The fruits and veggies coming from our gardens are not the only things we can dry and store in the off-season. Think about the vibrant colors from the flowers in our yards and containers. We can absolutely preserve that beauty to use year-round, or at least to display through the dreary winter season, by simply air-drying them.
There are lots of ways we can use those cut flowers, ornamental grasses, and even edible flowers and herbs in our home décor and pantry. Yes, you’ve got the typical dried flower arrangement in the form of a bouquet, but what about centerpieces, wreaths, swags or other purposes like tea blends or simmer pots?
Today on Just Grow Something we’ll talk about the conditions we need to properly dry our florals and other cuttings from the garden, when and how to properly harvest them specifically for this purpose, how to properly store them so they retain their color, and some usage ideas. Why shouldn’t we use all the colors of our summer garden to brighten up our indoor spaces as we move through fall and into winter? Let’s dig in!
Question of the month: What was your biggest failure in the garden this season?
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00:00:00
Welcome back my gardening friends, to another episode of
00:00:03
the Just Grow Something podcast. I am your host, Karen Velez, and
00:00:06
I am here today to tell you that the fruits and veggies coming
00:00:09
from our gardens are not the only things that we can dry and
00:00:12
store in the offseason. Think about the vibrant colors
00:00:16
from the flowers and the herbs in our yards and containers.
00:00:21
We can absolutely preserve that beauty to use year round, or at
00:00:27
least to display through the dreary winter season by simply
00:00:30
air drying them. There are lots of ways that we
00:00:33
can use those cut flowers, the ornamental grasses, and even the
00:00:36
edible flowers and the herbs in our home Decor and in our
00:00:39
pantry. Yes, you've got the typical
00:00:42
dried flower arrangement in the form of a bouquet, but what
00:00:45
about centerpieces or wreaths or swags or other purposes like tea
00:00:49
blends or simmer pots? Today on Just Grow Something,
00:00:52
we'll talk about the conditions that we need to properly dry our
00:00:55
florals and other cuttings from the garden, when and how to
00:00:59
properly harvest them specifically for this purpose,
00:01:02
and then how to properly store them so that they retain their
00:01:04
color. And maybe some usage ideas.
00:01:07
Why shouldn't we use all of the colors of our summer garden to
00:01:10
brighten up our indoor spaces as we move through fall and into
00:01:14
the winter? Let's dig in.
00:01:17
Hey, I'm Karen, I started gardening in a small corner of
00:01:20
my suburban backyard and now 18 years later, I've got a degree
00:01:23
in horticulture and operate a 40 acre market farm.
00:01:26
I believe there is power in food and that everyone should know
00:01:29
how to grow at least a little bit of their own.
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On this podcast, I share evidence based techniques to
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help you plant, grow, harvest and store all your family's
00:01:37
favorites. Consider me your friend in the
00:01:39
garden. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.
00:01:54
So for those of you who have asked, thank you.
00:01:56
We are still waiting on the results of the Women in
00:01:59
Podcasting Awards. I know the award ceremony is
00:02:02
happening on Friday, October 18th, so the winners should be
00:02:06
informed prior to that. I will keep you posted if and
00:02:09
when I hear anything and I really do thank each and
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everyone of you for all of your support for voting.
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And don't forget to answer the the October Question of the
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Month. What was your biggest failure in
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the garden this year? Remember, just because something
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failed doesn't mean that you are not a good gardener.
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It just means that something may have gone wrong with either the
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weather or your soil or something else.
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But I am interested in hearing what your biggest failure is.
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I will absolutely share mine. So if you were on YouTube, go
00:02:36
ahead and leave your answer in the comments.
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You can do that on Spotify as well.
00:02:39
You can send me an e-mail or shoot me Adm or get into the
00:02:42
Facebook group. You have until October 31st to
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get me your answer. So what do we need to do to
00:02:54
properly dry cut flowers, ornamental grasses, and even
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herbs to preserve their color and their texture specifically
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to be used throughout the winter or even during the entire year,
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whether that's as Decor or something else.
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So the first thing that we need is to have a proper area for
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drying. So, so the ideal area for drying
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your flowers has three different characteristics.
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It wanted to be dry, well ventilated and dark.
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So in terms of dry, the less moisture in the air the better.
