When spring comes the flowers bloom and let’s dream of a world where they would never wither… What if there was a way to immortalize the flowers in your garden? In addition to bouquets with dried flowers, the flower pressing technique makes it possible to store them in a herbarium. A simple and fun method to do alone or with the youngest. Presentation.
What is a herbarium?
Originally, a herbarium was an educational medium that made it possible to identify the plants and flowers of a particular region or area. Pressed and glued to a carrier, notebook or study board, the immortal plants can thus be classified and observed. Nowadays, making a herbarium is often more of a hobby. A great way to collect flowers from your garden, preserve a holiday memory or create a piece of art.
Because the flowers and leaves are so pressed and dried, they reveal beautiful colours, a poetic fragility and yet resistant to time…
How to dry flowers in a herbarium?
The press
To build your own herbarium, you may choose to purchase a flower press from a craft store or make your own using two wood planks, corrugated cardboard, newspaper or silk, four long screws, washers, and nuts. This video from Monjardindansleslandes explains step by step how to do this. But you can also simply place your flowers between two sheets of paper on which you are going to put a dictionary or a large book. The key is to cover all the plants evenly and let them sit there for several weeks without touching them.
Flowers
For best results, it is important to pick your flowers when they are completely dry. So avoid rainy days or morning dew, which could flood your plants and prevent them from drying properly.
When picking, use pruning shears or scissors to ensure a clean cut that will be as beneficial to the plant as it will to the final display of your herbarium. Do not hesitate to keep the stem of the latter to give volume and movement to your dried plant. Do not wait to press your flowers after picking to preserve their color as best as possible.
To dry
How you dry your flowers and leaves is immortalized in the press. So make sure that the plants are far enough apart so that they do not overlap with the risk that they cannot be separated after drying. Also, be sure to space the petals and leaves well so that the final display is as true as possible to your plant’s original appearance.
Place your specimens between two sheets of newspaper or tissue paper that you change after three days to prevent mold. Wait about three weeks for complete drying.
What to do with the dried flowers?
That’s it, your flowers and leaves are finally dry! It’s up to you to decide what to do with them to mark them. There are many options available to you, here are a few:
- create greeting cards, birthday or thank you cards.
- decorate homemade candles.
- frame the flowers on a support or place them as they are in a frame with two glass walls to play with transparency.
- make a notebook with the fauna of your region, your holidays, your garden…
Your passion for dried flowers knows no bounds? Also discover how to make a bouquet of dried flowers in 4 steps to add color to your home.