Tips for naturally air drying your Bare Bouquet

We do recommend that you enjoy your fresh bouquet in water for several days before you dry anything out - fresh is always the most beautiful! 

That being said, every day we include some flowers in your bouquet that will dry out nicely so that you can have a little piece of your bouquet for even longer! If you would like more specific tips on your bouquet feel free to reach out✌️

General tips

  • Low humidity - dampness on these natural products can lead to the formation of mould – and there’s no coming back from that – in the green waste it goes!
  • Time – this is highly weather, temperature and flower dependant. I would recommend leaving things to dry generally for three to four weeks. Less in hot, low humidity environments, or for smaller flowers.

Specific tips for each element of the bouquet

Your bouquet has distinct elements and they each have slightly different needs when it comes to drying. These tips work for most of our bouquets, but if it varies in our daily bouquet those tips will be given in our stories.

Image shows bouquet broken into elements that are suitable for drying and how best to dry them

Focal flowers e.g. banksia or a protea. Just leave in a waterless vase. Easy - what legends.

Filler flowers e.g. thryptomene, waxflower, flowering wattle, sholtzia. As with our focal flowers, just leave in a waterless vase. If you notice them sagging, can hang upside down for a couple of weeks.

Feature flowers e.g. leucadendron, kangaroo paw, billy buttons, wheat, millet. Just leave in a waterless vase - easy.

Foliage generally dries out easily but should be dried upside down. Otherwise, gravity takes its toll, and the leaves will sag, which may lead to brittle leaves more likely to fall from the stem, as well as not being as pretty.

Soft flowers – e.g. stock, lisianthus, roses, snapdragon, tulips, sunflowers, amaranthus. More difficult and varied in success. Not all soft flowers dry out well in Queensland’s climate (oh hello Mould, my old friend). General tips for soft flowers: 

  • Upside down - All have to be hung upside otherwise the stems will sag or break and the petals may fall off.
  • Fresh - Unfortunately, best to dry when they are still looking good, before they start to droop or go brown.
  • Sunlight – so, this is contentious as sunlight can bleach the flowers of their vibrancy, but also, is a good mould repellent. I find in the wintertime when it’s cold and the sun is less harsh, my flowers love a bit of sun to help the drying process. I tend to hang my flowers over a curtain rod in winter. Even in summer I try to give them a bit of morning sun.

    Because of the wide variety of flowers we use here is a list to give you an indication of the likelihood of success for different flowers.

    Probably be worth the effort:

      • Sunflowers
      • Stock flower
      • Amaranthus
    Occasional success:
      • Lisianthus (recommend drying in sun, as can mould easily)
      • Small headed roses with less tight petal construction (such as a grasshead rose)
      • Dahlia
      • Chrysanthemum (can dry out well, but often turns brown, and can go mouldy if humidity Is high)
      • Daffodil and family
    You’ve been warned:
      • Snapdragon (mould city!)
      • Full headed roses or roses with tight petal structure (mould city!)
      • Tulips (delicate little cherubs just fall apart)
      • Ranunculus
    Don't feel bad if, at the end of the day, you just want to enjoy the soft flowers until the end of their vase life. Just pull them out of the arrangement once they have passed and allow the other stuff to go on and dry out. 

    Bouquet shows bouwuet broken into elements that are suitable for drying and the best way to dry them