Today I’m sharing how to preserve your spring blooms and enjoy them all year long! Create colorful flower confetti or sprinkles. Infuse honey and oils, add to syrups, teas, or salads. Think outside the box and harvest seed pods for wild & fun bouquets!
As my garden began to expand and my love for growing flowers increased, I found myself using my dehydrator more and more. It started with drying herb and vegetables, but quickly moved onto drying and preserving flowers. You can hang dry flowers, like lavender and roses, but sticky flowers like calendula- I prefer to dry in the dehydrator.
As spring approached and our moving date draws closer, I began drying as many blooms as I could. This year I wasn’t focusing my time on planting seeds or hardening off seedlings, but I found myself still gravitating to the garden. I discovered that harvesting isn’t just for the summer months, spring offers an abundance as well.
By harvesting your flowers continuously, you not only get to use those blooms to create with, but you also encourage the plant to produce more blooms. This creates new growth and provides continual blooms, by deadheading flowers regularly. Deadheading transfers the plant’s energy from seed production to bloom creation. This also helps make your flowering plants look nicer, as dead flowers turn brown and drop all their petals.
Check out my flower guide, BLOOM – A Flower Seed Starting Guide, HERE!
There are so many uses for fresh & dried flowers:
- Calendula- Salve, sprinkles, infused oil
- Rose- Rose water
- Lavender- Syrups, scented sachets
- Chamomile- Tea, infused honey
- Lilacs- Syrups
- Borage- Edible details, on cream cheese or fruit trays.
- Nasturium- Salad
- Marigold- Salad
- Dandelion- Tea, infused oil
- Sunflower- Salad
How to make a colorful flower confetti mix:
This might seem obvious, but plant different colors and shades of flowers. This doesn’t mean that you need every shade of rose or lilac bush. For example, I have 2 varieties of purple lilacs and 1 white lilac. I have a white rose bush, a red and also a yellow rose. Between those 6 bushes, I have a great variety of colors. In the spring, I’m able to harvest those blooms and store them as I wait for my summer blooms to come in- marigolds, calendula, sunflowers, lavender, and so on. I like to harvest full flowers and pedals, to create texture, this also gives life and beauty to your confetti mix.
Bouquets
Dried flower bouquets are one of my favorite gifts to give, because they last forever. Flowers like Lavender have beautiful long stems, making it easy to harvest and dry. I almost always send friends and family home, after visiting, with a little lavender bouquet. When your harvesting flowers to dry for a bouquet, keep in mind that you’ll want long stems and hang them upside down or lay them flat on a counter top. You’ll want to use strong, long stem flowers, but don’t be afraid to get creative, use what you have and forage for the rest! I have collected eucalyptus in parking lots with friends, walked to neighboring empty lots and harvested desert blooms. Consider using dill or carrot flowers, chive stems and blooms, radish flowers, and even seed pods- poppy, dill, onion, to create an interesting & fun bouquet.
Dehydrator Instructions:
- Harvest flowers.
- Place evenly on drying rack.
- Set your dehydrator for 16 hours at 100 degrees, or overnight.
- I like to store my flowers in a cardboard box or brown paper bag to prevent moisture or mold growth. If you are confident the whole flower is completely dry, you may store them in glass jars. I typically will only store my flowers in glass jars, if I am infusing them- oils or honey.
I’d love to hear from you, what flowers will you be preserving this year?
And how do you plan on using them?
