How to make dried flowers

Dried flowers are the general term for dried flowers, leaves and fruits. It not only has the charm of truth, goodness and beauty endowed by nature; It also has the long-lasting characteristics of artificial flowers, which are natural, simple and lovely. The methods of dried flowers mainly include natural drying, normal temperature pressing, sand (borax) drying, desiccant embedding, glycerol drying, microwave drying and so on. Due to the limitation of equipment and other conditions, there are two ways to make dried flowers at home.

(1) Natural drying method: put the flowers in a cool, dark, dry, clean and ventilated condition and let them dry naturally. Suitable for grass flowers with more cellulose, used to make three-dimensional dried flowers.

You can pick flowers after the dew dries in the morning. After harvesting, cut the stem to the required length and remove a small number of leaves, redundant side branches and damaged parts. Tie the flowers into a suitable bouquet with a string, so that the flowers hang on the wire. As the flowers dry, the original bouquet is easy to loosen, so it needs to be tied tightly at any time. After the flowers are completely dried, spray anti-transpiration agent and put them in a big box for later use. For some flowers whose petals are delicate, upside down and easy to turn over and deform, the horizontal support drying method can be adopted, that is, the lower end of the flower branch vertically passes through the mesh from top to bottom, so that the flowers are vertically supported and spread flat on the mesh to make them naturally dry.

(2) Normal temperature pressing method: This method is a common method for making flat dried flowers. It is simple and easy to operate, and no special equipment is needed. Just put the flower branches in absorbent paper, press on heavy objects (such as stones and bricks), put them in a ventilated place and let them dry naturally. In the large-scale production of dried flowers, specimen clips can be used instead of heavy objects. When using this method, it should be noted that the absorbent paper should be replaced in time within 1 ~ 3 days after pressing.

This method can also be combined with heating and rapid drying, that is, the day after the flowers are pressed, or when the flowers are dry, the absorbent paper with flowers is gently ironed a few times with an electric ironing head, and then pressed as usual until it is completely dry. This not only has a fast drying speed, but also plays an insecticidal and bactericidal role, which is beneficial to the preservation of dried flowers. However, it should be noted that some flowers, such as orchids, will fade when exposed to high temperature, so this kind of flowers should not be heated.