As the story goes, flowers have a shelf life and most people see them as silly things to spend your money on, when they just "die". So do flowers expire? Literally yes, but figuratively no! Semantics, am I right. Let's dive into a handful of realistic, every day ways you can preserve your lovely posies throughout your home.
It is a sad day when our flowers breathe their last in our vases, their petals go limp and their color fades. Sometimes we can experience an actual physical reaction when we look towards our windowsill and see our once gorgeous blooms sad and depleted. If that's you and you're like me, grab a glass of wine and sit tight for some fun preservation ideas.
This is why I have started my giant flower drying wall - also known as my giant dust collector. But I try not to think about that part, because in spite of the dust, I still get to have a home full of posies no matter what and that's worth a little sniffling. Isn't that what Allegra is for?
Drying and preserving your flowers, if you so choose and desire, is extremely simple. There are a handful of fun ways you can do this. I personally have a couple that I will show you here today!
First, I have my wall basket in the corner of my kitchen. It is hanging on my wall away from anyone disturbing or bumping into it. Once my lovely blooms have breathed their last, I remove them from their vase, turn them upside down in a bundle, and clip off any soft, mushy or even smelly portions of the stems. Then, I wrap the stems in either ribbon or twine and bundle them together like a bouquet. I always hold my flowers upside down during this process to ensure any loose petals fall out.
Once they are bundled together, I slip the stems and knot of the twine or ribbon into the holes of my basket, nice and tight. The more flowers you have packed in, the easier it will be to fasten your new additions. Below, I have drying Indian Tobacco, Lilac, Mums, Chamomile, Eucalyptus and a hint of Forsythia hidden behind some brambles.
Another fun option I swear by is quite similar, the flowers hang upside down, but instead of in a bunch, they hang individually by type. Here, I have made a twine flower hanger for the wall. At each end of twine, I have wrapped and bundled 1-3 stems together to preserve them in their perfect state - you could easily substitute the twine for a large branch or piece of wood to hang the flowers.
I chose a big wall to hang this from by two nails, and it is the cheeriest little thing to behold! After a while goes by, I can easily change out the hanging blooms and preserve the individual flowers in a different way, or add them to the large collection pictured above!
And finally, but not necessarily the last option by any means, preserve your flowers upright in wall baskets! I think it is easy to say I am obsessed with both baskets and flowers. I love natural textures all over my home.
The hanging baskets I am about to show you are shaped completely different than the one before. These are round with open mouths, so you place the flowers down inside of them, stem first. I'd say this way takes a little more tedious effort. You want to ensure that you cut your stems the right length so that your flowers poke out of the basket at a good height, without sinking down inside or falling out and over if they are too long. I snipped my stems a couple times before getting the right length. Better to not cut enough off at first, than to cut too much off and not be able to go back!
For this display, I did not bundle them with twine. Instead, I delicately set the posies in one or three at a time and gently placed the bloom side up just right above the basket rim. This version definitely takes some patience, but once done, they are beautiful displays. My biggest tip is make sure to choose flowers that don't have incredibly delicate petals that will fall all over and cover your floor below - I made the mistake of having irises in this at first, and the buds fell in clumps on the floor and my crawling son almost ate them! Not a fun moment for mommy.
Below, I chose ranunculus, freesia and Buddleja Globosa, which has very sturdy round blooms that take a lot of effort to break.
There are literally countless ways to preserve flowers. From drying them in shadowboxes, to pressing them in frames, to even dipping them in resin and making necklaces out of them! What I have shared today are simply the ways I love to preserve my posies in my home, it is a way to express my style and my love for remembering to cherish the things that seem fleeting in life.
all the best,
pauline