Preserved & Rubbered?

Sharing helps others too!

How many ways can you preserve hydrangeas?  Have you tried preserving hydrangeas using rubber?  I did and here are my results.

This past weekend I had a glorious opportunity to join some of my favorite blogger friends on a procrastinators summer porch tour.

This post contains some affiliate links.  Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

I bought hydrangeas from our local grocery store and turned a candle chandelier into a floral chandelier.   They looked stunning all weekend and even into Monday.  I use my best tip for keeping hydrangeas from wilting too quickly…and it worked!  They even hung around outside!

Then…I rubberized them!!!

Keeping Hydrangeas Fresh Longer

Oh, my tip for keeping hydrangeas from wilting too soon…alum.  It’s a spice that has something to do with canning pickles???  It also helps the stems of these beautiful flowers soak up water.  Here’s what I do.  Cut the stem and place in warm water.  The warm water removes a film that covers the cut.  Then dip into alum to about 1/2 inch.  Since I’m not planning to can pickles anytime soon, I dipped the stem right into the little spice jar.  Then add the stem to a vase of water.  The spice will come off the stem into the water, but that’s okay the alum has already “set” the stem to receive water.

My floral chanty!  You can see more of the porch here.

Now on to preserving hydrangeas.  When I dry hydrangea I place them in a vase in our coat closet.  Today I wanted to try rubber spray.  Above is a small bunch of wildflowers I rubber sprayed for my Autumn mantel back in 2013!  Before spraying the wildflowers made a mess on the mantel.  Now they don’t.  Even in 2015!

The rubber spray is the stuff on the commercial that you use if you have a screen door for the bottom of your boat! :/  There are now several brands and colors.  I can only find black or white in our small town.

Black might be too much for flowers! 

My warning about ordering online

I’m not mentioning the brand.  I do NOW only use the brand at Home Depot and NOT the brand advertised on TV.  I tried to order brown rubber spray from the highly advertised on TV brand.  They charged my credit card BEFORE clicking order!  When I saw the price and EXTRA charges I hit the back button.  They charged my card anyway, send the product.  They charge 14.99 for the product + shipping + handling + shipping for a “free” product {I didn’t want} + shipping +handling for the “free” product I didn’t want.  Plus + 4.99 for insurance on the shipping.  When all the charges were added my card was charged for $88.74!!  For a 14.99 product!  It took 2 months to settle the charges and they refunded my $54.63!!!!  BEWARE!

This is the brand I get from Amazon now.

Here’s a vintage outdoor sign I made using the product.

Tips for preserving hydrangeas with rubber spray

I did learn a couple of things about trying this with hydrangea vs. wildflowers.  They look better and held up better when I sprayed them with white primer first.  Then when dry.  Sprayed with the rubber stuff.

The rubber spray is thick and gloppy.  It sorta caked onto the soft thin petals.  Spraying lightly with a primer then spraying lightly with the rubber spray was the best result…IMO.  I used a skewer to move the petals around while spraying like they did in the 60’s with hairspray.  Spritz and move, spritz and move.

Did you see the movie “Hairspray?”

This might also be cool with a light spray of soft green, blue or pink.

Here are my preserved hydrangeas in my favorite Ballard Designs purchase.  These little birds always make me smile.  🙂

Here I gathered them in a little vase next to rusty stuff.  Why does such a stunning flower look so great with rusty stuff??

Let me know your results if you try this one.

Beware…the neighbors will think you’ve lost it.