As gardeners, we dedicate ourselves to sowing, nurturing and adoring the flowers we love. Yet, it often seems that they mature, burst into glorious bloom and fade away in no time at all.

The seeds we chose with so much care all those long months ago, having been nursed, gently tended, even sung too, have done all they should and the results may be spectacular. Then, aside from photographs or short videos, they have had their day and are done.

But, with some varieties of flowers, it doesn’t have to be this way. With what amounts to little extra effort, a surprising number of flowers, along with some foliage plants and those displaying highly ornamental seed pods, can be dried and enjoyed for a surprisingly long period of time.

Drying flowers, in the late 1800’s especially, was quite the thing to do. The resultant dried blooms were displayed as attractive indoor arrangements or utilised in a variety of handicrafts. Dried flowers were essential for crowning handmade straw hats and bonnets of various descriptions, for example, and there is no reason why they shouldn’t be so again. They would make a far better picture than the awful plastic flowers one sees in regular use today.

Drying flowers and foliage from your garden is a great way to preserve your harvest, and decorate your home

The most successful varieties of flowers for drying are those with strong, firm or slightly woody stems which, once dry, are strong enough to continue to support the flower head. Such flowers include the ever-popular lavender, limonium/statice, helichrysum/ everlasting or straw flower and roses in bud.

Flowers for drying are best harvested in early morning, after the dew has dried. They should be cut with fairly long stems, which can always be shortened when arranging them in a vase or elsewhere. Choose only the very best, undamaged flowers and cut them before they are fully open, as they will continue opening during the drying process.

Roses for drying should be cut when in bud or open only very slightly, otherwise (unless put through a special microwave drying process) they will drop their petals.

Tie the cut flowers in small bunches. If bunches are too thick, stems in the center of the bunch will not dry out properly and are thus liable to spoil. Hang the bunches upside down in an airy place, but completely out of direct sunshine, which tends to bleach all the colour out of drying flowers, and we certainly don’t want this to happen.

Unless the humidity is high, the bunches should be completely dried out within three to four days and can then be used in arrangements or in craftwork.

Here are just some of the flower varieties most suited to drying although, of course, you should experiment with other varieties as well: Queen Anne’s lace, hydrangea, bud roses, limonium/statice, helichrysum/everlasting or straw flower, gypsophila/baby’s breath, celosia cristata/cockscomb, moluccella laevis/bells of Ireland, achillea species/yarrow, gomphrena globosa/globe amaranth, centaurea cyanus/cornflower, and lavender.

The seed pods and seed heads of some plants make superb material for dried arrangements too and the following are amongst the best — these can either be left to dry on the plants or, when almost ready to harvest for seed collection, be cut and dried in the same manner as when drying flowers: sunflowers — the globular heads of thistles before they burst open, eryngium/sea holly, physalis/Chinese lanterns, nigella damascena/ nigella/love-in-a-mist, papaver/poppies, lunaria/honesty/pennies-from-heaven, and wood rose.

Many grasses, cereal grains and tree leaves on their branches are also ideal drying material, either left to dry in situ or cut and treated in the same way as flowers. These include eucalyptus, pampas grass and other pluming grasses, bullrushes, oats, wheat, barley, and millet.

To add more colour and additional interest to dried arrangements, you can spice them up using delicate paint brushes dipped in coloured inks, in water-colour paints, in fabric paints or — with something like sunflower seed heads — you can go to town with spray paint to create something quite dazzling.

There is also another way to brighten up flowers for drying, a way much in vogue these days to artificially colour living flowers. These are photographed and declared on the internet as being rare and unusual blooms — bright blue, bright green and rainbow-hued roses being the most common faked flowers around.

To colour living flowers all you need is a jar or vase of water to which your preferred food colour has been added. Select your ‘victim’ — something with pale or indefinite hues is best — a white rose for example. Cut it and immediately stand it in the coloured water. Over the next hours, anywhere from two hours to 48 hours, as the rose stem drinks up the coloured water, the flower will change colour right in front of your eyes!

Flowers for drying can be colour-enhanced before being dried by using this simple process too.

Add growing flowers for drying purposes to your garden plans and have some extra fun!

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 15th, 2022