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If you live someplace that is very humid like me, this might
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be a problem. So you're likely you're going to
00:03:34
need a fan or an air conditioned area where the the air is
00:03:38
actually naturally drier in terms of being well ventilated.
00:03:42
You want the moving air because that's going to help to prevent
00:03:45
moisture from settling in and mold from developing on those
00:03:49
plant tissues. So again, another either
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someplace where you can open the windows or somewhere where you
00:03:55
can have a fan going and then dark.
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So attics dark basements if they're if they're dry, you
00:04:02
know, the the maybe some dark lesser used closets that are not
00:04:06
being opened all the time. These are really good choices as
00:04:09
locations for drying flowers if they meet those first two
00:04:11
criteria and also lack windows or can be kept dark for most of
00:04:17
the time. The darkness doesn't actually
00:04:19
really affect the drying, but the more sunlight you let in,
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the more you're going to get that sort of sun bleaching
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action. So a dark location is going to
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allow the flowers to better most of their fresh color and it
00:04:32
prevents that fading, right? So you're also going to need
00:04:35
something to hang the flowers from.
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So if you're only drawing a small amount, you know, a
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bouquet or two, then you can just put a couple of hooks up
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either in the rafters or on the wall and that's going to be
00:04:44
enough. But if you're drying larger
00:04:45
quantities of flowers, you might need to stretch a wire or
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something between the rafters or, you know, drying lines of
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some sort. Like I've got a clothesline in
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my basement. You can do that too.
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The next thing to consider is what flowers are going to be
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good for drying. Some flowers definitely dry
00:05:04
better than others. Plants that have a high water
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content. So think like peonies, those
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ones that are really, really dense, they generally do not dry
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as well as those that have a low to moderate moisture level.
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The other thing too is if you've got really, really delicate
00:05:22
flowers with delicate petals, so like carnations, they can be a
00:05:26
little bit more difficult to air dry, but it absolutely is
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possible to do. You just have to pay attention
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to those things. So there are some species
00:05:34
though, and varieties that are really well suited to drying as
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dried flowers, whether it's because they hold up really well
00:05:42
to the drying process or that they hold up their color.
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My favorite for this is status, because status actually already
00:05:49
looks like a paper flower when it's dry or when it's fresh.
00:05:53
And so they dry really well and they hold their color very well.
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So does celosia as long as you don't allow it to get sun
00:05:59
bleached. But there's a whole list,
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Immobium gomfrina and Crespidia. I hope I pronounced that right.
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These are both like globe shaped flowers on really tall stems.
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Helipterum it or paper Daisy, straw flower, echinacea,
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metrocaria, bells of Ireland, larkspur Yarrow is a great one
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for for dried flowers docus, which is actually a domesticated
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Queen Anne's Lace and AMI, which is false Queen Anne's lace.
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And then Nigella. And Nigella has not only those
00:06:31
unique flowers, but even have really cool seed pods that are
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very decorative. And then for like foliage and
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fillers, things like ornamental grasses, blue Purim eucalyptus
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is really good for this. Amaranth also makes a really
00:06:45
good filler both for the seed heads and for the foliage.
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And then dusty Miller is good for foliage.
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And then herbs like lavender, anything that's in the salvia
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family, borage, lemon verbena, mint, thyme, marjoram and
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oregano when they flower are great for drying.
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For drying on the stem. They have these tiny little
00:07:03
flowers that are really cute, even hyacinth beans.
00:07:07
As they bloom, you can cut them. And as long as you're doing this
00:07:10
before they start to produce the actual beans themself, you can
00:07:13
dry those flowers and they can be just as stunning in decor as
00:07:17
they are out in the garden. So one of the things to consider
00:07:20
when we are cutting flowers specifically to be dried is what
00:07:24
stage to cut them in. When is the best time to cut
00:07:27
them? When we are cutting flowers for
00:07:31
fresh bouquets, right? If you, you know, listen to
00:07:34
Kathy Gormandy from P&K Farm Flowers or Artisanal Bloom, you
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know that we harvest them when generally only a few of the buds
00:07:44
are opened because they are going to continue to open after
00:07:47
you bring them in and put them in water.
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On the other side of that, flowers that are cut for the
00:07:53
purpose of drying should be almost fully bloomed.
