Preserving Your Floral Arrangements

Floral Arrangements from IWED

Learning how to properly preserve a floral arrangement can come easily if you are proficient in creating floral designs. If you aren’t already an accredited floral designer with IWED, you may want to look into taking this course before assisting clients in preserving their floral arrangments.

No, you don’t have to be an accredited floral designer to know how to preserve a floral arrangement, but having background knowledge of the floral industry can only assist you in treating the flowers right when preserving them!

Now that you have considered taking your floral abilities to new heights, let us look at creative ways to preserve your floral arrangements.

Preserving Your Flowers – Where to Start

Maybe you’re looking for ways to preserve your floral arrangments from your wedding, baby shower, anniversary, etc. Where ever your floral bouquets are coming from, there are multiple ways to preserve your arrangements. IWED is going to highlight two of many ways to preserve your flowers by,

• Using a wooden press or
• Using a microwave to press (Daniels, 2016).

Pressing With a Wooden Press

If choosing this way to press, there are 3 steps to follow. Start by cutting two pieces of plywood into rectangles. Take those rectangles and drill a hole into each corner of the plywood that goes all the way through the thickness of the plywood.

Now that the rigorous part of this pressing style is done, place the desired flower from your floral arrangement between two pieces of paper. Now place this between the two pieces of plywood. If done properly, the setup should be as followed,

• One piece of plywood,
• The first sheet of paper,
• The flower,
• The second piece of paper and
• The second piece of plywood.

Place a screw with a wingnut through every hole you drilled into the corners of the plywood. Twist the wingnuts tight and leave this homemade wooden press sit for 3-4 weeks before opening it back up to see your pressed flower.

Repeat these steps as needed with every flower you wish to press from your floral arrangments (Daniels, 2016).

Preserve With a Microwave

Another creative way to preserve a floral arrangement is by using the microwave. This is a unique way that gives you quick results.

Simply place your desired flowers in a book. The book must not have any type of metal within it. Heat the flowers on a low setting for 30 to 60 seconds, taking time in between to allow flowers to completely cool. Continue this cycle until the flowers are completely dry.

Once the flowers are dry, keep them in the book for another 2 days to complete the preserving process (Daniels, 2016).

Keeping an Arrangement – The Reasoning Behind it All

Preserving your floral arrangments are more than just keeping a flower for multiple years. Properly preserving flowers from arrangements allow people to reflect back on their event, this can be a sentimental piece of the event that they plan to keep forever.

Many brides look for ways to preserve their bouquets because it is a great keepsake to remind them of the wonderful day they shared with their family and friends.

As a possible certified floral designer, you’ll see quickly that your clients will want your assistance in preserving their floral arrangments.

The ways noted to preserve flowers in this blog are referenced from ProFlowers®. To seek more information on preserving flowers and more creative ways to preserve your floral arrangments, check out their website, https://www.proflowers.com/blog/how-to-press-flowers

References

Daniels, E. (2016, 05 6). How to Press Flowers. Retrieved from ProFlowers: https://www.proflowers.com/blog/how-to-press-flowers