Bouquets of fresh flowers look extremely attractive, but they cannot boast of their durability.
It is necessary
Perhaps not everyone knows that there are varieties of flowers that can delight with beauty for several months, or even years. Florists call these plants dried flowers
Instructions
Step 1
Varietal variety
There are a huge number of different families, united by the ability to maintain shape and color for a long time. It is worthwhile to get acquainted in more detail with the different varieties of dried flowers in order to learn more about them.
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Step 2
Winged ammobium
It belongs to perennial plants, but in our country it is grown as an annual. The culture has a branched stem and is capable of reaching a height of 0.7m.
The plant has white inflorescences with a yellow core. In their diameter, inflorescences can reach 2 cm. Flowering begins in the second half of June and ends with the first frost.
Step 3
Amaranth
The birthplace of culture is in America. The plant has simple or branched stems and can grow to a height of 1.5 meters. In the caudate, dark and paniculate amaranth, the inflorescence is represented by long spikelets or panicles.
The variety of colors of inflorescences is striking:
• gold;
• lilac;
• red.
The plant blooms in June and until the first cold.
Step 4
Celosia
They are part of the amaranth family. Today, there are about 60 species of this culture. It is represented by both annuals and perennials. It is worth knowing that only annuals are grown on the territory of Russia. Celosia cannot withstand frost.
The plant can reach 0.9 m in height. Small flowers are formed in inflorescences, which are pinnate, comb, spikelet. According to their color, they are found red, purple, yellow and others. Flowers appear in late June and last until autumn.
Step 5
Gelikhrizum
A more familiar name is the immortelle, which belongs to the aster family. There are perennial representatives, but in the gardens they are grown as annuals.
The crop has a straight stem that can grow up to 1 meter. Inflorescences in the form of large baskets are formed from flowers of various colors: from golden to purple.
More than 600 types of gelichrizum are known. The most popular are the following:
• bracts;
• Milford immortelle;
• sandy.
The culture blooms from 6 to 10 months.
Step 6
Xerantemum
It is a member of the Asteraceae family and belongs to annual plants. The culture has a straight, branched stem that can grow up to 0.6m.
Inflorescences are collected in baskets of various colors: from lilac to pink. At moderate temperatures, it will bloom for part of the summer before the fall months.
Step 7
Craspedia
Belongs to the aster family, has an erect stem up to 0.9 meters in height. There are both perennial and annual plants.
The flowers are small in size, they look like tubes, collected in a spherical inflorescence. Flowering occurs in August-September.
Step 8
Growing features
When sowing annual dried flowers before winter, preference should be given to those varieties that are resistant to bad weather conditions. This includes thorns and most of the representatives of the cereal family.
It is recommended to plant heat-loving plants in the seedling method in a heated soil. However, there are representatives that successfully develop from seed, which is sown in late spring, after the threat of frost blows.
To achieve a good result, you need to properly care for dried flowers. Packages with seeds contain the subtleties of caring for a particular variety.
In addition, you need to apply complex fertilizers. Such dressings provide the appearance of a large number of flowers. Fertilizers are applied three times a season.
As for watering, here you need to be extremely careful, almost all dried flowers react negatively to too wet soil.
Step 9
How to dry and cut properly
To create a bouquet that will delight the owner for a long time, you need to cut crops at different stages of development. Some of them are harvested during abundant flowering, others - at the stage of bud formation, the next varieties after the seed pod opens and the plant gets rid of the seeds.
During cutting, the stems should be left as long as possible, it is much easier to cut off the excess, but it will not be possible to get the desired length from a short one if necessary.
The preparation of the material that will be included in the flower arrangement includes cutting off unnecessary foliage. After this procedure, the flowers are divided into small bunches, each bunch is tied with strings separately and hung to dry in a room with good ventilation, where there is no dampness.
Some florists, when drawing up compositions from dried flowers, paint the plants in the desired color, but before that it should be lightened as much as possible. Processing is carried out using a spray bottle and soda diluted in water, the solution should be 0.4%. Flowers are sprayed once every two days.
Cereals dry well outside if the weather is dry and sunny. The main thing is to prevent plants from getting into the rain. Spraying is also used for bleaching, but its frequency is increased up to twice a day. Thanks to such actions, the color of the stems and spikelets becomes white.
In order to preserve the natural color of dried flowers, a dark room is chosen for drying, and spraying is not carried out. You need to store such plants in the absence of light, until they are needed.
To make a panel or picture, the flowers will have to be dried using a different method, because they will be applied on a flat surface, which means that you need to set the required shape. To do this is quite simple, just fix the flowers on an unpainted wooden board with thread or tape.
Before transferring the plants to a permanent storage location, they need to be painted (if necessary) using a special fixer and varnish. Thanks to such devices, the color is fixed, and at the same time the flowers will not crumble and change shape. You can buy the necessary products at the flower shop.
For storage, cardboard boxes are used, dried flowers must be covered with newspaper or tissue paper. Storage is carried out in a dry place.
