How to dry your Hydrangeas…

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While the summer days cook the southern states right now, including Tasmania, I have been making sure our new plants the boy’s and I  have planted are surviving the heat…as well as my beloved Hydrangea beds. I have an assortment of these stunning plants that include pure white…my favourite.

But today I filled our Old Lady with the blues and purples and I thought I would let you know how I keep them alive for so long without changing the water etc…I still have the ones from Christmas I cut on our coffee table still! Every year when the flowers come out, I save them so I can still enjoy their beauty for the whole year, through the colder months, until they bloom again. We still have vases…well pewter mugs, glasses, jugs etc…with some that are two to three years old. They last forever if you dry them out. I get a lot of questions about this, so, here is what I do….

1. cut your blooms and strip off the leaves except for the two closest to the flower head

2. fill a vase/jar/cup with water, about 1/2 way up

3. add a capful of ordinary bleach (not lemon etc, just regular old bleach)

4. add your flowers and let them wick the water up…do not add/change the water!

5. once the stem ends no longer touch the water, they will finish drying off

…enjoy for years…

www.marleyandlockyer.com

There are a lot of other ways I am sure to do this, but this method has never let me down

…I plan on drying these lovelies out that I added to our bathroom today too. If you give it a go, I would love to hear how you get on xx

Comments

comments

Comments (9)

  • Wow, thank you Vanessa. I have never heard of this method before and can’t wait to try them!

    Reply
    • Good luck. It’s been a method I have used for years xx

      Reply
  • If this works, you will officially be my best friend. Thanks so much for sharing!

    Reply
    • haha! I’d love to hear how you get on with it xx

      Reply
  • Thanks so much for posting this tip! I have a hydrangea bush in my front garden which was pruned back a while ago – now I’ll know what to do with some of the flowers when it gets going again! 🙂

    Reply
    • no problems. I have been doing this for years. It’s great to be able to save them all year xx

      Reply
  • Thank you very much for the tip! I’m really looking forward to trying this with our hydrangeas, even though I’ll have to wait a good half year at least, as we’re in the dead of winter here in Scotland! 🙂
    Your flowers are gorgeous, and what lovely photos!
    I do have a question about the proportion water/bleach: does it matter how much water there is, or should I only add 1 capful even for a bigger vase?

    Reply
    • Thank you so much! How nice to hear you are from Scotland. My entire family are from there and I would love to visit again soon. It’s gorgeous!
      As for the bleach/water. I just fill whatever jug/vase you are using with about 1/3 of water and add a capful of bleach to that. If it is a very small vase, then just half it. Hope that helps.
      Ness xx

      Reply
      • Thank you, yes it does help! 🙂
        Scotland is indeed beautiful – its lovely countryside never ceases to charm me even on the dreariest of days! However I’m a newcomer here: a Romanian by birth, I moved here to get married to a brave Scottish lad 🙂 Romania’s landscape can be just as gorgeous and dramatic, but I’ve grown up among concrete and asphalt in the capital, so it’s more than I had dreamed of to have my own garden with hydrangeas and roses!

        Reply

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