can easily be done and provides a tangible memory of your garden flower arrangement and the occasion it marked. The two most popular methods for preserving fresh flowers are air drying and pressing.

Air Drying

The first step to preserving fresh flowers by air drying is to lightly but thoroughly spray the flowers with an inexpensive hair spray. This helps preserve the color of the flowers. After the flowers have been sprayed, hang the flowers upside down - preferably in a dark, dry place. 

Once the flowers are significantly dried, you can place them in a vase again or arrange them in another manner without having to worry about them spoiling.

Pressing

Pressing is another popular method for preserving fresh flowers. This involves placing the flowers between two pieces of wax paper or paper towel. Be sure to arrange them into the position you want them to be in permanently. Next, place them inside the pages of a book and then place several  large books on top. The weight of the books will press the flower into a flat position. 

Preserving fresh flowers by pressing them allows you to use them in scrap books, photo albums and picture frames. Many people like to do this not only with garden flowers but flowers from a special occasion. Preserving fresh flowers from your special day allows you to capture and save a moment in time in a meaningful and beautiful way.

Additional Tips For Preserving Fresh Flowers

1. Be sure to begin the process when the flowers are at their peak. After that, flowers begin to lose their color and the petals start to separate from the center.
2. To get the best results, the best time to pick flowers from the garden is late morning or early afternoon after the morning dew has dried.
3. When preserving flowers from a special occasion, you don't have to keep them all. A few carefully selected flowers will provide an elegant memory of the event.

As you can see, preserving fresh flowers is a lovely and easy way to capture the beauty of your favorite flowers in a very personal and unique way.