I've dried flowers before but only in small quantities, usually just by hanging and air drying. My son and future daughter in law are getting married in Oct. of 2016 and are having a very country rustic theme to their wedding. I have two growing seasons to try to grow and dry as many flowers as I possibly can. Their colors are yellow (sunflowers) and deep blues with white and green mixed in. If anyone has had any experiences with drying your flowers I would love to hear them. What were the best to dry, which retained color better, etc, etc...
When we lived in upstate NY, I dried a lot of flowers (got me through the long winter with something that looked kinda green!). Bachelor's buttons (pink, white, blue) dry well; strawflowers come in a variety of colors; statice, which has a nice blue color; echinops Blue Thistle: yarrow which comes in white, yellow, and red, and a pastel mix. Also consider "fillers" like artemesia (silver queen is great) and some of the smaller ornamental grasses. Of the above, Bachelor buttons is best dried with a silica drying compound (put a thin layer of the compound in a container, put in a layer of flowers, add more silica, another layer, and seal). I use old fruitcake tins, but anything that seals pretty tightly will do. All the rest dry well if cut just before full bloom, hung upside down in a place that has good air circulation but out of direct sunlight . Cutting the flowers when they are breaking, but not fully open is important, since they will continue to open even after cut. I congratulate your future daughter-in-law on having such a thoughtful and kind future mother-in-law!
Thanks for the info marlingardener. I am definitely growing blue bachelor buttons and the strawflowers and statice. I'm thinking of baby's breath and amaranth and pearly everlasting also. Thanks for the tip on cutting before they open fully, I've made that mistake before and those flowers did not look very good.
