The profusion of buds and blooms made me think about upcoming projects we might like to try and that now is a great time to start drying those flowers that you know are good candidates as well as experiment with those that you'll be drying for the first time.
Now, I've never tried to dry hibiscus flowers. If you're not familiar with them, they come in a bevy of rainbow colors, and variegated ones as well, with single petals and double pedals. They last for only two days at most then roll up into a bud and drop to the ground. I'm thinking the bud, once it's opened, might be a little studier and easier to experiment with than the actual flower, but we'll see.
The yellow flowers (the size of a standard white daisy) are really easy to dry. I use the borax/cornmeal mixture for these.
I've been experimenting with the jasmine and letting it dry naturally. The small white flowers curl up and turn a pale ivory but they remain attached to the stem, so that is a good thing. I've been clipping and snipping small pieces and placing them in a Styrofoam cup and just letting them sit on my desk. They've dried quite nicely!
The next flower I want to attempt to dry is the cluster of flowers from the crepe myrtle tree. These flowers come in white, purple and maroon. The flowers themselves are very tiny but the cluster can be approximately 5 to 6 inches in length. I can envision these dried and used on either a willow or grape vine wreath.
We also have magnolia's blooming but I don't have access to a tree. I think I'll need to purchase one so I'll have a supply. Magnolias are creamy white flowers with a yellow center. They tend to look like a large rose. These would be beautiful mounted on a grapevine wreath with just the flowers, greenery and statice.
Now, if you're wondering why we need to be drying flowers it's because we can use them to make our own blends of potpourri using our very own garden flowers, we can make pressed flower projects with flowers you've either dried or pressed (place flower on a paper towel, fold the towel over the flower and place in between the pages of a book) and we can use them along with other "store bought" dried flowers, if need be, to create our own "home grown" swags and wreaths.
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