Hydrangeas - drying flowers?

6 years ago

Does anyone dry their hydrangea blooms to bring in the house?

I try to get some arrangements every fall and I'd like to end up with more of them. I'm just looking for other experiences and how people go about doing it. I read an article by Martha Stewart and she suggested you choose blooms when they are fresh and new and then put them in a vase with about an inch of water and allow them to dry like that. I've been doing it that way and I'm fairly happy with the result. Most of the time I forget to cut new blooms and I wait until they are aging on the shrub to cut them and bring them in and try that on them. I did that this year and it still seemed to work out and give me a pretty good result. I'm just wondering if I can improve on it. Or if I were consistently remembering to cut new blooms if that alone would give me better results.

Anyone else, enjoy dried hydrangeas in the house?

Featured Answer

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

6 years ago

IME, it is too late to use glycerin once the flowers have started to fade........I save that for when I want to cut fresh, relatively new blossoms. Glycerin treated flowers last much longer than those without the treatment, so I would reserve them for something like a wreath that you want to last for a long time. And the colors fade or age less with glycerin as well.

I rarely ever do not have fresh cut flowers in my house........but I purchase them specifically for that purpose :-) Hydrangeas are a late season fall back choice when nothing else is available. And I have quite a few to pick from as well.

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Comments (6)

Sara Malone Zone 9b
6 years ago
I have done the same as you and they last a surprisingly long time. Use glycerine if you want to really preserve them.
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
Original Author
6 years ago
Sara, mine lasted almost a year. I removed them after a year when they were looking old, but I probably could have removed them sooner.

What do you mean about glycerine? Is that the process where you have a container of a dry product that you cover the bloom over and it dries it? I've seen that done for small flowers but didn't think a large Hydrangea would work very easily.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
No. Put a small amount of glycerin in the vase water. The stems absorb it and it helps to keep the petals from drying out excessively. I've done that with hydrangea cut for wreaths.

Since I am overly hesitant to cut fresh flowers from my garden - it's just a thing I have - I wait until the flowers start to dry and fade on the stem before cutting. My substitute for deadheading :-) The flowers won't last too long (a few months) but you can get some pretty amazing colors, particularly with the bigleaf types.
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Ahhh.... that sounds very easy. And probably exactly what I am trying to do, is to get a result that is not 'too' dried out. Hydrangea wreaths sound really nice too, I've never tried doing that. It must take a lot of blooms. And how long does it take you to make one?

I'm like that about cutting fresh flowers too. I just don't have an excess so that my garden is not going to miss them. And I'd rather enjoy them in the garden than have them for 4 days on the counter and throw them out. I will bring a few roses in and maybe a few cosmos, which seem to push out flowers pretty fast and steady.

How often do you dry Hydrangeas for use in the house?

So when you say, the flowers will only last a few months, do you mean they don't last as long as flowers that are dried without the glycerine? As for color, I get the muted colors without the glycerine. Are they brighter with it? Here's a photo of those I dried a couple of weeks ago... I guess I'm not completely satisfied with them.
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
Original Author
6 years ago
Very helpful information, thank you! Would love to see a photo of a wreath if you find one. :-)