How to dry Geraniums
- Rebecca Metcalf
- May 20
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 12
Small, flat flowers such as Geranium and Diasphora abound at this time of year. I have been picking a few each day and experimenting with different drying techniques.
For dried flower embroidery I want to create dried flowers that still have some body and shape but also have some stem attached. I tried three different techniques - air drying upside down, air drying flat, and pressing. You can see the results from left-to-right below:
The left-hand Geranium is perfect for my purposes because the flower has kept its fullness and shape. The standard air dried flower has shrivelled up and lost its shape whilst the pressed flower is too flat. Consider your purpose - how do you want the flower to look? What shape do you need? One of the other drying processes might work better for your needs.
For me though the upside-down dried Geranium is the winner. And when I say 'upside down' I want to be clear - I don't mean hanging the flowers upside down. Instead they are laid upside down on newspaper or another surface, so the flower head is being kept open by gravity during the drying process. The flower naturally wants to shrivel as it dries and this technique helps reduce the shrivelling.
The photo below shows Geranium and Diasphora flowers at various stages of this process as this method will work for any flat-faced flower. Some flowers will topple over as they dry (as you can see!) and I've found that once they do they're near impossible to salvage. So, there will be some casualties, but for the flowers that stay upright you will end up with full, colourful dried flowers that show off the flower's beauty.
PS Always remember that most flowers, and especially purple flowers like many Geranium species, become darker as they dry, see the above photo for the difference between just-picked and dried flower colours.
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