Drying
Summer's Hues
Most plant
parts — flowers, leaves, stems, cones, and seedheads — can
be easily dried, but here we focus mainly on flowers from the garden
and wild. One
of the easiest means of preserving flowers and their vibrant hues
is to air-dry them in hanging bunches. But not all budding blossoms
take to this scheme. Those that are fragile or moist, such as pansies
and poppies, dry better when covered with a substance, like silica
or sand, that helps draw the water out. Yet another approach (if you
don't mind flattened flora) is to press blooms and other plant parts.
Whichever method you use, the basic principle is the same: to remove
moisture slowly while maintaining as much of the original shape and
texture as possible.
Below we offer
guidelines for different drying strategies. Your students might get
their feet wet by following some of these "recipes," and
then invent and experiment with different approaches and variables.
The Curriculum Connections
activities offer ideas for digging deeper.
Growing
and Gathering
 Flowers
that dry well are typically colorful, compact, strong-stemmed and
relatively low in moisture content. The chart
at the bottom of this page lists ideal flowers to grow and/or gather
for drying. In flower drying, as in life, timing is everything. Your
schoolyard sleuths should keep
eyes peeled for flowers that are just beginning to reach maturity.
Other flowers on the stem or plant may still be partially closed,
but that's okay; the blooms will open more as they dry. Try to avoid
harvesting flowers when they're already at their peak or beyond; they'll
tend to look "over the hill" when they dry. (You might ask
students whether flowers on a spiky stem, such as delphinium, open
top to bottom, or bottom to top, and let them observe what happens
over time!)
The best time
to pick flowers for drying is mid-morning when the dew has dried but
before they're wilted from heat and sun. For most flowers, you'll
want to take as much stem as possible and make a clean, angled cut
with a sharp pruner or scissors. Remove excess leaves on the lower
part of the stem. If you're drying blooms that have weak stems, or
those that weaken as they dry (e.g., strawflowers, globe amaranth,
and immortelle), leave an inch of stem or less and plan to replace
it with florist's wire before you dry the flowers. (You
can later wrap the wire support with florists' tape to camouflage
it.) Keep the cut blossoms out of sunlight to maintain good color.
Once they're dried, you can bring them into the light.
Air-Drying
Sturdy flowers with relatively low moisture contents (see
chart, below) generally air dry very
well as long as you follow some simple rules: 
-
Find
a relatively dark, dry, airy spot (a hallway or attic,
for instance) for hanging flower bunches. (Low light is
okay, but direct light will drain flower color.) If there
is little air flow in your drying area and/or if you're
in a humid area, you can use a fan to increase air circulation.
-
Make
flower bunches that are no more than 1 1/2 inches thick
at the bottom and bind each bunch at the bottom with string
or rubber bands.
-
Challenge
students to design a system for hanging their flower bunches.
For instance, they might create a clothesline effect with
horizontal poles or ropes, or build a drying rack. (Bent
paper clips make perfect hangers for bunches.) Place a
newspaper or a dropcloth under the bunches to catch fallen
leaves and petals.
Note:
Some flowers dry better rightside up. This is often true
for large blooms, such as sunflowers, many-flowered blooms,
such as queen Anne's lace and dill, and seedheads, such
as those from poppies. Try putting stems of these types
of plants through a piece of wire mesh (e.g., hardware
cloth) so the flowers lay flat and
the stems dangle below. Better
yet, have your students invent a unique drying  method.
4.
Look for signs of drying. The process can take from 10
to 20 days, depending on the plant. The stems should snap
easily when the flower is thoroughly dry. Students might
also dissect one or two flowers to make sure there is
no moisture inside — and learn a bit about flower
anatomy, to boot. If you're saving flowers for a craft
project or sale later in the year, wrap them in newspaper
and place them inside a cardboard box with air holes in
the sides.
Using
Drying Agents
Another common
method for drying flowers involves covering them with something
that draws moisture out, generally referred to as a dessicant.
Here are some tips on using several drying agents: silica
gel, sand, and homemade mixtures.
Silica
Gel
Silica gel, which is available from florists and craft
shops, is not actually gel-like, but granular. It dries
most flowers quickly — generally in three to four days
— with good results. Although it is relatively expensive,
you can reuse it indefinitely as long as you dry it out
between uses (see below).
-
In
a shallow airtight container, spread the flowers on a
1-inch-thick layer of silica without crowding them. You
may want to remove very thick stems and replace them with
florist's wire so you won't have to use as much silica.Your
students might want to try different flower orientations
to see which best preserves the original shape. (For instance,
some people recommend putting flat flowers, such as daisies,
facing down. Carefully spoon more silica on top until
you've covered the flowers with at least another inch
of crystals, trying to keep the petals in their natural
positions. If your container is tall enough, you can even
make alternating layers of flowers and silica.
-
Seal
the container and leave it for at least three days before
checking on the flowers. (If you don't seal the container,
the silica will absorb moisture from the air.)
