Dry peonies or buy them already dried? I found myself having to face this dilemma. In this article, I will explain how to dry peonies, where to buy excellent already dried ones, and which of the two ways to prefer. If you don’t want to do it yourself, you can jump directly to the buying guide by clicking here.
Contents
Why dry Peonies?
I love Peonies. I like their aroma, texture, and color. I find that they are a perfect flower for home decor, with their shades and colors creating spectacular bouquets. Unfortunately, like all flowers, they tend to die soon. Luckily, they can dry out.
The dried peonies obviously lose part of the charm of the fresh flower. Still, unlike other flowers, they manage to maintain their beauty for a long time and indeed acquire a particular charm, almost ancient, suitable for all more or less classic scenarios such as, for example, in the style of French Country.
How to dry Peonies
I did various research and read various guides on how to dry Peonies, and I found basically two main techniques:
- Air drying of peonies
- Drying of peonies with Silica Gel
Air drying peonies
This is the best-known and most classic method for drying flowers in general. You will need to care for the peonies as you would for fresh flowers, so take the flowers in the morning after the dew has evaporated, trim the stems to about 18 inches and remove but three leaves under the flower head.
Then inspect the flowers for ugly petals to remove and remove any insects. At this point, you can hang your stems upside down. Be sure to store your peonies to dry in a room with a temperature not exceeding 50F and constant humidity around 50%. Obviously, a dark room is better to keep the color.
After two weeks, your peonies will be ready.
Summing up:
- Cut the stems to approximately 18 inches
- Remove almost all leaves and insects
- Remove the ugliest petals
- Store the flowers hanging upside down in a dark room with constant temperature and humidity (50F / 50%)
- Wait two weeks.
As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. If you prefer, I found this video on YouTube, which uses the same procedures.
Dry the peonies with the Silica gel
Silica Gel is used as a desiccant to preserve the natural color and beauty of the flower as much as possible. In terms of quality and the perfect choice, obviously, compared to the air solution, it has a higher cost due to the gel purchase. I bought this for only $ 30 on Amazon
The procedure is also very simple in this case; those who want only the flower can cut the stem. I kept it because I wanted to make a bouquet in a vase. Next, we must pour the gel into an airtight plastic container large enough to hold our flowers. Put the flowers back in the container and pour more gel powder over them until they are completely covered. Put the container closed with a lid in a dry place for about a week. Once our peonies are ready, you can remove them and brush off the excess gel.
In summary:
- Dry the flowers and cut the stems or stems.
- Take an airtight container and add a gel base
- Place the flowers in the container
- Cover the flowers with more gel and close the container
- Store the container in a dry place for about a week
- Remove excess gel.
Also, for this solution, I am attaching a video demonstrating the step-by-step procedure.
Buy Dried Peonies
If you don’t have time to waste, or you don’t want to play with the little dryer, you can always buy peonies already dried. It could be the ideal solution if you should buy peonies anyway, and the purpose is solely to dry.
On Etsy, on this page, you will find delicious dried peonies at a reasonable price or even artificial peonies of excellent workmanship.
My choice
My reasoning was straightforward, having no peonies in the garden, if they give me peonies as a gift or I buy fresh peonies for certain decorations, I can think of drying them. Otherwise, I buy them already dried.
What choice did you make?
