I don't have experience with rubber bands, but I do have good experience with string. I know the rationale for rubber bands is that they will keep their tension as the plant stems dry and grow thinner, but I find that if you take two or three turns around a bunch of stems and then make a single knot -- a simple over-and-under -- half a square knot -- things will usually stay up just fine. If you tie the other end with a slip knot and you're careful when you take things down, you can re-use the string again and again.

The big exceptions tend to be grasses, where you have stems within stems and the inner ones fall out. Cat grass is the worst offender, so we've learned to just dry it upright in a vase or cylender of some sort.

With string, it's also easy to make bunches of all sizes, from a single stem to dozens. We use cotton string, the kind that's sold on big cones for use in shipping departments.

Hmm. I've been using rubber bands for years and haven't had this problem at all - several bundles are more than two years old and in the same band. I buy a big bagful from office supply stores - not expensive at all.

I did a quick google on rubber band deterioration and found some information on higher ozone levels deteriorating rubber. Do you by any chance regularly spray an aerosol hairspray on your dried bundles in the barn?

Thank you for your responses.

I havn't tried string. I might give it a try, but I'm afraid that I'm too big a klutz to get it done very fast.

I don't use any kind of aerosol on my flowers, or anywhere near the barn. My husband thinks it might be from wrapping the rubber bands too tight. They are kind of stretched out when I remove them. Guess I'll try going to the office supply instead of the discount store.

Thanks again for your help.
Melanie

Hi
I also had the same problem but fixed it. The problem? making too many turns of the band so it was really tight and it kept beaking after hanging sometimes in a week sometimes in a month or two now i only make one or two turns till i feel they are nice and held ok and now i only have had one or two brakages in the last 12 months I find im two slow with string