bestgardening.com Kids Project

When you walk around the garden you can see so many pretty and colourful flowers and leaves. To keep these flowers, and to make some wonderful gifts, you can press summer flowers and make your own bookmarks, cards, and sun-catchers, decorate boxes. There are simply lots of fun ways to use pressed flowers.

Collecting Flowers
Make sure that you have permission to pick the flowers before you start.

Collect the flowers on a dry sunny day, after the morning dew has died but before the heat of midday.

Choose the freshest and newest flowers, as these will make the best pressings. Pick the flowers carefully; any bruises will turn brown during pressing.

Don't pick poisonous plants. So stay away from euphorbias (spurge), monkshood, and foxgloves, even parsnip flowers can cause blisters on a sunny day.

Flowers that press well include sweet peas, daisies, geraniums, delphiniums, marigolds, salvia, in fact anything that is colourful, and not too bulky (like a pom-pom dahlia). You can have fun with bean and strawberry flowers; courgettes have big, gorgeous yellow flowers, but make sure it's okay to pick them first! Pick some of the flowers with stems and collect some leaves as well.

Pressing the Flowers
You need to press the flowers the same day you pick them, before they wilt. You can either use a flower press, some sheets of very heavy cardboard and strong rubber bands or a heavy book (an old copy of the phone book is perfect)

Two to three layers of plain paper or newspaper under side of the flowers will absorb moisture as the plant dries, if you are using the phone book then this is not needed. If you use paper towels the 'dimple' pattern can come through on your flowers. You might like this, but it can spoil your pressings.

Press similar flowers together. For example press all your pansies or daisies together; flowers that are the same bulk and dry at the same rate give better results.

You can press the flowers sideways, facedown, and face up, whatever looks best to you. Daisies are easiest if you cut off the stem and place them facedown. 'Fat' flowers such as dahlias and marigolds may need to be cut in half and have some centre petals taken out to 'slim' them down. Press any individual petals and some leaves. You can use these in you designs later.

Place more paper/newspaper over the flowers, marking one sheet with the date that you pressed the flowers, make sure this sticks out a little so that you can read it when the book/flower press is closed. Then fix the top layer of the flower press; cover with your second sheet of heavy cardboard and hold in place with the rubber bands, or carefully close the phone book.

Waiting - the Hardest Part
You need to wait two to four weeks for most flowers to dry properly. Thinner, smaller flowers dry faster, while bulky flowers take the longest time. Make sure that you leave the flower press out somewhere dry; the flowers can go mouldy in a cupboard without air circulation.

'Fat' flowers may need a change of any outer layer paper /newspaper sheets that are damp after about five days, but be careful not to touch the inside sheet as the flowers can easily wrinkle or tear and you can spoil all your work. If you are worried about this, don't, as the flowers will dry if you leve them an extra week. Then leave for a further two weeks minimum.

When you take the flowers out they should feel dry and papery.

Pansies make great pressed flowers