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They will continue to open just a little bit as they are drying,
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but only slightly, not nearly what a fresh cut one in water is
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going to do. So there are some exceptions to
00:08:07
this. You want to make sure that when
00:08:09
you're you know, you're planting these things, there should be
00:08:11
some information on either the website or the seed package or
00:08:15
something talking about, you know if there are exceptions to
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this, but you definitely no matter what want to harvest them
00:08:22
before the flower sets seed. I made this mistakes once with
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celosia. And if you have ever seen
00:08:28
celosia seeds, they are tiny little black round seeds.
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And I had a coxcomb celosia that was massive.
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And as I was drying it, there were, I swear to you, thousands
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of these little black seeds, almost like poppy seeds that
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were falling all over the place because I had waited a little
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too long and had already set seeds.
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So learn from my mistake. The other thing too is you don't
00:08:50
want them over mature though, because they will actually shed
00:08:53
pollen, which can also make quite a bit of a mess.
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Not to mention if you've got allergies or they might just
00:08:59
actually drop their petals and then all you're going to have is
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like this little empty stem left.
00:09:03
So the timing, you know, can be a little bit tricky.
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And I mean straw flowers too. Even though they are a fantastic
00:09:10
flower to cut for drying, they can be a little tricky because
00:09:15
they open and close every day. And then if you look at the
00:09:19
little center disk in the middle of the straw flower, that will
00:09:22
actually also become exposed as the straw flower matures.
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The problem with this is if you harvest when that disk has
00:09:29
opened or begun to open, once it's dry, that disk turns brown.
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It doesn't retain the really pretty color of all the petals.
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So for straw flowers, you kind of want to watch the blooms as
00:09:40
they open each day and just pick the ones where the center disc
00:09:43
is still covered or where the first few outer layers of the
00:09:46
Brax are just starting to open up because they are going to
00:09:48
continue to open after you harvest them, you know, and
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they're hung to dry. So the, the whole point of this
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is just kind of learn about the flower that you're planning to
00:09:57
pick. If there's any information
00:09:58
online about it as a cut flower or as a dried flower, then
00:10:02
follow that information. The time of day is also
00:10:04
important too. Early morning is going to be the
00:10:07
best time to harvest it. Since the idea is to dry the
00:10:11
flowers, though, you want to wait until after any do has
00:10:13
evaporated. So there's a little bit of a
00:10:15
timing thing on here. Otherwise, it's going to take
00:10:17
longer for the flowers to dry and you're also going to
00:10:19
increase the likelihood of the mold developing.
00:10:22
But we don't really want to be harvesting them in the afternoon
00:10:26
especially or even in the evening.
00:10:28
Like if you think about all of our veggies and any of our cut
00:10:31
fresh flowers also, but our veggies too, you know, we don't
00:10:34
want the heat of the day trapped in those veggies or in those
00:10:38
fresh cut flowers when we cut them.
00:10:41
So even in the cool of the evening, the plants may still be
00:10:44
retaining that heat from the day and that can cause them to wilt
00:10:48
very quickly after we bring them inside.
00:10:49
So even though we're drying these, they should still hold up
00:10:53
enough during the beginning stages of the drying process to
00:10:55
retain their condition. So the better the condition is
00:10:58
to start with, then the better the final product will be.
00:11:03
So step by step, how do we dry these flowers?
00:11:06
The first thing is to cut the flowers and we want to strip the
00:11:09
leaves. Now, when you're cutting them,
00:11:12
you do want the stems long enough to be able to bundle them
00:11:15
so that you can hang them to dry, but you also kind of need
00:11:19
to keep in mind your desired final look.
00:11:22
So if you're wanting to display them in tall vases, you want to
00:11:25
leave those stems longer. If you're going to do them in a
00:11:29
bouquet or in a table arrangement of some sort or, you
00:11:32
know, essential piece, you might want them shorter.
00:11:35
No matter what. You do want to strip the leaves
00:11:38
while you were still outside in the garden.
00:11:40
This is going to not only help them to dry faster, but it's
00:11:44
just going to be a cleaner end product when you're done.
00:11:46
Those those leaves aren't going to add anything to a bouquet, a
00:11:50
dry bouquet or an arrangement. Once they're they're done,
00:11:53
they're dried, they're going to be brittle and they're not
00:11:55
they're going to be discolored. You don't actually want them in
00:11:57
there. So stripping them when you cut
00:11:58
them is just the best time to do that.
