Whether you have a particularly beautiful bouquet, a special bouquet from a wedding or anniversary, or would simply love to find a fresh, new hobby that fills your life beauty, then flower preservation by drying and/or pressing is for you! Many think of flowers as things of fleeing beauty, but if they’re pressed well, then you can enjoy them forever. To make sure your flowers retain their beauty, it’s important to pair the right flowers with the right preservation method. Our Fargo florists at Shotwell Floral put together a list of our favorite flowers for drying and pressing.
Bouquet of Dried Flowers in Glass Vase
The Best Flowers to Dry
You can dry just about any kind of flower you like, but there are some that turn out absolutely beautiful with vibrant colors and a sturdy appearance. Some of our favorites include:
Statice
Statice
Statice flowers are perhaps the most popular for drying. Anytime you see a dried floral arrangement, it’s highly likely that it includes statice. These blooms feature clusters of small, brightly pigmented flowers that retain their color and form very well after having been dried.
Larkspur
Larkspur
In shades of pink, purple, and blue, larkspur features tall, lovely cones of flowers that hold up very well when dried. They’ll add interesting shape, dimension, and texture to a dried bouquet or wreath of dried flowers.
Strawflower
Pink Strawflower
These many-petaled beauties have sunburst-like blooms in just about every color that get brighter towards their centers. Dried, they look almost the same as their living counterparts, which makes them a perfect choice for adding stunning pops of color to a bouquet of dried flowers.
The Best Flowers to Press
Like drying, some flowers are better pressed than others. We recommend avoiding pressing blooms that are very thick, such as multi-petaled roses, as they will require a very long time to dry completely and not yield the most attractive results. Instead, we recommend:
Shrub Roses
Roses
Although we don’t recommend drying large, sumptuous roses, delicate shrub roses and wild roses with their slimmer, single-petal blooms press very well.
Pansies
Yellow and Purple Pansies
Pansies have the perfect floral faces for pressing. Their pretty, multi-colored leaves overlap, giving them dimension when pressed. They will mostly retain their original look, appearing absolutely vibrant.
Ferns
Fern
We realize that ferns aren’t exactly flowers, but they press extremely well, maintain their vibrant green hue, and their lattice-like leaf structures will complement flowers in a botanical frame, giving them a wild, life-like appearance.
Decorating with Dried and Pressed Flowers
Once your flowers are preserved, there are all sorts of lovely ways to display them in your home. If you’ve dried flowers, you can create stunning bouquets of dried flowers to be displayed in any type of vase or pitcher. You can also use dried flowers to create beautiful, boldly colored wreaths for your home. We suggest starting with a wicker wreath base. If you have dried keepsake flowers, you can also arrange them inside a shadow box, alongside other mementos from an important day.
Since pressed flowers are squished flat, they’re a bit more delicate than dried flowers. We recommend using methods for displaying them that will also protect their structures. A simple, yet stunning way to decorate with pressed flowers is to arrange them in a botanical frame. You can include them in a scrapbook, or they can also be decoupaged onto just about any surface to create lovely floral creations.
Manhattan Romance
However you choose to decorate with your preserved flowers, we welcome you to contact Shotwell Floral for additional recommendations about the best bouquets for drying and pressing.
