How To Display Dried Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas that have been dried make elegant and subtle home decor. Here are a few straightforward suggestions for including them in your space:

Put a couple stems in a vase or jar for a splash of color.
In a large, shallow bowl, arrange dried hydrangeas and other flowers to make a lovely centerpiece for your dinner table.
Hanging a sizable arrangement of dried hydrangeas from the ceiling can make a striking statement.
Displaying dried hydrangeas in unusual containers, such as vintage teapots or Mason jars, will add interest to a bookshelf or mantle.

You can dry them and use them to decorate for fall once the spring and summer have passed and they have done blooming.

Make a dried hydrangea wreath

Why not embellish your premade wreath with a few fresh hydrangeas? Your wreath will appear to have just left the florist thanks to this simple trick. Simply take out the fake flowers from the wreath and replace them with a few stalks of hydrangeas.

You’ll need dried hydrangea, florist wire, and grapevine wreath.
Keep the stems about five stems long and trim the leaves.
The hydrangea should be wrapped in floral wire and inserted into the grapevine wreath.
Around the wreath, add more hydrangea as you continue to wrap the wire.
The stems can also be fixed in place with the use of a glue gun.
To make the hydrangeas look uniform, you might need to cut a few of them. See the excessively enthusiastic pal up top. His hair needs to be clipped.
After that, tie a ribbon on it and hang the wreath from the door.

Add dried hydrangeas to garlands

Garlands look stunning and last a very long time with the addition of dried hydrangeas. Cut the flower stems to a length of about six inches before beginning to add dried hydrangeas to a garland. The stem should now be threaded through the garland, with a little extra stem left on either end. Once every flower has been put, gently fluff them out to give the arrangement a full, natural appearance. Finally, to keep the stems in place, use floral tape or wire. Your dried hydrangea garland will look lovely for many seasons to come with a little bit of maintenance.

This is how I created the garland:

This basic garland was purchased at the dollar store.
The hydrangea should be wrapped in florist wire before being included into the grapevine garland.
I augmented the door with six to eight hydrangeas on each side.

Add as accents on a pre-made wreath

This wreath was already purchased, which I did. It arrived with existing vegetation.
In order to give the wreath a little more texture, I added a few dried hydrangea and other flowers.
The hydrangeas’ stems were left about five inches long after I removed all of their leaves.
The hydrangea should be wrapped in floral wire before being placed within the ready-made wreath.
When adding the hydrangeas to the wreath, be sure to mix up their sizes.

We are planting our new hydrangea bushes in a hidden area of the house that is shaded by the trees and receives dappled sunshine as we prepare the rocky, dry soil, prepare the beds, and create a home for them.

And what comes to mind when I see the flowers my father liked that were placed in the flower beds and in front of the house? I can see he’s grinning right now.

How can dried hydrangeas be used?

You may appreciate the blossoms’ timeless beauty all year long by drying them. Vase drying and silica drying are the two basic techniques for hydrangea flower drying. Silica drying results in more bright color, whereas vase drying is simpler and less expensive. Use the vase-drying technique, which results in blossoms with vintage colours, to keep things straightforward.

Timing is Everything

The key to success is knowing when to cut hydrangea blossoms for drying. Even though you might be tempted to cut blossoms off the plant as they reach their height of color, it’s crucial to let flowers start drying on the plant. The petals of the flowers will start to feel papery and change colors after they have graced your garden for a few weeks. Depending on the environment and soil pH, oakleaf hydrangeas like TaraTM take on traces of coral or rose, and big-leaf hydrangeas like Dear DoloresTM pick up hints of purple, burgundy, or turquoise. It’s time to grab the pruners when you see colors changing and petals becoming less flexible.

Making the Cut

After the dew on the petals has dried in the morning, trim the stems. Cut stems at an angle with sharp shears or pruners, leaving 12 to 18 inches of stem. Cut the leaves off the cuttings, then put them in a bucket of water. Picky because cuttingdrying brings out flaws in the blooms. Select the nicest flowers to dry and leave the others for the garden to enjoy.

Arrange in Vases of Water

What, we dry flowers with water? Even though it might seem counterproductive, drying hydrangeas in water-filled containers helps keep their color. Put cuttings in vases or other transparent containers and add water until the stem is immersed by a few inches. Don’t pack the vases too tightly. Each bloom needs space to keep an open form and adequate airflow to dry. To give each flower enough room, try staggering the stem lengths.

Allow to Dry

Put containers in different rooms of your house so you may enjoy them while they dry. Keep the flowers away from direct sunshine, though. As the flowers dry, let the water naturally evaporate from the containers. Drying time for blooms can be two weeks or longer. If the water in the vase has evaporated but the flowers have not yet dried, you can add extra water.

