How to dry Lilac (Syringa) flowers

I am lucky enough to have a pair of purple Syringa or Lilac bushes in my front garden alongside a single white lilac bush. I know when the flowers are ready to pick by the strong fragrance they produce. If you can smell your Lilac then it's ready to pick and dry.

The individual lilac flowers are trumpet shaped and how you will use them will determine whether you dry them as a full stem or you cut the stem into smaller sections, or you dry each flower individually. I have chosen a mix of all three to give me a variety of shapes and sizes.

Picked purple lilac flowers ready to dry

Lilac produces small flowers (on my bushes the white lilac produces slightly larger blooms than the purple varieties) so dry quickly. I have tried a variety of different methods but for me the simplest method works best - simply cut your lilac sections to size and leave to dry on an absorbent surface such as newspaper or paper towel.

The larger your pieces the longer they will take to dry - individual flowers may be ready in just 24 hours, whilst larger bunches (and larger flowers such as the white varieties) will take a few days.

White and purple lilac flowers

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