Artsy Monday - Drying Rose Petals

Greetings everyone, amazingly I am finally posting an Artsy Monday post!! I really do have several in the works and I will share them as I finish them. For my first Artsy Monday post in WAY too long I thought I would share with you how I dry my rose petals.

My Roses

When dried, these petals are used for sachets and are especially good for love and romance spells. These roses are rich in color and have sweet, heart shaped petals.

For petals you want to cut the flowers that are open, in their prime and after the dew has dried. You do not want old, brown flowers or those that are wet. Neither will give you a good result. You can also dry rose buds. Chooses buds that are tightly formed  but showing color. When drying buds you do not remove the bud from the stem. 

As you can see above the petal on the far right has some discoloration on the top. I try to avoid using these. I like to use the best looking petals that I have. 

Pic. 1

Pic. 2

Pic. 3

Pic. 4

To remove the petals from the stem I grasp the flower and pull all of the petals away from the stem as shown in Picture 1 above. Next I gently twist the petals, pulling them away from their center (Pic. 2), this leaves me with the petals between my fingers (Pic. 3) and once they are laid out I can go through them looking for rot or defects (Pic. 4). Practice on a flower that is not as nice so that you have the technique down and won't bruise or damage the petals. It doesn't take much to remove the petals from the stem!

Once you remove the petals from the stem, discard the stem and go through the petals. Remove any that are discolored, moldy, brown... I do this one flower at a time, putting the petals I wish to dry on the dehydrator racks as I go.

When placing the petals on the tray you want to make sure they do not overlap, this causes uneven drying time which could lead to problems like mold if they are stored before they are fully dry!

Petals and Buds

Full Dehydrator

I like using my dehydrator to dry flowers. They dry quickly and I can lay out a lot at one time, which is important because they shrink, a LOT, during the drying process.

Same Batch! 1/2 Hour Later

After 1/2 hour the petals are already noticeably smaller.

Final Petals

Beautiful color!

I leave mine in the dehydrator for a full day, watching to make sure they do not start to brown on the edges. At the end of the day I turn the dehydrator off and leave them for the night. I live in a VERY dry climate so I do not need to worry about any humidity. When drying petals be sure to follow the directions on your particular dehydrator and for your climate.

Once this batch was completely dry I ended up with 1 cup of petals and buds from the 5 trays of petals/buds I started with. They are a rich, deep pink color and  smell wonderful! These are perfect to use in a potpourri mix or a sachet and they look wonderful in a small bowl.

You can also dry flowers and petals between paper towels, in wax paper inside of books but dehydrators are easily found in thrift shops, they help to reduce the instance of mold and are much faster. Be sure to wash the trays well before use. Make sure the trays are completely dry before adding your petals to them.

This method works great for petals and buds, for full bouquets I suggest tying the bouquet stems together and then hanging the bouquet upside down in a cool dry area and letting it dry naturally. Hanging it upside down tends to help the bouquet retain its shape.

Thanks for stopping in for a visit.