Preserving beauty

Jo writes:

It’s British Flowers Week! And that got me to thinking about the days when my daughter, and I, were younger and we used to do lots of flower pressing! And indeed, with a bit of digging, I found the simple press we had made for preserving the beauty of the flowers we had in the garden.

I remember having a flower press when I was a child too.  But that isn’t really necessary – some kitchen towel and lots of heavy books are more than sufficient.  I remember finding it really hard being patient enough to wait the many days it took for the flowers to dry out, regularly taking a sneaky peek to see how they were getting on.

Using leaves also gives surprisingly beautiful results.  This Trellis factsheet tells you how to collect and process leaves and flowers and this, in itself, is a wonderfully engaging pastime to do on a walk or in the garden.

But the fun doesn’t stop there!  Once pressed, our beautifully preserved flowers and leaves can be used to make equally beautiful creations from cards to pictures to unique and special gift tags.

Ofcourse, if like me, you find it hard to wait for the flowers to dry out, why not try flower pounding! This is done when the flowers and leaves are freshly picked to transfer the pigment in the plant onto either watercolour paper or cotton/calico fabric. Here’s a nifty short video showing you just how it’s done – you don’t even need a hammer, a good large stone will do the trick.

Enjoy celebrating British Flowers Week and don’t forget to pop your creation in your window to show your support, or share it with us on social media #britishflowersweek

Happy Gardening, Jo

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