How to Preserve Flowers [8 Easy Ways]

Do you want to know how to preserve flowers for a long time? If so, here we’ve explained the best methods that help you preserve flowers easily in a hassle-free way. 

Flowers enhance the beauty of the gardens, but when the season is off, flowers die, and we have to wait for another season to get the rich fragrance and colors. Even when we have occasions, the flowers eventually dry off. Everyone wants to preserve memories. 

However, the flower preservation process may vary from flower to flower and the condition. To top of this, many of us don’t know what the perfect time to preserve flowers is? This is why we’ve outlined this article. So, let’s learn about different flower preservation methods and keep the flowers last longer. 

Essential Tips to Preserve Flowers for Longer

Before you proceed to preserve flowers, do ensure to follow these valuable tips. This will help to preserve flowers in their actual condition. Have a look!

1. Choose the Ideal Location to Preserve Them

Find the ideal location and make space in your home to store flowers where you can keep them permanently. However, the location depends on the method of preservation you choose. 

2. Understand Why you are Preserving Them

Flowers preservation is not just to lock them into a hidden box; instead, it becomes your memory. So, before you preserve them, make sure to understand what you will do with those flowers. Do you want to gift someone? Want to frame them? Or do you want to make a showpiece? Knowing the reason for preserving flowers can help choose the right method to preserve them. 

3. Consider the Plethora of Preservation Material 

You may need to have some material to preserve the flowers for flower preservation. So, before proceeding further, make sure to have rubber bands, hooks, silica gel, scissors, paper, and sand. The material also depends on the method you want to choose. 

4. Keep the Flowers Away from Sunlight 

When you are going to preserve flowers for longer, keep them away from the sunlight. This helps to avoid discoloration and fading of the colors. 

5. Make a Mindset to Lose Some Flowers

During the preservation process, many flowers get destroyed and damaged. So, be prepared for the damage to the flowers. Moreover, you can take extra care not to damage the flowers. 

These are some of the tips that you can follow to preserve flowers if you fancy such stuff. These tips will ensure that flower preservation would be a hit in most cases. Now, we have featured flower preservation methods that you need to follow to preserve flowers.

Best Methods to Preserve Flowers

Now that you know the best tips to preserve your flowers, it is time to choose the right method to preserve them. Let’s take a deep dive to know which method fits your choice. 

• Suspend the Flowers in Epoxy Resins

Do you want to turn your flowers into decorative items or paperweights? If so, then suspend the flowers in the epoxy resin. This would be an excellent option to preserve the flower without damaging them. Choose the right mold and seal the flowers into the resins. The flower will take the shape of the mold and be ready to use. 

Here’s how you can preserve them. 

• Take the mold of your choice and fill them with epoxy resin
• Now place the flowers into the mold. Do ensure to arrange them properly
• Fill the mold with resin 
• Let the resin dry and once it has dried off, remove it from the mold and use them the way you want

1. Use Glycerin to Preserve Flowers Safely

Glycerin is the easiest way to preserve the flowers. It helps maintain the texture of the petals and helps prevent excessive drying of the flowers. The reason is glycerin replaces water which is why plants never dry off completely. The leaves, stems, and petals remain intact and don’t get wrinkled. 

The flower becomes flexible and rubbery when you dip them into the glycerin. However, the downside of using glycerin is that flower color fades away after some time. Therefore, you can add some color to maintain the flower texture and color. 

2. Air Drying to Preserve Flowers for Longer

Like glycerin, this is also the easiest way to preserve flowers. You have to follow these steps to preserve using the air-drying method: 

• Remove the leaves from the flower stem. It helps to dry them faster
• Make small bundles of the flowers and tie them together with a rubber band. 
• Hang them upside-down to keep them in a properly ventilated area. Keep them under the sunlight and separate the flowers having moist petals and thicker stems. 

The process may take several months to weeks, but you can keep them longer with you once the flowers dry off completely. The downside is flowers become brittle, and you need to handle them carefully. 

3. Freeze Drying Flowers to Preserve Them

This process is quite complicated for beginners and might be an expensive process. However, the preservation result is extremely good. This helps to maintain the color and look of the flowers like the original shade. The best thing about freeze-drying is you will be able to preserve its scent. 

For this method, you can take the help of the companies who offer freeze-drying methods to preserve flowers. Moreover, you can also consult with any florists near you who can offer a freeze-drying process to preserve your flowers. The flowers become extremely fragile, so be sure to care for them a little extra.

