Drying Hydrangeas-And The Winner Is . . .

I decided to try drying some of my Hydrangeas again this year. I remember a few years ago I had a beautiful dried bouquet but don’t remember how I did it so tried a few different methods.

I took some and put in a vase of water Put some in a vase without water
None of these turned out very well as you can see by the pictures.
And hung some and put in the laundry room where it was a little cooler

Ironically, I’ve been trying for months to get back to watching The Ed Hume Gardening In America TV show and then the Gardening with Ciscoe show which follows it on Saturdays – but I always think of it too early then get busy or think of it too late. This time I happened to catch them and Ciscoe was doing one on drying Hydrangeas. I decided to try this experiment since nothing else had worked for me.First pick your Hydrangea bloom and take the leaves off of it.
Get a shot glass
fill it half full of water
Since the tall stem would fall over in the shot glass put it down in a vase then put the Hydrangea into it.
Place it in a cool dark place and let it sit until done. I don’t think mine even took a full week. The color is darker and more blue but the petals look great doing it with this method.

To see a video of this click on Ciscoe. I think the way I did it a few years ago was just to let them stay on the plant and pick them later in the season. To see more on this method click Drying Hydrangeas Naturally.