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Preserving Your Roses

© Mark Whitelaw

The fall rose garden is one of splendor and grace. Blooms abound as temperatures cool in the fall, and preserving some of them through winter's long grip is both fun and rewarding. Essentially there are four preservation methods: air-drying, moisture transfer, freeze-drying, and coating. All preserve the rose in one form or another and to varying degrees of permanence and retained fragrance.

Before you start:

Selecting the right rose is important. Choose roses after the blooms have dried of morning dew and irrigation. Select blooms a day or so before they are fully opened, and insure they are free of defects caused by insects or sprays. As the blooms dry, minor imperfections are magnified and make the dried blossom appear unsightly.

Remember that the dried blossom will not retain the same color as the living bloom. Select medium- or light-colored roses in the pink, red, yellow or orange tones. Dark reds, purples and mauves will dry very dark and sometimes turn black. White and blush pink roses will often turn dingy brown.

Insure the blooms are insect-free. Some insect eggs or larvae can survive the drying process, and will destroy your dried bloom in short order. Do not spray the rose with pesticides after the bloom is chosen, however. The surfactants used in the pesticide may cause the bloom to spot or brown during the drying process. Two techniques for "debugging" the bloom are 1) dipping the rose in a mild soap and water solution, then hanging it upside down to dry of surface moisture, or 2) lightly dusting the rose with silica aerogel or diatomaceous earth that has been laced with pyrethrin, then gently shaking out the excess dust. Yet another technique is to kill them with heat and mothball vapors.

Air-drying:

By far, this preservation method is the easiest and involves the least amount of special equipment. All that is required is your rose, some florist wire or a recycled twist-tie, a paper clip and a dry, dark closet.

Once you have selected your roses, remove the lower leaves and bind a few of the stems together with the florist wire. It is important to keep the blossoms from touching each other; otherwise, they will dry unevenly and may discolor or misshapen where the petals touch.

Open the paper clip so that it makes a small s-hook. Slip one end under the binding wire and hang the other end on a coat hanger or length of stretched twine inside your closet. Hanging the roses upside down by their stems helps keep the blooms' shape during the drying process, which varies by temperature and humidity, usually taking from 5 to 10 days.

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