Stay home. Stay calm. Press flowers!

Posted April 4, 2020

We’re all doing our very best to adapt within such an uncertain and difficult spell. The Coronavirus pandemic now means we’re indoors most, if not all of the time. Just keeping your mind diverted and taking up an interest won’t solve Covid 19 but can help you relax and refocus. And pressing flowers is most certainly NOT the answer to the virus! But it’s another little way of calming the mind. Diverting your thoughts. Looking towards something beautiful . Just creating.

The Victorians loved studying, drawing and preserving plants. I have this quaint old book, published in 1880, with some tiny leaves flattened between its pages. Not very well done, as the moisture from the leaves stained the pages, but a real treasure to find. Why were they put there? To preserve a memory of a special place? To study and sketch later?

Books are a simple place to press plants. Provided they are quite sturdy and that you protect the pages from moisture by placing the plant onto paper (newspaper is fine).

Leaves are great to press, especially beautiful autumn ones. Easy to press in a book too. Handle with care though, as they tend to get very brittle when dried.

Get yourself a flower press!

If you have a garden, balcony, kitchen windowsill or anywhere you can grow flowers or herbs, you can start pressing.

A good friend made my press, as I am definitely not great at that sort of craft! Thanks, John! I can, however, happily provide here a list of the equipment needed. It is good for pressing longer stemmed plants and has two pressing layers:

~ 1cm thick plywood: 3 pieces 32cm x 40cm

~ 6 wing nuts & 12 washers

~ 6 Full Thread Hexagon Bolts (6cm x 12cm)

~ 6 plastic nut covers (to stand on)

You can usually buy small flower presses online if you can’t make a large one.

Keep the flowers between paper to help absorb moisture. Not kitchen roll, it leaves its pattern!

Separate stems and trim off any leaves.

It can help to make a note of when you put them into the press & where they came from.

Two weeks in a press is usually enough time to dry flowers but you can check their progress after one week.

Gypsophila (Baby’s-breath) is a beautiful and graceful flower, but also very delicate and brittle when pressed. It can add a very personal and unique touch when stuck to the inside of a note or card. (I sometimes find a Sellotape sticky spot is probably best to keep it attached to the card).

Some special ways I use pressed flowers

Miniature framed mementoes

Keepsakes in bowls & plates

Greeting cards and pictures

I like to put pressed flowers, herbs, even weeds and garden leaves that would otherwise be unnoticed in our surroundings, into simple pots and jars. Bulky flowers with thick stems can go a little mouldy when pressed but sometimes a pressed rose can have a vintage, decadent look which can be appealing.

I wish for us all to stay busy indoors and at peace in our hearts and in our homes during this Coronavirus crisis. If pressing plants and flowers can help us in any way, perhaps it can let us see that nature is still there to be admired. The ‘outside’ world seems a bit unsafe just now but there is still real beauty and wonder in plants.

Keep well everyone.

Jacqueline