Healthy, good quality flowers that have been well looked after will dry beautifully, maintaining their form, shape and colours. In this blog post we will look at some of the things that can go wrong and cover all the things that you can do to look after your flowers and give them the best chance of drying beautifully.
In the beginning....
Your flowers journey starts long before your florist delivers your bouquet to you. Your flowers would have been grown in a field, greenhouse, flower farm or garden along with many other flowers and plants, possibly in the UK but more than likely somewhere in Europe on the continent. There are many UK flower farms now where you can choose seasonal flowers grown on site for your bouquet but due to British weather, tough growing seasons & climate change it can be hit and miss as to what is available. Flower farms will give you an idea of what is usually due to be available throughout the year but will adjust accordingly to what has actually grown.
Because of our growing climate the majority of florists source their flowers from several different suppliers both in the UK and abroad, making sure that a good selection of flowers are available for customers throughout the year. Even if you order a 'seasonal British blooms' bouquet from your florist, there is no guarantee that the flowers will actually be grown in the UK.
Wherever your flowers began their life they will have been in contact with other plants, flowers, soils & people, they will have travelled and been subject to temperature fluctuations.
Home or away.....
Which is better UK or European Flowers? There are good and bad points to both but from a flower preserving perspective there is no difference. What matters is the quality, health and care taken of the flowers.
Things to take into consideration when thinking about where to source the best quality flowers from are;
Flowers from Europe will have spent a few days in transit before they reach the florist & may well have been fed with artificial fertilisers to extend they life span. Good for keeping the flower robust, maybe not so great for the environment.
Flowers from UK Flower Farms are unlikely to have experienced any artificial fertilisers, great for the planet, not so great for the flowers life expectancy.
Do your research.....
I would always advise asking for recommendations when it comes to finding a florist. Also if you are planning on having your flowers preserved then tell your florist and explain to them that quality is an important factor.
A good florist will condition your flowers meaning they should stay robust, keeping their shape, form and colour for at least a few days. There should not be any drooping, discolouring or petals dropping.
What can go wrong?
There are four main causes of flowers not drying or preserving well, the first is flower health and unfortunately this one is usually out of our hands.
The florist could have created an amazing bouquet, you have followed all of the advice and taken great care of your flowers on your wedding day, you get your bouquet to me in good time and I begin drying it within a few days of your wedding but 6 weeks later when we remove the flowers from drying they have not dried well.
Unfortunately this does very occasionally happen and is no ones fault. The most common disease to affect flower drying is Grey mold or Bortrytis, it is a mostly invisible disease that can affect flowers and does not show until it is too late. This year 3 out of 50 wedding bouquets that I worked on, unfortunately had Bortrytis, out of those 3 bouquets, 1 had a few flowers affected so we were still able to preserve the majority of the bouquet but 2 bouquets were completley affected and not salvageable.
What can you do? Practise good hygiene, if you are placing your flowers in a vase of water then make sure that the vase is cleaned with warm soapy water, rinsed out and then cleaned again with water and a few drops of bleach to kill any germs. Keep your flowers in a cool area and when packaging dry off the stems and do not put anything wet in the box with them. Below is a link from the Floralife website explaining Bortrytis in more detail.
The second cause is care. How you look after your flowers from the minute you get them until the time you send them to me is crucial. Flowers go through a lot on a wedding day, they are out of water for most of the day, they are picked up, laid down, man handled and often exposed to hot temperatures and direct sunlight and sometimes in keeping with tradition they are thrown!
Flowers are delicate, natural things that are not designed for any of these things.
What can you do? Take great care of your flowers, handle them only when needed, do not lay them on any surface, do not throw them. When you are not using them keep them in a vase with water, in a cool area out of direct sunlight.
The third cause is bad quality flowers. It is a lovely thing to want to use flowers from yours or a relatives garden but usually, these flowers have not been grown for this purpose and will therefore not last. Flowers grown by growers and supplied by flower farms or florists have been grown from the start with this in mind and have been fed and treated accordingly so that they are robust and will hold up as a cut flower, garden flowers can look beautiful and be healthy but not be robust enough to hold up as a cut flower.
What can you do? Make sure that you source good quality cut flowers, talk to your florist, do your research, talk to local flower farms and tell them that you are planning on having your bouquet preserved and need good quality, robust flowers. They are usually very knowledgeable, lovely people who will be more than willing to help you.
The fourth cause is time & transit. When People send their flowers to me after the event I ask that the flowers are sent to me as soon and as safely as possible. I have received flowers sent in a cereal box before with no other packaging. I have also received flowers sent two weeks after an event. Neither of these bouquets survived reaching me.
What can you do?Flowers are so delicate and need protecting especially if they are being sent. Make sure the flowers are totally dry, wrap them carefully in tissue paper, then loosely in bubble wrap or newspaper and put in a heavy duty, double or triple walled cardboard box such as a moving box and label as fragile. It is always better to use too much packaging and labelling then not enough, I reuse all packaging or at worse I recycle it so nothing will ever go to waste.
In summary if you think about health, quality, care & time from the moment you start planning your flowers to the moment you send them off for preservation then your bouquet will stand the best chance of being preserved beautifully for you to cherish forever.
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