00:12:01
Once you've got them all kind of cut, you can place the stems
00:12:05
upright into a bucket or something to bring them into the
00:12:08
house. Make sure that you understand
00:12:13
whether or not that stem is something that you're going to
00:12:15
keep. And if you want a super straight
00:12:17
stem, that's going to kind of give you an idea of of what
00:12:20
you're going to do in your next step, which is to gather them
00:12:25
into small bunches, right? You don't want too many stems
00:12:28
together because that's going to take longer to dry.
00:12:32
The you have less surface area exposed to the circulating air,
00:12:37
which also can trap moisture in there, which also can lead to
00:12:39
mold. And that is not something that
00:12:41
we want in our dried flowers. How you do this is entirely up
00:12:44
to you. You can build a bouquet how you
00:12:47
think you want it when it's dried while they are fresh cut
00:12:51
and bundle it and then just hang it to dry that way.
00:12:54
Just keep in mind that as they contract, as they dry, you might
00:13:00
end up with some open spaces in your arrangement if you build
00:13:04
the bouquet ahead of time. So I tend to just kind of a
00:13:07
bundle different or the flowers of the same type together and
00:13:13
hang them up and then I will make my arrangements later.
00:13:16
But that's entirely up to you. You want to bundle these
00:13:20
together with either a rubber band or some string or some
00:13:23
twine wire, whatever you've got, dental floss, whatever works.
00:13:27
Rubber bands are good because as the stems dry down and they
00:13:30
shrink, the rubber bands continue to tighten with it.
00:13:33
And so they keep them from falling.
00:13:36
And then I tend to, I have a, a clothesline in my basement and I
00:13:42
hang them upside down on the clothesline using clothes pins.
00:13:47
And but you can use paper clips, you can use florist wire, you
00:13:50
can use twist ties, whatever it is, hang them upside down.
00:13:54
Hanging them upside down helps to keep those stems straight.
00:13:59
The exception to this would be if you don't want them to have
00:14:02
straight stems, Why would you want that?
00:14:04
Well, I mean, if you want sort of a more natural look in your
00:14:07
bouquet or your arrangement, you might actually allow it to dry
00:14:12
upright in a vase because eventually they're going to
00:14:14
start to bend over the side of that vase and they will arch a
00:14:17
little bit. And so that's going to give you
00:14:18
maybe some dimension to your dried flower arrangement.
00:14:22
The other thing is if you have harvested any of the like
00:14:25
Amarinth varieties that have that trailing look to them, you
00:14:30
can also dry them upright so that they will dry in that sort
00:14:35
of draping or drooping look because you can use that in your
00:14:40
bouquet, your dried bouquet in that manner.
00:14:43
Just keep in mind, again, going back to those straw flowers,
00:14:46
some of them have really delicate or brittle strums when
00:14:49
they dry. So in most instances, I prefer
00:14:53
to leave those stems long and then just cut them when I'm
00:14:57
ready to make my arrangement based on what size I want.
00:15:01
But like straw flowers, they are very delicate or brittle when
00:15:07
they are dry. So it's a good idea sometimes
00:15:10
with those if you want to, to cut the stem right away and just
00:15:13
run some floral wire through there instead so that you can
00:15:18
bunch them easier in the in the future without them breaking.
00:15:22
After that you get them hung up and, and it's just a matter of
00:15:25
waiting. So it's going to take probably a
00:15:28
month, maybe a little bit longer.
00:15:30
The drying time is going to vary with the size of the flowers and
00:15:33
how thick the stems are, but you'll be able to tell there
00:15:37
should be no give to them anymore.
00:15:39
The stems and the flower petals themselves should feel rigid.
00:15:44
Just keep in mind if you're again, someplace like I am where
00:15:47
there's high humidity or your temperatures are higher where
00:15:51
you're where you're drying them, you can that can affect how
00:15:56
quickly or how slowly these things dry.
00:15:58
So if you can increase the air movement by using, you know,
00:16:01
natural airflow of some sort, opening the windows or putting
00:16:05
some fans in there, then that's going to help you out.
00:16:09
Maybe some problems that you might see.
00:16:11
I haven't seen a ton of problems in drying them.
00:16:14
We already talked about, you know, not getting too much sun
00:16:17
on them because that can bleach them out and making sure that
00:16:20
you keep the moisture level down.
