How to dry hellebores (aka Winter Roses)

There's a lot of advice out there about how to dry flowers - lots of hanging upside down, some silica gel thrown in, even the odd mention of a dehydrator. I'm going to put another wild method out there that is my go-to process for drying hellebores in particular...

I've named it 'The Radiator Method'. It definitely isn't rocket science, it basically just involves putting your hellebores on a (working) radiator like so:

Hellebore flowers drying on a radiator

The radiator can come on and off so this winter I've just had them sat for a few days. The only thing to watch out for is that the flower lays flat so that the petals sit correctly. If there are any angles they tend to flop over to one side. You can rectify this early on, but leave it too long and they'll stay like that.

This method is my favourite because you really retain the curvy, wispy, delicacy of the petals and the colours stay true too. The flowers will shrink because they're effectively being dehydrated, but even though it might seem extreme the process is actually quite gentle.

You can see the end product in this piece. What do you think? What's your preferred method and how do the flowers turn out?

Dried Hellebore artwork