Many people like to extend the beauty of flowers by drying them. A beautiful, perfectly dried flower can be used in floral arrangements to enhance the interior decor of a home year round. Peony flowers are especially lush and sumptuous and create dramatic effects in floral arrangements. However, because they hold a lot of moisture they do not lend themselves to simply being hung upside down in a cool, dry place for four weeks to dry them out. Peony flowers require a more exacting drying process.
Instructions
Drying Peony Flowers Using Household Ingredients
1. Clip the stem from the flowers using pruning shears leaving two inches of stem. Take four inches of floral wire and wind it around each stem securely.
2. Gather together borax and white corn meal to prepare two quarts of drying mixture. Mix the corn meal and borax in a ratio of one part borax to six parts white corn meal. Mix together thoroughly.
3. Pour two inches of the corn meal/borax mixture into the bottom of the cardboard box. Set the flowers on the mixture facing upwards. Bend the floral wire so its laying horizontal to the box in the mixture.
4. Use a kitchen food strainer to sprinkle the drying mixture over the flowers taking care to get the mixture down into the petals of each flower. The more mixture surrounding each petal the more thoroughly it will dry.
5. Continue burying the flowers with the mixture until they are completely covered. Pick up the cardboard box and lightly tap it to get the drying mixture to settle deeply into the flowers. If a lot of settling takes place, add more mixture so the flowers are completely buried once again. Set the lidless box in a warm, dry location. Drying should take two to three weeks.
Removing The Dried Peonies From The Drying Mixture
6. Take a clean, soft painter's brush and gently start brushing the drying mixture away from the tops of the flowers to locate the outside edges of each one.
7. Push the fingers down through the mixture on either side of each flower and cup it underneath. Slowly lift it out of the mixture.
8. Turn each flower over and gently shake the drying mixture from the inside of the flower. If a white dust from the mixture remains on the petals, blow it away or delicately brush it away with a brush.
9. Attach a long length of floral wire to each flower, wrap it with floral tape and stick the newly dried peony in a vase or add it to an existing dried floral arrangement.
