Drying Flowers in Humid Climates - Part One

Sometimes one thing just leads to another.

Trudy first wrote for help on how to decoupage a picnic table being auctioned off by her eighth grade class at their annual school fund raiser. Her reply to my answer follows and led us into a discussion about the many ways one can dry/preserve flowers, even in an extremely humid climate like Mobil, AL.

Dear Eileen,

Thank you so much for your prompt response. After I sent you the email, I continued reading the articles on your website, and found a lot of important information. I also ordered the book you recommend. To hasten curing/drying, I often use a fan or blow dryer ... would you recommend this? I think that I will be emailing you more questions about this as we go forward.

You mention "HUMIDITY"!! I live in Mobile, AL and it is very humid here. Another of my hobbies is flower preservation and arranging in shadow box frames. I do this only as presents for friends. I thought of using it as a business venture, but the high humidity here made me decide against that. I only spray the dried flowers outside on low humidity days ... not many of them in Mobile, and none in the warmer weather (most of the year).

This picnic table is going to be the 8th grade's donation to our annual school fundraiser's silent auction. The 8th graders made the table along with about 100 others during a week-long class trip last October. The tables were donated to schools and parks throughout Mobile, saving this one for the auction project.

It will be interesting to see how high the bidding goes!

Sincerely,
Trudy

You'll find my advice about about Flower Preservation in the full article of my correspondance with Trudy.