dried roses

Hello all!

Did your lover give you flowers this Valentine's Day? Are you reluctant to throw them out? Good! Drying roses is a great way to keep the love alive all year long, & it's super simple. 

This drying process works well with lots of flowers, but the key is to choose flowers that will preserve their color & hold onto their petals - for example, roses! 

You will want to use flowers that haven't quite kicked the bucket yet. My flowers haven't drooped, but they're starting to wilt. Perfect! Keep in mind that however they look now is how they'll look after they've dried. 

(I will be drying my baby's breath too, but they've got a few more days of spunk left in 'em)

Cut the bottoms off of your rose stems. Since they've been sitting in water, their stems will be gunky & gross. You'll want to cut up to the green part on the stem. Leaving the rotten brown stem bottoms will attract bacteria & trap too much water! 

Remove any leaves or petals that are too far gone, like this leaf shown above. 

Wrap the bottom of the stems in thread or yarn. Nothing too tight - you won't want to trap water at the ends of the stems. Just tight enough to keep your flowers together.  

Leave enough thread to make a loop at the end of your bouquet so you can hang it up!

Hang your bouquet upside-down in a dry, sunny place to encourage the drying process. 

In a few weeks you'll have a lovely bouquet of dried roses that will last for months, or maybe even years to come! Be patient, & don't get over-eager. You want your flowers as dry as a bone before turning them right-side up again. 

They'll last a long time, & look great paired with other dried flowers or in a pot of potpourri. Just so you guys know I'm not kidding, these are my Valentine's Day flowers from last year!

Any other ideas for leftover Valentine's Day lovelies? 

xoxo - 

m.e.

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