Not sure what to do with the bouquet of flowers gifted to you or want to preserve your special flowers? Drying them is the best option and if done in a microwave, it is the easiest method.
Drying flowers in the microwave takes only an hour or so which is very less as compared to the traditional method of drying them by pressing between the pages of books which takes about weeks.
To dry flowers in the microwave without silica, you will need –
- Fresh flowers
- 2 heavy glass microwave safe dish
- Paper towels
Follow the below process to dry flowers in the microwave without silica :
- The flowers should be as flat as possible so snip them just below the head.
- Place a heavy glass microwave safe dish inside the microwave and put a paper towel on it. If a glass dish is not available, fire brick can also be used.
- Put flowers on the heavy base in a single row.
- Now, place another paper towel on the flowers.
- Again, place a heavy glass dish on the top of the paper towel.
- Run the microwave on high for 2 minutes.
- Remove the top glass dish and flip the drying flowers.
- Put the paper towel and heavy glass dish again on the flowers.
- Again, run the microwave for 1 minute on high.
- Repeat the process of flipping the flowers and running the microwave at the interval of 30 seconds until the flower heads become dry completely.
- Once the flowers are cool enough to touch, preserve them.
Another way to dry flowers in a microwave is by using cat litter. It is also an easy procedure that you can read about in the latter part of this post.
It is found that flowers dried in a microwave are able to retain their vibrant colors in a better way as compared to other drying methods.
The only drawback of this method is that you can dry small batches of flowers at a time as a microwave can accommodate few flowers only.
Microwave drying is suitable for flowers like gerbera daisies, roses, chrysanthemums, and tulips.
Once the flowers are dried, they have the risk of fading or crumbling so it is essential to preserve them by either dipping them in wax, resin, or framing them.
Drying flowers with silica gel in microwave
Silica gel acts as an absorbing agent which absorbs nearby moisture and when it is used to dry flowers, the natural color and beauty of the flowers can be preserved.
When a bridal bouquet needs to be preserved or dried flowers are required for jewelry, resin crafts, wreaths, etc, silica gel is the preference.
To dry flowers with silica gel in a microwave, the following process should be followed-
- Take a microwave safe container and fill it with silica gel up to 1.5 inches.
- Place the flowers on it gently and cover them completely with more silica gel.
- Put the container in the microwave along with a glass of water.
- Run the microwave for 1 minute on medium power and then let it cool for 30 minutes.
- Check if the flowers are dried. If not, run the microwave again for 1 minute.
- Most of the flowers take 1-3 minutes to dry completely with silica gel.
How to dry flowers in the microwave with cat litter?
You can dry flowers in a microwave and this is a quick procedure. To do so, you need something that can absorb moisture. For this cat litter can be very useful.
To dry flowers in a microwave with cat litter, all you need is a microwave safe bowl, cat litter, and flowers to be dried.
Take a microwave safe bowl and fill it 1/4th with cat litter. Now, put flowers in it and cover them completely with more cat litter. Place the bowl in the microwave and heat for 2 minutes.
Check if the flowers are dried. If required, you can run the microwave for another 1 minute. Repeat the procedure at the interval of 1 minute until the flowers are completely dried.
How do you dry flowers without chemicals?
You can dry flowers in a microwave without chemicals, this can be done with the pressing method. For this, you will need two pieces of cardboard, paper towels, and flowers which are to be dried.
Please follow below mentioned process :
- Take a piece of cardboard and place paper towels on it.
- Arrange the flowers on it and cover them with paper towels.
- Place the other piece of cardboard on it and tie the whole thing with a rubber band. It will look like a sandwich.
- Put this in the microwave and heat for two minutes.
- Let it cool for 20-30 minutes and check if the flowers are completely dry and pressed.
- If required, repeat the process.
How do you dry roses and keep their color?
Roses are the most popular flowers and have a refreshing aroma. All of us always want to preserve the bunch of rose flowers gifted to us on special occasions.
Drying roses is a beautiful gesture to preserve the sentimental value of the roses which are very precious to us especially when given by someone special.
To dry roses and keep their color, many methods can be used. These are-
1. In a microwave
Microwaving drying is an easy method and the roses get dried up in a few minutes only. For this, You can follow silica gel method which has been mentioned above. You can even use cat litter instead of silica gel for drying roses.
2. Air drying
For this, roses with stems are taken and their leaves are removed. All the stems are tied with the help of rubber bands to make small bundles and these are hung upside down in a well-ventilated area.
The area should receive good sunlight. This process will take weeks to months to dry roses completely.
3. Pressing
Pressing in between the newspaper and books is an old traditional method of drying roses. For this, 1-2 roses are put on a page of a book. While doing so, one should be careful so that flowers do not overlap each other.
Now, cover the flowers with another piece of paper and close the book. Keep something heavy on this book like a pile of other books, a weight, or a big rock.
Let the book be in this position for 2-4 weeks after which the entire moisture of the roses will be removed and you will get a completely dried rose flower.
4. Using sand
In this method, flowers are kept in a bowl of sand and this bowl is kept for few weeks to months. The sand around the flowers will absorb the moisture. Once flowers are dried, remove them from the sand and brush off the sand grains.
How do you dry flowers with Epsom salt?
As compared to air drying the flowers by hanging, using Epsom salt saves a lot of time. It dries the flowers in very little time. To dry flowers with Epsom salt, you will need fresh flowers, a muslin bag, and a cup of Epsom salt.
Put the fresh blossoms of flowers in the muslin bag and put some Epsom salt in it. Tie the bag tightly and leave it for 3 days. Check if the flowers are dried. Once dried completely, remove the dried flowers.
Conclusion
To preserve your favorite bunch of flowers, drying them is the best for which a microwave can be used. For this either silica gel or cat litter is required.
But there is another way by which flowers can be dried in the microwave without silica and that is by pressing them under a heavy glass microwave-safe container or fire bricks and then heating the flowers in a microwave.