Drying Hydrangeas and Keeping Fresh Longer

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If you love hydrangeas but not how long they last…keep reading these tips to keep them fresh longer.  Plus tips on drying hydrangeas to use for months.

 

drying hydrangeas

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Keeping hydrangeas fresh longer

As soon as you get them home, place them in cold water.  Then go back to the car and bring in the melting ice cream.

When your ice cream is tucked away in the freezer.  Fill your vase with cold water. Remove any lower leaves.  You don’t want leaves in the water.    Start cutting the stem at an angle using a sharp knife.  Dip the cut in alum {a spice found in your grocery store or on Amazon} and quickly add to your vase.

Display the flowers in a cool area.  Each morning change the water.  We live in Arizona and it gets hot, so each morning I add a couple of ice cubes to the water.

If you’re cutting hydrangeas from your yard…or your neighbor’s yard, do it early…before they wake up!  Cutting in the morning helps them last longer.

keeping hydrangeas longer

Stop the wilt

If you find a hydrangea head wilting, fill the sink with room temperature water.  Recut the stem at an angle and add the whole thing in the water.  Head, stem, and leaves.  Leave in the water for 45 minutes.  Then remove and dip the stem in boiling water.  Add back in the arrangement.

Next morning you might need to do the same with another hydrangea head.

Drying hydrangeas

Okay, I have to ask you to bear with me on this “simple” project.

You see, drying hydrangeas is extremely simple.

A no-brainer.

But I’ve lost my brain.

Drying Hydrangea close up

Let me back up a bit.

We spent 5 glorious years on the central coast of California where everything grows.

Well, everything except what I attempt.

But Mike could grow anything!  We had several hydrangea bushes that were as tall as our house!

I would gather hydrangeas in the morning.  Then bring them in the house in a beautiful wicker basket or more like a blue plastic bucket.

hydrangeas and alum

Get them inside and cut the heads off.

Cut to 6 inches from the large stunning ball of flowers.  Then place the heads in an empty vase. Set on the top shelf of the coat closet.  Then forget about them for weeks.

fresh or dried hydrangeas

That is what I do when drying hydrangeas.

Start drying them when they are still fresh and round.

Not, like I did above and wait too long and they get droopy or brown.

drying hydrangeas

Now in the mountains of Arizona, hydrangeas do not grow well.  If we do get a plant to take off a little…

the elk eat it!

So I buy hydrangeas at the grocery store.

Drying Hydrangeas

I love hydrangeas.  Fresh or dried.  Sorta like bananas.  Fresh or banana chips.

Have you tried drying hydrangeas?

If giving hydrangeas a bath in the sink, cutting their head off, or hiding them in a closet isn’t strange enough…check this idea for preserving hydrangeas

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4 Comments

  1. At our last house I had lots of hydrangea bushes of different varieties. I couldn’t bring myself to cut the blooms off because they were so beautiful. Now we’ve moved to drought stricken Dallas and there’s no hope of a hydrangea in this yard. Sure wish I would have dried some when I had them!

    1. Stacey, I did the same thing and tossed all the dried flowers when we moved. Now I trying to start a collection again by slowing buying them at the grocery store. But they are expensive!!! ~Jeanette

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