If you received a beautiful bouquet, have flowers from a special event, or even a wedding bouquet that you can’t bear to actually toss, you can save your flowers by drying or pressing them. They’ll be flattened, but you’ll be able to enjoy their beautiful colors and your memories for years to come. At Adrian Durban Florists in Cincinnati, we put our heads together and then put together this handy guide on the fastest ways to preserve your extra special or beautiful bouquets.

Bouquet of Dried Roses

The Fastest Ways to Dry Flowers

One of the best ways to dry flowers – especially a full bouquet – is to gather and tie their stems with a string and then hang them upside down from a stick, clothes hanger, or hook away from direct sunlight. This method keeps the flowers’ original shapes intact and will best preserve their color. The downside? Depending on the weather and temperature, it can take several days for flowers to dry completely.

Thankfully, there are some faster flower drying methods that you can use, if you’re in a hurry to get your flowers dried, so that you can use them to make a keepsake wreath or other project.

Hanging Dried Flowers

1. Drying in the Oven

Preheat your oven to its lowest heat setting and line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper. Lay out your flowers and make sure they’re not overlapping each other. Place them in the oven and leave the door cracked so moisture can evaporate. Flowers will typically need eight to twelve hours to dry completely. If you’re going to press them, it’s okay if not all the moisture has baked out.

2. Drying in the Microwave

To dry flowers in the microwave, you’ll need silica sand and a microwave safe container in which your blooms will fit (you can always trim flowers to size). In the bowl, completely surround blooms with silica sand, then place a cup of water and the container in the microwave and blast on 30-second intervals. Time to dry flowers completely depends on the flowers, but it usually takes a total of two or three minutes.

Dried Pink Roses

3. Drying in the Trunk of Your Car

On a warm, sunny day, the trunk of a car actually makes the perfect place to dry out flowers. Wrap yours in parchment to keep them safely intact and close them in the trunk of your car. They’ll be hot and out of the sunlight. On a hot day, they should be ready by sunset.

4. Drying in a Dehydrator

If you own a dehydrator, like the ones used for making dried fruit, you can also use it to dry flowers. Be sure the flowers aren’t overlapping each other in the dehydrator. Set it to about 100-degrees. You can dehydrate the flowers for a couple of hours and then continue drying by pressing them in a book or with a clothes iron, or you can set the dehydrator to dry the flowers for several hours.

The Best Flowers for Drying and Pressing

Pretty much any flower can be preserved by drying or pressing, but some turn out much nicer than others, depending on the type of flower or method.

Dazzler Bouquet

Wild-looking spring bouquets, like these, look lovely dried, and will turn out nicely with the quick drying methods listed above.

Flowers that get the best results from pressing are those that have less cumbersome blooms or that are naturally flat-faced, such as chrysanthemums, daisies, and alstroemeria. If you do decide to press a thicker flower, we recommend first splitting it down the middle with scissors or a knife.

Fresh Bouquets to Enjoy and Preserve

The art of drying and pressing flowers will never go out of style because there are so many beautiful ways to use and display pressed or dried flowers in home. They’re lovely used on a wreath, to make potpourri, decoupaged onto another surface, or hung on the wall in a botanical frame.

Bouquet of Dried Flowers in Glass Vase

At Adrian Durban Florists, we have a wide variety of fresh bouquets that are perfect for drying and pressing. For more recommendations about the best flowers to preserve, we welcome you to stop by our flower shop any time, we can sell by the bloom in store.