Drying hydrangeas for endless pleasure

By Melanie Mathieson
Gardening Guru

A while ago I had a column titled “Everyone Loves Hydrangeas”. Not only is this true for fresh blossoms in the garden but everyone loves hydrangeas when they are dried too. The single most important thing about drying hydrangeas is not which method you use but when you harvest the flowers. Fresh blossoms seldom dry completely in the open air. To receive the best results when drying hydrangeas it is best to wait until the blooms begin to dry on the shrub in the early fall. By this time the petals will have faded a bit and feel papery to the touch. At this point, you can cut them, strip off the leaves and air-dry them in a baskets or vase with or without water. If you have the space and the time, hanging them upside down in an airy place out of direct sunlight works well too.
If you have one of those new varieties of Endless Summer hydrangeas it is possible to dry the flowers with some of their colour intact by using silica gel or cat litter. Silica gel is available at most craft stores. It looks like white sand with blue crystals in it. To dry hydrangeas you need a large quantity of silica gel as you need to suspend the blossom in a container and then completely cover with silica. Silica gel is reusable so if you plan to dry a lot of flowers then it is well worth the investment. I have had my quantity of silica gel for over 12 years. To dry the hydrangeas you need a container large enough to suspend the hydrangea upside down in the container and allow room to completely cover with the silica. I like to use cardboard boxes for this as they allow for airflow which reduces moulding and speeds drying time. Add a base of silica gel to the bottom of the container, then holding the bloom upside down, sift in enough of the gel to completely cover the bloom and then seal the container to prevent dust. The entire bloom needs to be suspended in the gel and make sure to always use dry blossoms. After about four days, you can gently pour out the silica gel onto newspaper or into a cardboard tray. Leave the gel out to dry before putting it back in its container. Now your flower is dried, the colors preserved and are now ready to use for decorating. Cat litter can be used in the same manner and is less expensive. Make sure you use the finest textured, non-clumping cat litter available if you choose this instead of silica gel.
Once your hydrangeas are dried you can try dying them for a special effect. If you have a particular color scheme in your home or you need a specific bloom colour for a wedding, this might be fun to try. This works especially well with white blooms but you can of course, dye faded pink blooms brighter pink and make blue flowers bluer. You use fabric dye and follow the same process as if you were dying fabric. Get your dye up to the boiling point and dip your flowers one by one, then hang them to dry. To get a variety of shades you can hold the bloom in the dye for a longer or shorter amount of time. The cooler the temperature of the dye the softer the tint will be. This is definitely something you will want to try outdoors or in the basement. Use lots of newspaper, they’ll drip! Blossoms can also be tinted with a light misting of spray paint. Metallic paints give a very special sheen to the dried blossoms. Do this outdoors and only apply a light misting otherwise they will clump together.
Hydrangeas are just not fun to enjoy in the garden but are a versatile flower to manipulate and use in your decorating schemes as well. Give some of these ideas a try so you can enjoy hydrangeas even in the winter months.