Microwave-Dried Flowers

Pressing flowers and drying them with the help of the microwave can keep summer going and going. Colors fade less with this drying method than with some other processes. The blooms, petals, and green leaves and fronds, once dried, can be used for craft projects to be enjoyed throughout the year.

The microwave drying method worried me at first. Because I have charred food items in this kitchen appliance on many occasions, I knew that proper timing would be vital. I decided to do my drying of flowers and sprays of greenery, such as those from a Japanese Painted Fern, using a start-stop approach. 

I set my microwave’s timer for ten seconds and then checked on the drying. Small snippings from flower clusters of a Hydrangea were flattening beautifully under the weight of a heavy ceramic dish plus absorbent toweling to capture moisture. The Japanese Painted Fern had also begun to flatten and dry.

I placed the dish back atop the layers of paper towels and set the microwave’s timer for an additional five seconds. Now, seconds? Am I misspeaking here? Do I mean minutes? No, absolutely not. I had read that microwaved flower drying could take place in about a minute, a minute-and-a-half, or perhaps a bit more time depending on the plant material being dried. But this is cumulative time that must be divided up, with lots of checking in between. (Remember, there will be both plant material and toweling in the microwave, so it is necessary to proceed with caution. Moreover, this is not a project for children.) For me, with papery Hydrangea blooms and dainty Japanese Painted Fern fronds, naturally low-moisture materials, I knew the total time for drying would be brief.

Knowing that microwaves have different power settings (a low setting would be great for this project) and also knowing the vast variety of flowers we gardeners may choose to dry, I am omitting information about the total time it took to do the drying. If truth be told, I did not keep track, as I knew there would be no hard-and-fast rules that would apply to all situations. Suffice it to say, I started by giving the flowers and Japanese Painted Fern just a brief twirl in the microwave. I then looked at the flowers and fronds, set the microwave for another very brief period, and then checked again, repeating this until my plant material was perfectly flat and dry.

Here are some lessons I learned:

• Placing the plant material on paper towels left slight impressions in the most delicate petals. The Japanese Painted Fern did not have a pattern pressed into it, but delicate yellow wildflower blooms took on the quilted pattern of the towels. When I replaced the paper towels with smooth bathroom tissue, the blooms and greenery dried pattern-free, just as perfect as could be.
• I had read that some people dry flowers in the microwave without pressing them, preserving their 3-D look. I tried this and achieved a poor result. Perhaps it was the fact that I first tried it with a Japanese Painted Fern frond which frizzled quickly. But I returned to my pressing method just as quickly.
• I was thankful for having a heavy ceramic dish to place on the plant material that was sandwiched between the tissue. It was heavy and big enough to hold down larger pieces, namely the fronds of the Japanese Painted Fern.
• Having a “turntable”, or rotating glass plate in the microwave, was instrumental in ensuring even drying. Further, I could not imagine drying more than one layer of flowers, due to the checking required along the way. One layer of similar blooms was more than enough for me to handle. Also, because plant material dries at different rates, I grouped my Japanese Painted Fern fronds together. My Hydrangeas dried together. And to achieve the best results, I focused on using only low-moisture flowers and greenery as starting points.
• I determined that the simpler the flower, the better the end-result would be. Double blooms were not the order of the day; instead, single layers of petals worked best. Moreover, drying some form of Fern, be it a Japanese Painted Fern, an Ostrich Fern, or some other feathery greenery, seems to me to be key to ending up with one bit of plant matter that can tie everything else together.

Uses for these dried flowers—ones that keep their color rather than dry in shades of beige—are endless. I used them to make what I have always found elegant: dried arrangements on the corners of high-quality notecards. With a paintbrush and the thin glue used for decoupage, I glued my dried blooms to the corners of stationery, pressed them down with my fingertips, and then weighted down the cards under the same ceramic dish I had used in the microwave. This last step ensured the cards would dry without ripples. From start to finish, this project involved not much fuss, no muss, and just a few steps to arrive at a “summer saver”.

I look forward to gifting some of the notecards I have already made. And I think I will head out later to gather more blooms and greenery. If I do my drying now, I can work on more stationery in fall. Won’t it be nice to craft with summer color, even when the winds blow and leaves pile up outside? As I do this, I hope you will be doing the same, testing this out for yourself and extending summer in this manner.