How do you dry lavender for decoration?
I have lavender growing in my garden, and I've never grown lavender before. I have heard you can cut it in late summer or early fall and hang sprigs of it upside down, for a nice smelling house. When I tried drying roses last year, they rotted instead of drying and were covered in a yellow powder.
When do I cut the lavender and how do I dry it properly? Should it be treated with anything special to prevent moldering?
Answers ( 1 )
My lavender came in lush this year, so I have already cut about half for drying, and a friend makes soaps, so she is going tp get the rest fresh if she stops building her house long enough to get here.
You will want to cut your stems long, when the plant is already dry, and you need to hang it in a dark, dry, warm place. Likely the reason your roses didn't dry well was they were too bulky to dry fast enough before mold set in. Dry, dark, warm- and upside down. That's the ticket. PS: With bulky flowers like roses, you can also dry them in borax which is available in the laundry aisle of your grocery. https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-dry-flowers-with-borax-2145691Lavender is easy to dry: Cut the stems as long as possible, then tie the bunch tightly about halfway down the stems length. Add a long loop to the tie, and hang the loop so the flower heads are at the bottom, on a tack or even around a clothes hangar, in a nice, dark spot- like a closet. You hang the bouquet upside down so the essential oils that give lavender its scent aren't leached down into the stems and more easily lost.