Try drying flowers

Drying your garden flowers for an indoor display is a lovely way to decorate the home. Graham Rice suggests the best flowers to use and looks at various drying methods

- Graham Rice

ONE of the delights of growing flowers is that week by week, month by month, some are coming into their peak season as others are fading away. However, if we’re looking for more than transient displays, we can extend the lives of many flowers from weeks to months by cutting them, drying them and arranging them in a display indoors.

There are two approaches to this. One way of going about it is simply to raid your beds and borders – and even the veg garden – for existing plants that will dry well. You’d be amazed how many annuals, perennials and even shrubs that you’re already growing can be dried successfully. So if you’re fired up about drying flowers, you can get started today. There are some simple guidelines about which plants to try.

Plants that are naturally drought-resistant often dry well as they tend to have more support tissue in their stems than moisture-loving flowers that simply collapse when dried. These plants include many ornamental grasses, strawflower, lavender, yarrow, and sea holly, plus more that I’ve picked out on the opposite page.

Give them the right treatment

Other plants, with soft and fleshy growth, do not dry well and these include alstroemerias, begonias, fuchsias, impatiens, petunias, and nicotianas. Some, such as dahlias, will dry if given the right treatment despite being rather fleshy.

There are half a dozen different drying methods, including the three main ones on page 30, but it pays to keep some general guidelines in mind…

Things to consider when drying flowers