Roses, How To Dry Them Grammy's Way

I have always loved all colors and sizes of roses.  However, I always told Hubby John to not buy them for me because it breaks my heart to see them die.  Well, I was clued in a few years ago  about drying them and I now have quite a collection of the dried beauties and I very willingly accept new ones  whenever I can.  My sweetie (Hubby John, of course) just gave me red roses for Valentine's Day.  I am going to share my tips on how to dry and display the flowers of love.

These are my beautiful gift this year.  I will keep them in water and on display in my Grandmother's antique vase for about 3 days and I will enjoy every minute.  I like to begin the drying process as soon as the roses begin to open.  I like for the blooms to still be fairly tight.  I begin by removing the roses from the water and arranging them in a pleasant way.  I also like to have a display vase in mind when I start the drying.  At this point it is still easy to adjust their length and move the roses around.  Once they are dry, they are very brittle and you take the chance of them crumbling.  I put a rubber band tightly around the bottom of the arrangement and take them to the garage or any place where they will not be in direct sunshine.  I hang them upside down so that the stems dry with the heads of the flowers hanging down. I let them hang until they are completely dry.  Depending on how warm your hanging room is, this takes a week or two.  If you hold them up and their little heads droop, hang them back up and wait longer.  Once they are dry, I spray them very lightly with  hairspray. You can buy dry flower fixatives at hobby stores, but hairspray is easy and I always have it on hand.  Now, you place them in your vase of choice and put them on display.  I have found that roses usually dry darker than their original color and they take on a bit of an antique look.  They will always be fragile so keep them where they aren't moved around much or bumped against.  Oh, I also want to say that not all of the filler flowers and greenery will dry well so I usually only do the roses.  

This is a bouquet of variegated roses that I have had dried for 3 or 4 years now.  I keep them away from direct sunshine so they have faded very little.  I love them!