- Are you ready for this?

That's, whoop.

(Cynthia laughing) - Was I going down with you?

- I don't know, but you should.

Let's do that one more time.

Okay.

- We're gonna knock heads.

(Cynthia laughing) (uplifting music) - Do you know what is the best are fresh flowers, a big giant bouquet on your countertop.

You bring in the outdoors, indoors, the smell.

But there is a caveat.

They don't last.

So how are we gonna make these beauties just keep on living on our countertop or anywhere in our house?

Well, we're gonna dry them and I have brought my bestie, @the_happy_herban on social media, or Jenny Saling, who is the queen of drying flowers and crafting with them.

I gotta give a shout out to my favorite sponsors, Merit Medical and Red Butte Garden & Arboretum for making "Modern Gardener" and these episodes possible.

And you.

All right, let's get into it.

We are first gonna talk.

Herbs?

- Yes.

- You gotta gimme a little bit of a background.

How did you get into this crafting world?

'Cause I'm not a crafter.

- Well, you know, I grew all these flowers and then they just died.

- So sad.

- And I just wanted to keep 'em around.

So I brought 'em inside.

I hung them upside down.

I dried 'em.

I made things out of 'em.

And I realized that I could enjoy everything that I grew over the summer inside all winter.

- All winter?

- All winter.

- There's so much fun things that you can do with dried flowers.

So I did bring some cut flowers that I just cut from my garden this morning for you to show you some different ways of how to dry.

Now some, like this, this is hydrangea.

- Beautiful, beautiful.

- It's gorgeous and green.

So hydrangeas is kind of a funny one because there's flowers that don't work really well.

And hydrangea could not work well if you don't pick it at the right time.

So I'm waiting for these leaves, or these petals, to kinda get dry.

- Yep.

- But if you got it when it was nice and white- - Yeah, then it would just, this is probably the one exception to the rule that we just talked about.

- Yes.

- Right?

- There's always an exception.

Like I before E, except after C.

- You want it a little bit on the aged side first.

- A little aged is always gonna work better.

So I have these beautiful hydrangeas.

I also just brought a little bit of amaranth.

- [Jenny] That's pretty.

- Isn't that such a great color?

And amaranth works so great in our bouquets.

- Yes.

It's wonderful.

- Again, kind of getting it at its peak.

You don't wanna get it when it's like turning fully into seed.

- Yeah, I mean, it's kind of dried-looking already, but, yeah.

If it's just gonna fall apart, if you let it go too long.

- Now we're gonna talk Russian sage first.

Have you used Russian sage?

- Neither Russian nor sage.

- What?

Well, let's talk about, move aside, Herbs.

I'm gonna talk about my Russian sage.

So this is awesome.

I love this color so much.

It's again like a lavender.

But I'm gonna teach you all about Russian sage.

I'm so excited.

- It smells so good.

- It does smell good and it kind of keeps that smell with it.

And it is a great use of dried flower.

The only thing is, is that when you're doing dried flower, you kind of wanna dry it in a spray because, and I do, remember, I tell you what to do and then I don't do it.

But you need to kind of clip these off and dry them as single stems.

It makes it a lot easier.

Or you can be like me and just hate your life after you dry them.

(Jenny laughing) (light upbeat music) Okay.

So I have dried chrysanthemums.

- Yes.

- But they don't, I mean, they're not gonna be uber fantastic.

- Right, right.

- They're still beautiful.

They still give color.

And you told me what to use 'em for.

- They're kind of wet, right?

So they're wet and juicy.

So sometimes they kind of mold a little bit when you're drying them.

So like you said, you wanna make sure that you trim off all of these wet leaves and hang them in small bundles.

So that they don't mold and just fall apart.

- And get gross.

- Yeah.

- It will get gross.

Okay.

- But it's all an experiment.

- Yes.

And that's the beautiful thing.

- Yeah.

- Even still, like experimenting, right?

And like chrysanthemums, they are a wet plant and maybe there's a different method that we can use.

- Right?

Absolutely.

- Because there's so many different methods that you can use for drying flowers.

