A lovely way to remember how your garden bloomed throughout the year – and in effect to help you remember year after year – is flower pressing. As you decide when to pick your flowers and which blooms to select, here is our guide to picking the best flowers which should result in the most attractive pressed flowers.
When To Pick Your Blooms For Flower Pressing
When it comes to the time of day that is best for selecting flowers for pressing it should be in the morning, but ideally after any dew has evaporated. With flower pressing you are trying to avoid are damp flowers – neither damp from dew nor rain.
- Select flowers at their peak of growth - either at their budding stage, just ready to open or have just opened.
- Inspect the flowers prior to cutting – avoiding flowers with any blemishes or tears.
How To Care For Your Blooms Pre Flower Pressing
Once you have picked your flowers and whilst you prepare your equipment to flower pressing, to keep them in tip top condition we recommend the following:
Don’t pick and wonder – you can take lots of time as you select the best blooms from your garden and that’s not a bad thing! But ideally when it comes to flower pressing, you want to pop your flowers straight into water after they have been cut – so if you carry a small bucket of water around with you and plunge them into that they should remain fresh until you return indoors.
Remove any visitors – whether it’s an insect or dirt, you don’t want to include either as you press flowers so a gently shake, or swipe with a paint brush, can make sure these are removed so you can have the best-pressed flowers.
Re-cut the stems – when you get back indoors fill your kitchen sink with fresh water and put in your flowers. Now take each bloom and recut the base of the stem at an angle – cutting at an angle allows the stem to absorb the greatest amount of water.
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Transfer your flowers back into a vase, glass, or bucket of water with some cut flower food and leave them for a few hours, away from direct sunlight, so they are in the best state prior to the flower pressing process.
In all our preparation we have assumed that you are pressing flowers complete with their stems – if you are pressing flowers to use them for another project after they are flat and dry, it might be easier for you to simply press the bloom and not the stem – removing the stem before you press is easier than after and will give the best result. This also applies if you just want to use the petals once they have been pressed – to get the best pressed flowers, simply press the individual petals to get the best outline and flattest finish.
What Are The Best Blooms For Flower Pressing
Not all flowers are equal when it comes to pressing, and common sense provides the main reason for this – by pressing flowers you are making them ‘flat’, so the ‘flatter’ the original bloom the easier they are to press and so you’re likely to get the best results.
Flowers which have naturally flat blooms are often those that have single-layered petals, including:
Bluebells – a very distinctive shape these bell like blooms are usually a deep violet-blue colour, although pink and white varieties are also available
Cosmos – with glorious colours these look great pressed on their stems or as single flower heads
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Daisies "I'm a pretty little thing, |
Delphiniums / Larkspur – these tall flowers are best pressed as individual blooms, ideally select one stem and then press a range of blooms to show the gradual change in size
Forget-me-not – these tiny blooms are the perfect option for pressed flowers when pressed to use in other projects, such as jewellery making, where the size suits delicate settings
Hydrangeas – although huge blooms, if you press the individual petals these will produce a delicate effect and the perfect reminder of this stunning plant
Love-in-the-mist / Nigella - available in a selection of shades these delicate flowers will create a stunning effect when dried.
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Pansies With lots of varieties, styles and colours these are a staple flower that you have access to most of the year which are perfect for flower pressing. "It does me good, thou flower of spring, |
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Flowers which are ‘chunkier’ and would need more care to press include:
- Carnations
- Chrysanthemums
- Lilies
- Multi-petal roses
- Orchids
With these ‘chunkier’ blooms you could try cutting them in half before pressing, which will still provide a glorious reminder of the fresh flower. Or try ‘debulking’ them by removing some of the centre of the bloom, giving more space to those petals left to lie flat as they press.
The other blooms which will need some modifications before the flower pressing process are those which have large stamens covered in pollen. What you want to avoid is the pollen from staining the rest of the bloom as it is pressed – to do this simply snip the stamen away before pressing – a good example of these type of blooms are lilies.
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Deadheading Snips These pocket sized snips are ideal for this task - as well as many others when you are flower arranging, preparing flowers to be pressed, or simply deadheading blooms around your garden.
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Our Top Flower Pressing Tip
Label – just like you must label your seeds when you sow them, it’s also important to be able to identify your blooms when they are being pressed – a simple piece of paper with the date it was picked, and its name will ensure that once they have finished being pressed you still know exactly what they are. This is also lovely if you have been able to press flowers from a friend’s garden – a simple note saying whose garden they were from will make a precious memory.
Our blog posts are created from our personal knowledge, information gathered by speaking to other gardeners or manufacturers in the gardening industry, by reading gardening magazines and devouring information from books and the internet. We aim to be as accurate as we can, so if you find a mistake, please remember, we’re only human. If you have any queries you can contact us today!