Drying and Wiring Your Flowers.

Photo found on Flickr.com courtesy of Dminton.

If you want to be a bit artistic with the products of your organic flower garden, why not try drying and wiring your blossoms? For this process, larger flowers like roses work best. First of all, you’ll need to pick the blossoms at peak condition for best results. The next step is where the wiring comes in: flower heads tend to droop if not dried properly, so you’ll need to prop them up.

Here’s how to do it: take a length of fine wire 16-20 inches long, and pierce the stem directly below the bloom. Push it through until the flower is at the middle of the length of wire. Then twist the ends of the wire carefully around the stem; this will help hold the bloom in place both during the drying process and later on. If you plan to use the dried flowers in a way that the stems can be seen — that is, in a vase or bouquet — you can wrap green budding tape around the stem to hide the wire.

Finally, hang your flowers upside down in small bunches, in a well-ventilated dark place. Leave them to dry for several weeks at least, and avoid touching the flowers themselves; otherwise, they may discolor or even disintegrate.