Lilliput Gardens

When you are out walking in the wood or the fields, there is a great way of drying what you picked up along the way.This old faithful is particularly good for drying yellow or white flowers such as dogwood or yellow roses. More useful than you may know is the old tried and true favorite detergent.

Twenty Mule Team Borax works like a charm for drying your flowers, usually in just a few days, depending on what you are drying, and it leaves the color fresh and the flowers in exactly the same shape they were in when you plucked them from the plant.

When drying dogwood, I take the entire branch, leaving the flower blooms intact and lay a layer of the Borax about half an inch deep, in a low box or tray, then lay the branches in whole, and sprinkle borax over the top, making sure it is entirely covered.

It will take from 3-5 days to dry them, sometimes a bit longer, depending on what you’re drying, but when they are completed they are completely lovely and not a bit different than they were when they were fresh.

This works well for lighter colored flowers for some reason, but not so well for the darker ones. It may be a chemical reactiong. Who knows but whatever the reason, the darker ones seem to look a bit on the wilted side. They are still better than naturally dried however for use in floral arrangements. The Borax does work well for for things like dogwood, roses, violets, daffodils and so on.

Make sure that the flower is completely covered with the borax.

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