Like all beauty, that of the rose is fleeting. However, you can preserve particularly beautiful specimens - or ones that you want to enjoy for a long time, such as a bridal bouquet. The conventional method is drying in the air or in the oven. However, both options have a serious disadvantage: the bright colors of the rose fade. We will introduce you to other ways of preserving roses, in which the beauty of the flower is preserved.

Special bouquets can be immortalized by drying

Roses dry the traditional way: air drying or in the oven

Probably the most common method of preserving roses is air drying. To do this, tie the roses into a bouquet, tightly enclose the stems with an elastic band and hang the flowers upside down in a dark, warm and dry place. For example, rooms such as a boiler room or a dark attic are ideal. The roses stay hanging for several weeks until they are completely dry. But be careful: in this condition, the bouquets are quite crumbly and break apart quickly. If you want to dry the roses faster, you can also do this in the oven - place the flowers individually on a baking tray lined with baking paper and let them dry for several hours at temperatures between 50 and 80 °C.

Preserve roses after drying

To increase the durability of the dried roses, you can then spray them all over with hairspray. This not only offers the advantage that the flowers do not crumble so quickly, dust does not stick to them too much and the roses are easier to clean. However, this procedure is only recommended for plants that are purely for decoration - and not for the kitchen! - are to be used.

Dry rose petals for potpourris or for the kitchen

Rose petals for potpourris or for use in the kitchen should be dried particularly gently and with a great deal of sensitivity. You can conserve the flowers either in the air or in the oven, whereby the individual leaves must be spread out carefully and airy - either on a clean surface (e.g. a cloth) or on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Otherwise, when drying the rose petals, proceed in the same way as when drying a whole bouquet, as described above.

Roses dry with silica gel or salt

The pure drying is quite uncomplicated, but has one disadvantage: the colors of the flower fade strongly. You can prevent this by not preserving the roses in the air or in the oven, but placing them in silica gel or salt for this purpose. You can get the silica gel at any good craft store. Now proceed as follows:

  • Choose a sufficiently large vessel.
  • This should be airtight.
  • Hold the bouquet of roses in there
  • and fill the cavities with silica gel or salt.
  • Shake the jar from time to time so that there really aren't any air spaces left.
  • You can also let it hit the floor slightly on the table or similar.
  • When the roses are completely covered, seal the jar tightly.
  • Keep it in a dark, dry and warm place.
  • The drying process should be completed after a few weeks.

The best method: preserving a bouquet of roses with glycerin

However, the best way to preserve roses forever is with glycerin. To do this, mix liquid glycerine with water and place the fresh roses (cut the stems at an angle, of course!) in there. The flowers will soak up the glycerin water and be preserved. They are ready as soon as small droplets emerge from the petals. In this way, the roses remain just as beautiful as if they were actually placed in the vase fresh from the garden - all you have to do is dust them off from time to time.

tips

Ask the craft store for colored and reusable salt for drying - you can tell by the color of the salt how far the drying process has progressed or even finished. The lighter the colour, the more moisture the special salt has absorbed. You can dry the salt in the oven after use and then store it for the next use.

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:

  • as a free PDF file to print out yourself

Category:

Vegetable garden