Air Drying:
Air-drying can be very successful with herbs, everlastings and ornamental grasses. Choose perfect plants with long stems, removing the lower leaves. Put the flowers in small bunches, fastening them together with a rubber band; then open each bunch into a fan shape. Hang the flowers head down from nails in a dry, dark place for one to three weeks until they are completely dry. The colors will usually be muted. Display your flowers in the house or store them as above. This method works with roses as well. Cut the stems off to the very bottom of the rose head, and carefully insert a 6-8" length of wire. Hang upside down by bending the end of the wire over a hanger and place in a dark dry closet where it won't be disturbed. One hanger can accomodate several flowers, just space them apart a bit.
~ Orignally written & created by Barbara Morris © 2002
= TIP =
Try storing dried roses heads in a cardboard egg carton. They stay upright and don't get squashed. The natural holes in the carton helps with ventilation and you could sprinkle a small amount of silica gel in the bottom of the carton to help keep humidity out.
"Animals are such agreeable friends-
-they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms." ~ Georg Eliot
Now that the snows have melted, water the lawn near roads and walkways heavily to leach out any plant harming, deicing salts that have built up in the soil.
