Hydrangeas are very popular as dried flowers.
The trick is to choose the right time to do the drying. If hydrangeas are harvested soon after the blossoms open they probably won't dry well; they are too inherently moist.
Most seasoned flower driers recommend August to October for cutting flowers to dry. Some people even suggest that you leave the mophead on the plant until they are almost wilting (October), which does work well in a dry climate. You will probably have to experiment to find the right harvest point for the conditions where you live.
Cut the blooms, remove all leaves.
(Optional) Preserve the stems by dipping them in alum powder (available from florists). Put the mophead on a stem in a vase with just a small amount of water (1 inch or so). Then just leave them drying. When the water is all gone, the flowers should be all dried out, too, and ready for use in craft work.
Hydrangeas stems can be hung upside down, too, to dry. But this isn't usually essential unless the stems are quite weak.
The trick is to choose the right time to do the drying. If hydrangeas are harvested soon after the blossoms open they probably won't dry well; they are too inherently moist.
Most seasoned flower driers recommend August to October for cutting flowers to dry. Some people even suggest that you leave the mophead on the plant until they are almost wilting (October), which does work well in a dry climate. You will probably have to experiment to find the right harvest point for the conditions where you live.
Cut the blooms, remove all leaves.
(Optional) Preserve the stems by dipping them in alum powder (available from florists). Put the mophead on a stem in a vase with just a small amount of water (1 inch or so). Then just leave them drying. When the water is all gone, the flowers should be all dried out, too, and ready for use in craft work.
Hydrangeas stems can be hung upside down, too, to dry. But this isn't usually essential unless the stems are quite weak.
