Hydrangea Love
Don’t you just love hydrangeas?
They are one of my favorite things to grow in the garden.
I have them in every nook and cranny where there is dappled sunlight.
They also make such great flowers to dry and use indoors.
When I was in college in Virginia, we had a hydrangea bush outside our dorm room window that was the size of a Volkswagen bug.
Seriously.
That grand old hydrangea just loved life right there on the quad.
(On a side note, I miss life on the quad. Raise your hand if you think your college years were the best??!)
But these beauties also seem to love the Great Lakes region where I live now.
Almost every gardener I know has them in their yard and finds them to be low maintenance.
I’ve had a few friends ask me recently how I dry mine.
I feel a little like a fraud devoting a whole post to this topic because, in all honesty, there isn’t much to it!
I’ve read some very detailed articles over the years that make it look so complicated.
Maybe I’ve just gotten lucky, but here is all I do to dry the hydrangeas from my yard.
5 Tips for Drying Hydrangeas
- I try to cut mine before they start to lose their color. Doesn’t always work, but I don’t sweat it if a few blossoms are turning gold or brown. It just gives the dried flower a little contrast.
- What has worked best for me is to cut them when the sun is NOT overhead. A cloudy day works too.
- As soon as I cut them, I drop the stem in to a little bucket of water I carry with me.
- Once I have the flowers cut, I use this handy little container to dry them in. I fill it about half way up with water and then forget about it! As the water evaporates, the hydrangeas slowly dry. One reason I think it works so well is the top has a frog built in. It keeps the stems separated while they are drying.
- Our dining room lighting is fairly subdued. One of the only times I’m grateful that it doesn’t have a lot of natural light is when I’m drying flowers. No bright light to make the color fade!
While it is tempting to try to refill the water in the vase, don’t do it!
With a little patience, your blooms will be fabulous…
And you will find so many places you can use them during the long, grey days of winter.
While I’ve never tried it myself, I know other gardeners spray the blooms once they are dried with preservative or even hair spray. Truthfully, I’ve never find it to be necessary.
That’s all there is to it!
Easy peasey right y’all?
Do y’all have any tips for drying hydrangeas?
XO
Shelley
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Hi Shelley,
Perfect timing seeing this post – I keep promising to make myself a late summer wreath with my hydrangeas (I know – I can’t let go of Summer quite yet!). I never thought to dry them out in water – I might just snip a few tomorrow! Sarah x
Good luck! One of these days I’m going to tackle a hydrangea wreath too.
Thanks for this article. I have hydrangeas for the 1st time in my life. I moved to NC 2 years ago in the winter. Some neighbors were having their’s uprooted for some reason by landscapers with a tractor and throwing them in a dump trailer. I ran across and asked if they could drop some at the end of my driveway. They laid there with roots exposed for about 3 days before my husband could bring the tractor from his dad’s farm to lift them because they were similar to the ones outside your dorm window. He planted them under some trees and I’ve had tons of beautiful hydrangeas this year. Now they have stopped blooming. We’ve had a lot of rain lately. I’m wondering if they just bloom for a few weeks and stop or if they need more feeding. I use miracle grow. Any advice will be appreciated.
Hi, Rebecca- It depends on what type of hydrangeas they are. Some do bloom for only a short time, boo hoo. I have several “Endless Summer” hydrangeas and they do bloom all summer long. Proven Winner has a great website if you haven’t found it yet, and they have good information on hydrangeas!