4. Press Flowers in Paper Sheets

This is one of the common methods to preserve the flowers. We also use this method several times during our childhood. With this method, you will be able to preserve flowers quickly. The flowers look elegant and ancient after pressing. 

The flowers become flat, but their texture remains meaty. You can preserve almost all kinds of flowers using this method. Here are the steps to follow to preserve flowers: 

• Take some butter paper or white paper sheets to preserve flowers. You can even use newspapers and your regular notebook pages as well. 
• Put the flowers into the paper sheets. But make sure the flowers don’t get overlap each other.
• Place a sheet of paper below and on top of the flowers. 
• Put weight over the sheets. You can use stones or other clips to create pressure. 
• You can even place them under the coffee table or any heavy bench. The pressure exerted by the object removes all the water content. It may take two to four weeks to remove the moisture from the flower. 
• After a few weeks, take the paper sheets by removing the weight. You will observe that flowers are dried and compressed properly. You can display them the way you want. 

5. Use Silica Gel to Preserve Flowers

Silica gel is also a great method to preserve the flower. It is amongst the cheapest methods you can use multiple times to preserve flowers. The silica granules are used to remove the moisture from the flowers and leaves.

You can use the colored silica crystals that change the color when the moisture from the flowers completely dries off. The crystals will turn pink as soon as it absorbs flower moisture. This indicates the flower is ready to preserve.

However, you can also bake the flower before preserving them. Take a jar and fill it with silica gel, and put the flowers into it. Within a few days, it dried off completely. The best thing about this method is that you can use the silica gel repeatedly to dry flowers and preserve them.

6. Suspend the Flowers in Epoxy Resins

Do you want to turn your flowers into decorative items or paperweights? If so, then suspend the flowers in the epoxy resin. This would be an excellent option to preserve the flower without damaging them. Choose the right mold and seal the flowers into the resins. The flower will take the shape of the mold and be ready to use. 

Here’s how you can preserve them. 

• Take the mold of your choice and fill them with epoxy resin
• Now place the flowers into the mold. Do ensure to arrange them properly
• Fill the mold with resin 
• Let the resin dry and once it has dried off, remove it from the mold and use them the way you want.

7. Use Sand to Remove the Moisture

This is the easiest method to preserve the flower. All you have to do is take the sand and remove the moisture from the flower. Sand granules can help to absorb moisture. But the downside of using this method is the sand granules remain stuck in the flower, and the procedure is quite messy also. 

To preserve flowers using this method, you need to hang flowers upside down in the sand. This helps to get rid of excess sand particles. 

8. Microwaving to Preserve the Flower

Baking or microwaving is also a good method to preserve flowers for longer. However, this method is trickier and maybe risky at the same time. Therefore, you need to be careful while using this method to preserve the flower. Before you move ahead, remove all the excess stem and leaves from the flower. 

• Use a microwave-safe container. Fill the container with coffee filters. This helps to absorb extra moisture from the flowers. Alternatively, you can also use the silica gel and fill the container about half an inch.
• Keep the flowers in the silica gel and microwave flowers for two to five minutes. Microwaving depends on the type of flowers you are drying. Some of the flowers take a longer time to dry so you can microwave them for a longer duration. 
• Once the moisture from the flowers dries off, take the flower out and let them cool. Fine brush to clean the silica gel from the flowers and store them 

These are all the methods that people use worldwide to preserve flowers. You can choose any of these above methods and preserve your flowers to make them last longer.

Bottom Line 

So, here you go! Preservation of flowers is great to keep them with you last longer. However, you need to follow the right method and tips to preserve flowers. Now, you know about the eight best methods to preserve the flowers. You can follow any of these methods to store or preserve flowers for longer. However, keep in mind that flowers bloom completely before you store them. 

Do you have any other method that helps to preserve the flowers? Do let us know in the comments section below and it will definitely help our readers.

FAQs

1. What are the liquid preserved flowers?

Glycerine is a widely used liquid that is known to preserve flowers for a long time. In this method, glycerine absorbs the water and keeps it bright for a long time.

2. Does my preserved flowers smell?

The natural smell of the flower will be gone once you preserve them. So, no, it will have an artificial scent that you can choose from the market.

3. Can I put water on preserved flowers?

No, you should not put water on your preserved flowers.