So I still have the roses from hubby and and I's wedding, (September was our 5th year anniversary). Anyway, they're still sitting in the vase and they just don't look pretty, they're all dusty and well, you know. So I was thinking about smashing them in a picture frame or something but I remember an old friend of mine telling me they had to be dried upside down to do that. So I was wondering if anyone has done that and how it worked out or if you have any other ideas!
ETA: They're from our wedding so they're actually 5 years old, I just don't want to throw them away (sentimental). Hubby doesn't buy me flowers and I've always told him not to because I know they're gonna die.
Thanks for the great ideas! I think I'm gonna put them in a shadow box. They're actually not droopy and still shaped Ok.
Here's a site that gives a recipe for dried rose potpourri. I'd make the potpourri and put in a pretty crystal bowl with a lid you can leave on or off...
http://www.gardenguides.com/2117-make-rose-potpourri.html
....and tell that husband of yours you need some NEW ones! LOL
I don't see what is wrong with trying to preserve them in a shadow box. My mom got my wedding flowers dried and they were put in a shadow box with my wedding invitation...along with our cake topper.
I don't see why you couldn't do something like that. They didn't get dried upside down, but you should still be able to work with them. I imagine now they are droopy and not so pretty looking. But, I would just cut off the rose part, gather them with string or wire and put them in a shadow box somehow with a picture from your wedding day. Its worth a shot.
Upside down is the best, but as long as the bulb or head of the rose is in tact you can pluck them off. Just as a warning, they will be brittle and there is a chance they might crumble. What I do with mine is I get some sort of pretty vase. I have a vintage wife carafe, my first wine bottle (dad bought it the day I was born, we all drank it at when I turned 16), and a few others. I pluck the heads off of dried flowers and carefully pull petal by petal then drop them in the bottle. Wide neck bottles work great for this.
I did this for all of the flowers I received in my life (sweet 16, graduation, college graduation, birthdays, delivering my baby, etc). Ironically I never saved the ones from my wedding..lol...but we ended up divorced.
Let your Husband buy you new flowers!
You have had to save these for 5 years... plus because he does not buy you flowers.... tell him you need NEW ones!
Usually flowers are pressed, when still fresher. If you smash them in a book or picture frame now, it might be too brittle, and the flowers will break apart.
Or, go to a frame shop, and have them put it in one of those display box, frames... the kind for souvenirs etc.
If you go to a craft store... they have floral sprays, that you spray on it... to help preserve the flowers.... or maybe a florist has it too.
Its for dried arrangements...
I have dried lots of roses (usually upside does work best - but if yours are still intact they should be fine) I would try to clean the dust with one of those keyboard cleaners - the ones that blow out small puffs of air... Those puffs of air are not very strong and I wouldn't think they would damage your roses. Once you have them clean, spray them with shellac. let it dry and repeat over and over and over until you get your desired hardness. I think roses are beautiful this way.. they take an almost metallic look. If you are afraid of damaging them... i would go with the earlier post of using a shadow box.. you could put them in to protect them but not worry about damaging them.
Ok, are they the one's from your WEDDING or the Anniversary? I am reading from the Wedding and if that is the case I think it is too late but not sure. I have always hung them upside down and then put them between wax paper in the middle of a Large/Heavy book with TONS more books and weights on it for a month or so before putting it in a frame.
I collect decantors, so I cut the petals off and put them in one of my decantors.
