Drying Hydrangea...

It's that time of year here in the northeast...end of the summer, grass in burning out, autumn just around the corner and it's time to cut the hydrangea. The last few years our hydrangea bushes haven't had many blooms at all, but this year was great!

Here is this year's haul starting to dry.

We only have 2 hydrangea bushes in the front yard. There is a small window of time to cut the blooms and I missed the bush on the left. It was already dried up and breaking down.The back of the bush was still good though.

This bush was perfect. Still had large blooms. The original color of our hydrangea was light blue. Sorry I don't have a before picture.

It was bottom heavy, but that made it easy it cut.

You need to leave the blooms on long enough when they are starting to dry, because if the are still supple and full of moisture, they won't dry properly.

The blooms need to be cut late summer or right when then are still fresh looking and changing colors, but not when they are brown and dried up.

This is good...kinda of papery, not velvety

Our blue flowers to turn to shades greens and mauves.

Cut the stems as long as possible to make it easy to dry in a basket or vase. You can always trim away the stem.

I always remove all leaves.

There are different ways to dry hydrangea, like the water method, but I just dry them naturally in a basket.

Start by arranging the blooms around the outer edge of a basket.

and keep adding more.

and more...piling up row after row.

Arrange until you have a basket full!!

I cut a big basket and there are still blooms on the bush.

I just love all the different colors.

I leave them to air dry on the table or move it to a quiet corner of a room. As the months go by, the colors change even more, so it's like a different arrangement all the time.

As it dries, the flowers shrink, so I will re-arrange them or move them to a smaller basket.

Here is a basket of dried hydrangea that I've had for probably over 10 years. I store them in a box most of the year and bring them out for fall. There was a time in the past where I would spray them with hair spray to keep them in tact, but I can't remember if this was that batch.

I just love the color of these.

If anyone has other helpful tips for drying hydrangea, please share them in the comments section.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day,
~Karen~