00:16:21
So we discourage mold. The only other concern that I
00:16:25
see is dust collecting on the flowers.
00:16:29
It's not real easy to dust a dried flower, right?
00:16:32
And I mean, they're kind of delicate.
00:16:34
And so when you want to store them, it's a good idea just to
00:16:37
kind of wrap them up in tissue and put them away until you're
00:16:41
ready to use them. But I have a set of dried
00:16:44
flowers that I keep out year round.
00:16:46
They're in my bathroom. And the general rule of thumb is
00:16:49
that you can keep dried flowers for about a year or so before
00:16:53
they start to deteriorate in quality.
00:16:55
But again, this is going to depend on what it is that you
00:16:58
dried. I can't remember what it is that
00:17:00
I've got in there, but it's a mixture of some decorative
00:17:03
grasses and a couple of very petite white flowers.
00:17:08
And other than the dust issue, they have held up just fine.
00:17:12
And I've had those in my bathroom for the better part of
00:17:15
two years, only having them swapped out in the holidays when
00:17:20
I replace them with something else.
00:17:21
And So what I do to dust them is I use that air can or the canned
00:17:26
air that you use for like cleaning your, your laptop
00:17:29
keyboard. And I just spray it at it and it
00:17:32
kind of gets the dust out of there without damaging the
00:17:36
petals or damaging any of the sensitive areas.
00:17:38
So, but if you have yours in an area that is getting more direct
00:17:42
sunlight, which mine does not, then they might deteriorate more
00:17:45
quickly, in which case it's just a good excuse for you to go out
00:17:48
and harvest some more, grow some more flowers and bring them in
00:17:51
and dry them again. So of course, the most common
00:17:57
use for dried flowers is to just gather them up into, you know,
00:18:00
beautiful little arrangements. Seasonal decor, holiday decor.
00:18:04
This is one of the biggest uses for dried flowers, right?
00:18:06
Bouquets, wreaths, swags, table centerpieces.
00:18:10
You can incorporate other elements into the flowers and
00:18:13
like greenery and stuff. I've done it with pumpkins and
00:18:16
acorns for fall decor. I've used, you know, Christmas
00:18:19
ornaments or lights for winter time decorations.
00:18:23
These all make really good gifts too.
00:18:24
You can do little small hand bouquets or little, you know, in
00:18:28
in vases and give them away as gifts.
00:18:31
But you can also add some of these flowers and the petals
00:18:35
once you've dried them, especially if you have ones that
00:18:37
dry after you've got them dried. They don't look the greatest.
00:18:40
Like I don't want to use that in a bouquet.
00:18:42
You can add it to tea. I mean, just make sure that
00:18:44
you're looking it up to make sure that's safe.
00:18:46
But it can be added to tea. It gives tea a little bit of a
00:18:48
floral note. You can also make your own
00:18:51
potpourri. So, you know, crush up those
00:18:55
those flowers that didn't look great to begin with and put them
00:18:58
in little satchels and use them as potpourri.
00:18:59
Or you can add them to simmer pots.
00:19:02
So oftentimes we'll do simmer pots in the winter time that
00:19:05
have like cinnamon and orange and those are kind of heavy, you
00:19:08
know, wintery scents. But if you add flowers to that,
00:19:12
it actually gives you a little bit more of a sweet smell in the
00:19:15
kitchen, in the house as you simmer it on the stove.
00:19:17
And then some dried flowers can be used as natural dyes too.
00:19:21
So if that's something that you want to play around with, you
00:19:23
know those ones that don't look great when they're they're done
00:19:26
being dried, find something else to do with them.
00:19:29
So now that fall frosts are looming ever more closely in the
00:19:33
garden, don't forget to do a final harvest on your flowers.
00:19:38
By cutting and drying these guys, you could get to enjoy
00:19:40
them inside all the way up until it's time to plant them in the
00:19:44
garden again in the spring. Until next time, my gardening
00:19:47
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
00:19:49
talk again soon. Thanks for listening to another
00:19:53
episode of the Just Grow Something podcast.
00:19:55
For more information about today's topic and to find all
00:19:58
the ways you can get in touch with me or support the show, go
00:20:01
to justgrowsomethingpodcast.com. Until next time, my gardening
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friends, keep learning and keep growing.