Get your dried floral fix as Shaye Woolford, owner of On My Hand Styling & Flora, shares her guide to drying flowers from the garden and creating beautiful bouquets to enjoy for years to come.
My name is Shaye Woolford, owner of On My Hand - an innovative styling and floral design studio located in
Tauranga.
Dried floral bouquets are becoming increasingly popular as gifts and for styling purposes, as they last much longer than a fresh bunch. A dried flower bouquet is made using flowers that have been dried from fresh cut stems. The best time of the year to dry flowers and foliage is summer, because the temperature is warm, and mould is less likely to grow.
There are plenty of flowers that can be dried. My favourites include: roses, hydrangeas, gomphrena, strawflowers, achillea, statice and eryngium as they hold their colour well. Foliage is also a good option for drying. Palm leaves, toe toe and ornamental grasses are perfect picks for bouquets.
Pick flowers at the right time for drying and wait until the flower variety has hardened off. Hydrangeas are best picked in late summer to autumn. Choose roses that have tight petals. If you try dry a fully opened rose, with a slight touch it will fall apart. If you are wanting a toe toe look, these natives flower in spring.
When designing your flower bouquet, think about a colour palette. We like to use colours that are natural to our environment. You could try pastel shades of statice with pink roses and gypsophila. Or for something more earthy, ornamental grasses, white strawflowers and yellow achillea.
We air dry our flowers by hanging bunches upside down in our studio. When you hang yours, make sure there is air circulating around each bunch and the stems are straight. Drying your flowers in a dark room will help their colour last longer. Leave our flowers to dry for 2-4 weeks.
CREATING A DRIED FLOWER BOUQUEt
Tools:
- Scissors or secateurs
- Twine
- Ribbon
- Dried flower stems - 20-30 per bouquet. Keep steams as long as possible.
1. Strip any leaves off the lower third of your flower stems.
2. Using a spiral technique, hold a few stems angled towards you in a loose hand, then gather the next few stems and cross over the first lot (this second group will be vertical). Gather your next few stems and cross over that vertical piece (this third group will be angled away from you). Continue adding and crossing in this way until you start to form a bouquet and have used all your stems. Watch a video demonstrating this technique here.
3. Gently pull any that have fallen up underneath the head of the flower. If you feel something isn’t looking right, pull it out and place it back where you want it.
4. When you’re happy with your bouquet, tie twine around it, as tight as you can without breaking the stems.
5. Using ribbon (we love to use plant dyed silk ribbon), wrap this in a bow around the twine. You can now place your beautiful dried flowers in a vase in your home, hang on the wall for decoration or gift to a friend wrapped in brown paper.
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Guide to dried flowers Comments
Hello at Tui. Can I use Manuka flowering foliage for an interior wreath? Cheers Gail
Gail Crafar
Hi Gail, yes, you can use manuka that is flowering in a wreath. The foliage can be dried first by air drying, hanging the foliage upside down in a cool dry airy place, but once the foliage dries, the leaves tend to drop off. I would recommend making the wreath out of fresh foliage (and flowers) and be prepared for the leaves and petals to fall over time.
Lianne
Hi! What is the best way to dry hydrangeas?
Brittany
Hi Brittany, hydrangeas can be air dried by hanging them upside down with the leaves removed in cool dry place in small bunches, or you can leave them in a vase of water, lower leaves removed, with just enough water to cover the stems and leave them to dry naturally.
Lianne
Hello! Which flowers are most recommended for using in a dried bouquet? And is it easier to start with fresh flowers, arranging them, and then drying as a bouquet, or to dry stems first, then arrange? Thank you!
Bianca
Hi Bianca, there are two ways of creating dried flower bouquets. You can use fresh flowers and dry them in a cool dark place or use dried flowers for example strawflowers. Flowers that are suitable for drying are: Delphinium, larkspur, lavender, hydrangea, roses and rose buds, gypsophila, yarrow (achillea), globe amaranth (gomphrena), amaranth 'Love Lies Bleeding', Solidago (Soloman's Seal), Statice, Strawflower, Honesty (Lunaria), Honeywort, roses and rose buds, paeonies, eryngium (sea holly), Kangaroo paw, Queen Anne's lace, celosia, sage. Which fresh flowers you use will be trial and error as not all flowers are suitable for drying, all of the flowers above can be dried. Proteas, leucodendrons, blue gum, silver dollar (eucalyptus) and grass seed heads are also suitable. The flowers can be dried before creating a bouquet, but once dry the do tend to be brittle, so it may be easier to create the bouquet and then dry it, a lot will depend upon which flowers are being used.
Lianne