How do you dry fresh flowers?

Answer 1

The easiest way is just to dry the individual petals, rather than entire flowers, since a) petals tend to drop from the flower heads during the drying process, b) large whole flowers take longer to dry, which gives mould an opportunity to grow.

This method works best on flowers with relatively large petals, such as roses. To dry individual petals, pick the flowers. Carefully remove each petal, wash (to remove any lingering bugs) and dry gently and thoroughly with kitchen towel. Place each petal on a plate or oven try, and cover with a breathable net to prevent dust/bugs landing on the petals. (The kind of net people use to cover food; it must be breathable, otherwise the petals won't dry. This is why clingfilm doesn't work.) Leave the petals to dry for about a week to ten days.

For lavender flowers, pick the entire stems and place them in a vase without water. They should be dried in a week.

If you really want to dry flowers' whole, try the same method as for the lavender. Alternatively, you may find that drying the flowers upside down (tie stems together and hang from a doorhandle etc...) reduces the number of petals dropping. Also, bear in mind that if you wish to dry an entire flower, it should be a newly opened flower, rather than one which is about to "go over" - this aids the quality of the dried flower and again prevents petal droppage.