How to Press Flowers from Your Garden
A fun craft I enjoy doing is pressing fresh flowers from the garden to use for all kinds of projects. I’ve created everything from herbariums to pressed flower cards to framed pressed flower art. Pressing flowers is very simple and can take between a few minutes to a few weeks, depending on the method you choose.
A Few Common Methods to Use to Press Flowers Include:
Microwaving flowers (a few minutes)
Pressing flowers between books (a few weeks)
Pressing flowers in a wooden flower press (a few weeks)
Ironing flowers (a few minutes)
My go-to method is pressing flowers with wooden flower presses. Even though it takes a longer time, I’ve found that it’s the most reliable method. Using the iron can lead to uneven flower texture and microwaving can burn the flowers if you leave them in too long, so I think that using a wooden flower press is worth the wait!
How to Press Flowers with a Book or Wooden Flower Press
Pick flowers mid-day when they are the most dry. Unlike when harvesting flowers for bouquets (which is generally best in the morning), you want the flowers to have the least amount of water in them when you press them, so mid-day is usually a good bet.
Press the flowers within an hour of picking them. You may want to put them in water so they don’t die. Just make sure to remove the part of the stem that was in the water before pressing it.
3. Gather scraps of paper (I use paper from old notebooks) and pieces of cardboard (I cut up boxes and have also purchased these).
4. On the bottom of the wooden press, add 10 scraps of paper. Then put on top of the paper a few of the flowers that you’ve picked. It’s best to add the same type of flower or at least flowers that have a similar thickness in each layer. On top of the flowers, layer on 10 more scraps of paper. Then add a piece of cardboard on top of that. Once you do that, you’ll repeat the process over again: 10 scraps of paper, flowers, 10 more scraps of paper, cardboard. Continue with this method until you think the press is full. Depending on the press, I usually can get about 5-7 layers in there.
If pressing in a book, do the same process as #4, but in between the pages of a large coffee table book. Only do one layer for each book.
5. When adding in the flowers, add them so that the petals are face down. Experiment with pressing the flowers with the stems intact versus without the stems.
6. In order to keep the color as vibrant as possible, change out the paper and cardboard in your press every day for the first 3 days. Have a fresh stack of paper and cardboard ready so you can swap them out. It can be a little bit of a pain, but it is worth it in the end!
7. Tighten the bolts of your flower press and keep the flowers in your press for at least 2 weeks. The sign to tell if they are fully pressed or not is to see if they are cold in the middle. If they are still cold, keep them in the press.
8. Once you’re done, you should have beautiful, pressed flowers!
I learned much of this method from Tricia Paoluccio from Modern Pressed Flower. She gives incredibly detailed tutorials often. If you’re interested in learning more, you can check out her offerings here.
Great Flowers to Press
Flowers and greenery that I’ve found press really well with minimal fuss include:
1) Violas/Pansies
2) Sage
3) Cosmos
4) All types of ferns
5) Lavender
6) Amaranth
7) Small roses
8) Daisies
9) Hydrangeas (pulled apart)
10) Love in a Mist
11) Borage
12) Sweat peas
13) Bolted Oregano
14) Queen Anne’s Lace
15) Statice
Here’s a piece of art I made with pressed sage
I glued the pressed sage onto a piece of paper and then wrote with a pen a quote around it.
Here’s another piece I made with a pressed sweet pea
I printed facts about sweet peas onto a page and then glued the pressed sweet pea in the middle.
I hope this inspires you to press some flowers of your own! I would love to see what you make. Email me at kelli@floweremedy.co so I can share!
