Drying Flowers With Silica Gel

Drying Flowers With Silica Gel

I am the type of person who loves receiving flowers for special occasions. My favourite thing about getting flowers is preserving their beauty through my crafts. The first time my spouse ever gave me flowers, I hung some of the prettiest ones upside down from the stems until they dried out and kept them, eventually using some in some epoxy art. Since then I have mastered the art of drying flowers from years of receiving beautiful bouquets.

Why Use Silica Gel?

The number one reason I prefer using silica gel to dry flower is because it does the best job at preserving the original colour of the flowers. I found that drying the flower by hanging them resulted in brown discoloration of the flower.
Another reason for choosing silica gel is how much time it can save you. To fully dry flowers by hanging them upside down can take a couple of weeks. Where as drying flowers with silica gel takes a matter of minutes.
Silica gel is also reusable. Eventually the gel will turn blue, which means it have absorbed all the moisture it can hold and will not be able to dry any more flowers. When this happens you can dry the gel out again in the oven and it will return to a white colour. 
The only draws back I find to using silica gel is that it can be very messy. It is a granular substance similar to sugar or salt. So transferring the gel from the bag it is stored in to a microwave container and back can lead to spillage. There will be some gel stuck on the flowers after drying them. If you are using the dried flowers for things like resin epoxy work then it will not be noticeable.

Flowers Dried by Hanging Upside Down
The first flowers I preserved by drying. These flowers were hung upside down to keep the petals secure while waiting for it to dry.
Flower after drying in silica
Silica dried flower. Notice the difference in color vibrancy

First Things First

The first thing to do is pick out the flowers to dry. I tend to pick the flowers I want to keep forever and begin drying them as soon as possible after receiving a bouquet because using fresh flowers is the key to achieving the best results using silica gel. Pick the healthiest flowers with the sturdiest petals to ensure they do not fall apart after being dried. Next cut the stems off the flower, you don’t really need them.

Fresh Bouquet
Fresh flowers before silica
Flowers cut and prepped for drying in silica
Flowers cut and prepped for drying in silica
Starting to fill container with silica gel
Starting to fill container with silica gel
Gently covering flowers with silica gel
Gently covering flowers with silica gel - pour in until completely covered

How To Use The Silica Gel

Once you have picked and prepped your flowers you need to burry them in a mound of silica gel. I added a layer on the bottom of a microwaveable dish to steady the flower petals, placed the flowers in the gel, and carefully covered the flowers trying your best not to disturb the petals too much until they are completely covered.
Place the dish in the microwave with a glass of water and microwave in one minute increments for a total of three minutes

The End Results

Allow the silica gel to cool down before carefully digging out the flowers and remove as much of the gel as you can from the nooks and crannies of the flower. If you want you can gently brush off some of the silica gel off the pedals with a paint brush. I also store the flowers upside down for a while to let more of the gel to fall off. Even after all of this, there will still be some gel stuck to the flowers but I don’t find it all that noticeable.

Starting to fill container with silica gel
Flowers before drying in silica gel
Flowers after drying in silica gel
Flowers after drying in silica gel