There's the traditional, which is?

- Hang dry them upside down in a room without direct sunlight.

- She also told me that you can hang them in the trunk of your car because- - You can lay 'em out flat, leave them in the trunk of your car, five or six hours.

Dry.

- And for the ultimate multitasker, that's me.

I love that idea.

Like I'm driving around picking up my kids and drying flowers.

How efficient can I be with my flowers?

(Jenny laughs) The other thing, with these type of flowers and dahlias, I've actually, and I have some great examples.

They are so fantastic in silica.

You do get a different look.

So we're gonna talk all about that.

But we, traditional, silica.

And then there's microwaving, which has its own character.

- Dicey.

(Cynthia laughing) - So there are so many different ways that you can dry flowers.

So let's get into the traditional method.

- Okay.

- The string.

- Yep.

- And snips.

So let's, I'm gonna hold off on these guys.

Because we're gonna do them a different way.

But which one do you wanna choose?

Should we go big hydrangea or Russian sage?

- Sure.

Oh, I like the Russian sage.

- Let's go Russian stage.

- It's delightful.

Yes.

- Okay.

So you show your way.

- Okay.

- [Cynthia] And that's my way too, but.

- So if you hang this upside down, they're eventually all going to collapse like this.

And then they could mold.

So like Cynthia said, if you snip off the stems (scissors snipping) (light upbeat music) like so, and tie with twine underneath your first leaf node here so that they stay together.

- [Cynthia] We're gonna tag-team this.

Ooh, wow.

Wow.

- And you wanna do a max of five or six stems just to make sure that you get the best drying possible.

- And I also- - And there you go.

- [Cynthia] You can do string, but I also love a rubber band.

- Absolutely.

- Because this is like, I mean it works, but sometimes if the stems are really thick, I find them sliding out.

- Right.

- It's a giant mess.

- And so that's the under the leaf node trick, it won't slip.

- Oh, there you go.

- Yeah.

- But- - Obviously, I'm not using the right trick.

- You know what, you have to cut this down eventually.

So the rubber band is wonderful 'cause you can just, rubber band it onto another string.

- Okay.

So let's do that with the hydrangea.

- Okay.

- Russian sage is off.

Now these guys, just because these leaves are so big and so wompy, I'm gonna strip them, which I'm gonna strip off that leaf.

- Yep.

- Leaf node.

But this way you're not gonna have this mess when you have dried these hydrangeas of these leaves crumpling and getting all over the place.

No thanks.

I mean, I'm a messy crafter, but I have my limits.

So, okay.

So I have my stems here.

I'm gonna grab myself a rubber band.

And the nice thing about the rubber band is it shrinks down (light upbeat music continues) so that when the stems are shrinking down, it is also shrinking down.

So then I would just hang it like that.

Let it hang on the hook.

And- - Love the grabby rubber too.

Yeah, right?

- Yep.

- And two to three weeks generally is what I get.

- Yeah.

- What do you think?

- As long as you have a nice warm room and it's not in direct sunlight, a couple weeks it should be dry.

- Or in your trunk.

- Or in your trunk.

- Five hours.

- You can just do that.

- Five hours.

Talk to me though about heat.

- Okay.

- What temperature do we like to have these at for drying?

- So I think room temperature is wonderful.

Maybe on the warm side of room temperature.

If you have a guest bedroom, that's a wonderful place.

A bright kitchen, but not directly in the window sill because the sun can burn it.

So really just what we're comfortable in, flowers will dry in.

- Yeah.

And sometimes it'll take a little longer.

Like my garage can get up to like 85 degrees and I dry a lot of flowers out there.

- Yeah.

- But then I'm also lazy to walk out to my garage.

So then I have a bunch of flowers drying down in my basement.

- Okay.

And if you're in Herbs' house, there's like flowers all over the place.

So sometimes that might extend the length of dry time.

- Right.

- Versus- - Yeah, you just wanna make sure that you have good circulation with airflow so that things aren't molding, it's not too cold.

That also encourages mold.

So, what we like.

- Yeah, perfect.

- Yeah.

Be comfortable.

