Air drying Australian natives

It's hard to beat that fresh bunch of flowers bringing sweet scents and life into your home.
I do find something grounding and magical however about prolonging their beauty, knowing all that effort to grow from a seed doesn't end up lying in a compost pile at the end.

There's also something beautiful about holding onto those flowers with meaning-perhaps they were a gift from someone special, or to celebrate an occation. I still have dried blooms in a bud vessel from a bouquet I received when my daughter was born.

I love that once dried there's little effort, you can put them in a place needing a bit of vibrancy and they'll proudly bring interest to that pocket of the room for years to come.

Australian natives are some of the best to dry, the colours, structures and longevity make them sort after from across the world.

Some of my favorite's dried:
-Billy Buttons
-Strawflowers
-Winged Everlasting
-Feather Flowers (verticordia)
-Eucalyptus
-Pink Bells (Rhodanthe manglesii)

Whether you purchase a bunch to keep or wish to start foraging your own there's some simple steps to take to ensure colours and structure are preserved.

If purchased in a bouquet/posy:
You can still enjoy your blooms fresh and in water as normal before you dry them.
To ensure you get the best looking flowers when dried make sure you change the water regularity, trim the flower ends: this ensures the flower doesn't get a blocked stem base preventing water from accessing the head of the flower.
And be sure to remove any leaves that would be submerged in water. The cleaner the stems the more success you will have when you're ready to dry.

Once you start to notice the flowers drooping or looking slighting sad this is your time to pull them out of water and dry them!

To Dry:
Remove any lower leaves, use a rubber band or string to tie together your bunch. Depending on the size of your bouquet you may want to do some smaller sized bunches. Strawflowers I usually group 15-20 stems together, Billy Buttons is much more. You just need to ensure you have good air movement in the bunch-too many and you may get mold.

How you hang them is how they will dry, I usually make sure flower heads are in a position I want them and not twisted up as they'll get stuck that way!

Find a cool, dark & dry place to keep your flowers, humidity can lead to mold, too much sun will lesson the flowers colours.

Hang upside down in your cool, dark and dry location for a minimum of 2 weeks (summer in southern Aus) but usually 1-2 months will ensure they are fully dry and ready to be turned up the right way.

*For Billy Buttons: Billy's have great strong stems and can simply be placed fresh in a vase without water and left to dry upright.

Displaying your dried flowers:

Keep your dried blooms free of water and in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight to get the longest life out of them.

They can be very delicate once dried so use extra caution to ensure they don't get bumped around too much.

If you notice your flowers getting dusty you can clean them with a hairdryer on slow speed.

Things to note:
-When dried, Strawflowers can go to seed if they are at the later end of their life: Lucky you! free seeds for the garden!
-Some stems of flowers can loose their strength when dried and the flower head may bend a little, you can resolve this with florist wire pre-drying otherwise try to use them in an arrangement and use surrounding flowers to help position them and give them strength.

Enjoy!
xx