Preserving cut flowers - Help?

...or to be more specific, roses.

My friend just brought a few roses over from the floral arrangements from her mother's funeral. She'd like them preserved. Which method do you find to work best? Pressing, air-drying? I've only hung them upside down and dried them in the past. Not sure if it makes a difference, but the roses are yellow and white.

Thanks.

I have always hung them upside down somewhere dark and sprayed the bejesus out of them with hair spray. (Usually aqua net lol it seems to work well)

There used to be a flower drying/preserving kit you could get in the craft stores.I'm thinking it was like a silica gel crystals that you buried the flowers in for a certain length of time.Not sure if they are still available anymore but perhaps worth a look.

I think I remember my MIL using BORAX & CORNMEAL to dry flowers (back in the '70's.) If I remember correctly, it worked well with light colored flowers and it didn't discolor them.

If she has someone local that offers freeze-drying, that is 100% the way to go. Even though I'm in RT school now, I've been a lisenced florist since I was 17...I'm a huge fan of freezedrying! The flowers (especially roses) preserve sooooo much better that way, and they maintain their color,shape/etc! Here are some examples of the memorials my friend Peggy does. http://www.flowersforeverinc.com/memorials/index.html

If she doesn't want to spend any $$ on it though, she can spray the roses with hairspray and hang them upside down on a clotheshanger and secure them with clothespins for a few weeks and that will dry them. She can also press them into a memory album as well if she prefers. (Arts & Crafts stores such as Michael's and Hobby Lobby also sell chemical preservatives if she wants to try those, but those are honestly hit or miss as far as quality goes.)

Your friend's pieces are stunning!

Wow Niki I had no idea you could freeze dry flowers. Those ones your friend are amazing! They look perfect.

Originally Posted by krazy kat2

Your friend's pieces are stunning!

Click to expand...

Originally Posted by pushylady

Wow Niki I had no idea you could freeze dry flowers. Those ones your friend are amazing! They look perfect.

Click to expand...

That's why I love freeze-drying! Almost everything always turns out soo lovely! Peggy does amazing work out of her little shop! I always recommend her anytime I do fresh flowers for weddings/funerals/etc on the side and someone wants to preserve them. She's by far the best in this area.

The key to finding a good preservist is to use someone who does not take the entire boquet apart if there is a boquet involved. You also want someone who has backup generators incase they loose power while the flowers are mid-process. (Some people who freeze-dry actually take the arrangements apart and indivudally freeze-dry each piece. That's a REALLY bad idea. (trying to put a boquet or piece back together after they've been freezedried is a nightmare because the flowers are very delicate & most of the time the person freezedrying isn't a florist os getting them back to their origional look isn't always easy. Peggy is awesome though because her containers she freeze-dries in are big enough to put an entire boquet/etc in there! Her stuff always turns out gorgeous too.

Well, some "archaich metod" would be...
1.- Put some ice cubes at the water of the flowers... every time that seems necesary....
2.- put an aspirine ( those that are efervecents ) on the water of the flowers...

Both methods SOMETIMES we use it and seems make "during" the flowers one day more without that...

just remember our weather is plenty hot... ...

I've only used LOTS of hair spray,and hung them upside down too.