Flowers wanna be comfortable.

Now there are other methods for drying and we're going down to grab it.

(Cynthia whooping) I hope you appreciate my sound effects.

So, silica gel.

Silica gel is kind of an interesting tool.

It is very fine sand.

And if you've ever seen those little packets that are in your food or in your shoes that say do not open or do not eat?

- Dessicant.

- Yeah.

That is silica.

It's keeping things dry.

It sucks the moisture out of it.

And it does the same with these flowers.

So for example, you can't dry a dahlia, like- - They're tough.

- Upside down, they're not gonna look good.

- Or a white one, at that.

It would turn brown.

- Right?

It would turn brown.

So this gorgeous thing was dried in silica, as was this dahlia.

And look at these zinnias, I mean it retains its color and it gives your house a different look.

So you just bury 'em in there.

- These marigolds, yep, you're just gonna- - [Jenny] And they just dry.

- Scoop 'em up and it takes a lot longer time.

It's about five to seven weeks.

The difference with this versus hang dry is that you do have to immerse them into this sand.

So you need to have a lot of sand.

It is a little bit more expensive and there's some different silicas that you can actually put in the oven and they just- - I didn't know that.

- That's this kind of silica.

- Cool.

- So that you're not just wasting silica, it will turn green, you can see that it's green right now.

And that's telling me that it's high in moisture because I've used it recently.

But you can just put this in the oven and bake it and it'll turn orange.

- Awesome.

- And then it's time to reuse it again.

- [Jenny] Preferably not in a Tupperware.

- Probably not.

Use it in something different.

But yeah, so this is something that is unique about silica.

And this is actually also, dusty miller, kind of gives a different look, that was dried in silica.

So it has this kind of beautiful twirly shape where when you hang dry, it may not have that same leaf texture.

So silica is a great option depending on what you want.

And frankly, if we were to dry these chrysanthemums, this would be a great option.

- That would work.

- It's also fantastic tool if you're getting into the crafts where you're going to be submerging 'em in that gel, that hard acrylic.

- Yes.

- And then they turn beautiful, or they stay beautiful, is what I mean.

- Yeah.

Or using hot glue.

- Hot glue.

- To affix.

- Truly.

- Yes.

- You can do all those things.

- Yep.

- So let's talk microwave.

(Cynthia laughs) We're both looking at each other because we both know what that means.

It gives a different look.

I'm not gonna down, well, I am gonna totally knock the microwave.

I'm just gonna be honest.

It's gonna be brown, it's not gonna be pretty, it's gonna be fast.

So if you're like, "Oh, I wanna be fast, I'm gonna do this."

Some people have put microwave with the silica in there.

I mean it has an effect.

I don't know if it's the effect I would want.

- You need a really hardy flower for it.

- You're so nice.

Look at you being nice to the microwave.

I mean, everybody has their different ways.

This is just not gonna be mine.

So yeah, if you like brown, gross, dried, dehydrated flowers in 30 seconds or less, go for the microwave.

You're looking for color, you probably wanna stick with the silica.

And if you're wanting to preserve its actual beauty, right?

That was from the garden.

- Absolutely.

Yep.

- And then- - Hang dry.

- And hang dry.

Hang dry will give it kind of more that natural aged look that you can use in various crafts.

- Yep.

- So after all that I have learned with you today, Herbs, I want you to tell me one weird question that I have.

Answer it for me.

Why do we hang them upside down?

- Well, I believe that it's to preserve the natural elegance of the plant.

If you're gonna dry this right side up, it's just gonna flop over and then fall apart.

But if you dry it upside down, eventually solidifies, becomes dried, and then you can't really beat it up too much.

- Not too much.

- Yes, well, I am doing it just because that's the way my mom told me.

(Jenny laughing) If you enjoyed this video, I bet you're drying to see our next video all about crafting with dried flowers.

Until next time, we'll see you soon.

(light upbeat music continues) And there are other methods you can do.

Are you ready for this?

(box clattering) Oh, shoot.

(Jenny laughing) (Cynthia laughs) (upbeat music) (air whooshes)