When the stem snaps easily and the petals feel stiff, the dried flowers are ready to be used. Simple vases filled with dried hydrangeas, wreaths made of dried hydrangeas, and window boxes decorated with dried hydrangeas all look charming. They are ideal for our flexible Golden Rings tabletop setup as well.

How are hydrangeas dried for display?

drying hydrangeas

You don’t want moist petals, so choose your flowers when they are dry.
Cut the stem (about 30cm down)
Remove leaves.
Put stem in a sizable water-filled container or vase.
Place in a cool, dry location away from direct sunlight (where you can see and enjoy them)
Watch for the vase or jar’s water to evaporate.

How long are dried hydrangeas good for?

The spectacular, huge hydrangea blossoms come in a wide range of hues, including blue, red, purple, white, and pale green. You’ll be relieved to learn how simple it is to dry the blooms if you cultivate hydrangeas and wish to keep their beauty for a long time after they bloom. One type of flower that requires absolutely no work to keep is the hydrangea; it dries in about two weeks and can last for up to a year.

There are numerous techniques to preserve hydrangeas, but water-drying is the best because it keeps the flowers’ shape and color.

How can you extend the life of dried hydrangeas?

Hydrangeas dry best when left on the bush after their prime and are trimmed when they start to naturally dry out at the end of the season. According to Marzec, if you remove your stems too soon, they may shrivel up. He advises waiting until late summer or even early October for late-blooming kinds. Pay particular attention to the petals, which will start to fold under as the colors fade, and the leaves, which start to feel papery and less fresh, she advises. According to Chris Link, co-owner of Nebraska-based online nursery Plant Addicts, the color of the bloom is another important consideration. Most hydrangea blooms begin as one hue, such as green or white, and change to another, such as pink or red, according to him. Simply clip the blossom when it is the desired shade of color, but before it becomes brown.

Cut flowers with stems that are between 12 and 18 inches in length for the greatest displays, and make sure to remove any leaves before drying. Link advises against trimming stems too short on some hydrangeas that bloom on old wood because doing so could affect the flowers of the following year. This would only be concerning if you removed the blooms extremely late in the year because the flowers would probably already be brown by then.

How may dried hydrangeas be prevented from disintegrating?

Yes, I am aware that using water to dry hydrangeas seems a little backwards, but I assure you that it is the simplest method. Thus, this is what you do:

Cut:
Cut the quantity of hydrangeas you intend to dry or incorporate into your current cut flower design.
Make them 12 to 18 long. Once I get all the stems together, I normally make the initial cut longer than that and depending on where it would preserve the shrub in good condition.
De-Leaf:
Simply move your hand down the stem, pulling off the leaves as you go, by grasping it at the top just below the bloom. I suppose you could go up, but if you do, you run the risk of picking up too much speed and damaging the bloom as well.
I frequently conduct my de-leafing in the garden, leaving the leaves to act as natural compost in my beds. If you do it inside, though, stripping your stems directly over a garbage can will make cleanup much simpler.
Fill a vase with:
Simply arrange your hydrangeas like you would any other flower arrangement, which will require some trial and error in placement if you want to enjoy them before they dry—I don’t know why you wouldn’t.
I typically hold each stalk in one hand while moving the others such that the flowers with the straightest upward faces are in the center and the smaller and/or droopier ones are on the sides. I then make my final selection, keeping them all at the same level, after gauging their height in relation to the vase.
The bottoms of your stems should then be pounded with a hammer to aid in their water absorption, however I’ve never tried it; feel free to.
Just before placing flowers in the vase, I twist tie or rubber band the stems to secure them in place.
Adjust the arrangement of the blossoms after placing them in a tall vase strong enough to hold the length of the stems.
Insert Water:
I’d advise adding the water before the flowers if your faucet doesn’t extend with a hose. Do it either way if you have one of those posh faucets.
Usually, I would fill the vase about half and three quarters full, making sure that all of the stems were submerged completely.
Dry:
You might have to keep adding water until the flowers are completely dry, depending on how the blooms were when you started the drying process. If not, I’ve seen that they wilt and then dry wilted, which isn’t very attractive.
Therefore, maintain watering if the flowers are still quite supple. You can stop watering them once they have dried out and feel and look like paper.
You can enjoy your lovely dried flower arrangement for many years once a few weeks have passed. On our mantel, we really have a pair that has been there for about 9 years.
Spray:
When your hydrangeas are completely dry, mist them with hairspray aerosol (sorry, aerosol spray just works better than the pump spray kind…it just does).
I used to believe that this was done to coat the blooms in order to keep their color for a little while longer. But now I believe it’s only to keep the florets together, making it less likely that they will fall off when you brush up against them and make a big mess.