The best way to air-dry most flowers is to hang them upside down in bunches in a dry dark place for 1-3 weeks. Take the leaves off the stems and bind 6-10 stems together tightly with rubber bands.

Flowers that dry well are yarrow, carnations, allium, baby's breath, lavender, sea holly, globe thistle, celosia, and coneflowers. However, most flowers dry well if they are picked when they first open or are in bud.
Hydrangeas will dry well in a vase with just an inch of water, which is then left to evaporate.

You can also lie flowers flat in a bed of desiccant, which is an absorbent material you can buy at craft stores. Place it in a cardboard box, such as a large shoe box with a lid. Double flowers, such as peonies dry beautifully. Dessicants, such as silica gel, which looks like sand, can be reused many times. Buy 5-10 pounds of it and store it in airtight containers. flowers must be perfectly dry before they are placed in a box and covered with a desiccant. Follow the directions on your container of silica gel, which will include information concerning multiple reuses.

Make wire stems for the flowers once they are dry by placing a piece of floral wire along-side the stem at the base of each dried flower. Then tape the wire to the natural stem with green floral tape, which is available at craft shops. The wire attached to the dried stem will help keep each flower erect. Store the dried flowers in an empty vase in a dark place until you have enough dried flowers to make an arrangement.

This is Moya Andrews and today we focused on drying flowers.