Salvaging
Sunflowers
Kids love sunflowers, but these blooms can be challenging
to dry. One trick is to keep about 2 feet of stem
attached, cover the flower head with silica gel
crystals, and let the stems hang over the side of
the container. Seal the whole setup in plastic wrap
and leave it untouched for a week to 10 days. |
Students
may also want to try speeding up the process by using
a microwave oven. To do so, put the silica-filled, sealed
container in for about 3 minutes at medium power. Allow
15 minutes for it to cool before opening the lid. If the
flowers aren't dry, you can put them in for 30 more
seconds,
remembering to let the contents cool each time. Do some
flowers respond better to this treatment than others?
What observations and generalizations can students make?
(Students can also experiment by placing blossoms in folded
paper towels directly in a microwave and putting a dish
on top to prevent curling. Set the oven for 2 minutes
on high as a starting point.) 
-
Gently
shake the fully dried blooms or lightly brush off the
crystals. Once the flowers are dry, you can use them for
arrangements, wall hangings, potpourri, field guides,
and other creative projects your students dream up.
-
Dry
the silica gel so you can reuse it. Most silica gel products
turn pink when they've absorbed moisture and blue when
they're dry enough to use. (Other products remain white.)
If your silica turns pink, you can dry it out by baking
it in a 200 degree F oven for several hours until it turns
blue. Always keep silica gel stored in an airtight container.
Sand
Mixtures
Clean, dry, fine, sand is one of the oldest, least expensive
dessicants used. However, it dries more slowly than other
agents and is heavier, so it can bruise delicate petals.
Follow the same general steps as detailed above. You'll
need to use at least 2 inches of sand over and under the
flowers. Expect the drying time to be at least 5 to 8 days.
Here's a mixture that many gardeners say is more effective
than pure sand: 3 parts borax cleaning powder, 2 parts dry
"hobby" sand, and a tablespoon of salt per quart
of mixture. Is it, indeed, more effective? Challenge your
budding scientists to find out!
Other
Homemade Concoctions
Because pure borax can burn or bleach delicate flowers,
flower driers often mix it with other substances such as
cornmeal, Wheatena, or Cream of Wheat. Start with a ratio
of 1 part borax to 3 parts of one of the other ingredients.
(The more borax, the faster the blooms should dry.) To speed
up drying, add 1 tablespoon of salt to each quart of mix.
Have students brainstorm other types of readily available
materials that might absorb moisture. (Consider kitty litter,
perlite, or sawdust.) Next, experiment to find out which
ones, alone or in combination, are the best preservatives.
 Pressing
Matters
Pressing flowers is an easy way to preserve them, if you
don't mind a bit of flattened flora. It's an ideal approach
if you want to use the blooms for field guides, herbaria,
note cards, and other creative projects where flatness is
fancied.
The
simplest approach involves pressing flowers in an old telephone
book, but here's a better strategy: Place several sheets
of uncoated paper, such as newsprint, on a square of corrugated
cardboard. Lay a batch of flowers on the paper pile with
space between them. Continue to add additional layers of
flowers and paper, ending with a sheet of corrugated cardboard
and a board. Press the entire sandwich down with a heavy
object or bind the stack with a strap, rope, or bungee cord.
It should take from 10 days to 4 weeks, depending on flower
type and other factors, to complete the drying process.
For
thorough guidance on pressing flowers, projects from herbaria
to pressed plant bookmarks, and related resources, click
to the June 2002 issue of the Growing Ideas Classroom Projects
News: Collecting
Plants: A Pressing Project.
Flowers
That Preserve Well*
|
|
Annuals
|
Good
for air-drying
acroclinium,
bachelor's button, bells of Ireland, celosia, chive, globe
amaranth, immortelle, larkspur, love-in-a-mist, salvia (blue),
statice, strawflower
|
Best
dried with a dessicant
aster,
calendula, cosmos, dahlia, marigold, pansy, zinnia
|
| Perennials |
anise
hyssop, astilbe, artemisia, baby's breath, bee balm, chrysanthemum,
delphinium, heather, lavender, liatris, sea lavender, rose,
tansy, veronica, yarrow |
chrysanthemum, coreopsis, dianthus, painted daisy, rose |
| Herbs |
chives,
oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme |
|
Wildflowers
(Never pick a flower that seems to be in short supply
in an area or that you know to be endangered.) |
goldenrod,
milkweed, pearly everlasting, queen Anne's lace, teasel,
thistle
|
blanket
flower, wild sunflower, black-eyed Susan |
|
* Many
seed heads and pods also dry well and add interest to dried
flower creations. Try preserving the seed containers from
these plants: baptisia (false indigo), Chinese lantern,
love-in-a-mist, oats (and many other types of grasses),
money plant, and purple coneflower.
|
Copyright©
2003 National Gardening Association
Growing Ideas Classroom Projects is a benefit for NGA's Members
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Contents
Pg.
1: Drying Flowers
Drying
Summer's Hues
Materials
Growing
and Gathering
Air-Drying
Using
Drying Agents
Pressing Matters
Flowers
That Preserve Well
Pg. 2: Curriculum Connections
Dried Flower Creations
Budding Science
Investigations
Explore
the Language of Flowers
Pg.
3: Resources
Web Sites We Like
Flower
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