The best flowers for drying are sturdy, with a small calyx and tightly enclosed petals. Experiment with any flowers and herbs that interest you, but the best candidates for drying are amaranth, artemisia, aster, astilbe, baby’s breath, calendula, celosia, chrysanthemum, coneflower seed heads, dahlia, daisies, gomphrena, herbs, hydrangea, lavender, lunaria, marigold, poppy seed pods, rose buds, salvia, sea holly, statice, strawflower, yarrow and zinnia.Flowers with high water content, like peonies, are harder and take longer to dry. They can also lose their shape and color during the process.
Delicate flowers, like carnations, are beautiful when dried, but their fragility makes them difficult to work with.;
, Fresh flowers for bouquets are usually harvested with new buds in early bloom. If you want to dry fresh cut flowers that are already in a bouquet, wait until the blooms have opened almost completely. If you’re harvesting flowers yourself specifically for drying, wait until the buds have opened about 90% – you want them to be just shy of full bloom when you cut them.Avoid harvesting flowers that are mature or past their prime – they will often lose their petals and shed pollen during the drying process. Make sure the flowers haven’t set seeds yet.
 Flowers are at peak quality for harvesting on dry, sunny mornings after the early morning dew has evaporated. Get the flowers out of the sunlight immediately after you harvest them. This helps them retain their vibrant color.Do not use water to rinse dirt off the petals. Hold them upside down and shake them gently to remove any dirt.Dewy flowers take much longer to dry and the moisture may cause mold to develop between the petals.
Avoid harvesting at midday, when the temperature peaks. The heat can cause the flowers to wilt, making them less ideal candidates for drying., These work best when building dried flower bouquets. Cut the stems no shorter than six inches in length. This will facilitate the bundling and drying process later. Place the flowers upright in a bucket or basket while you’re harvesting them.This inflicts the least amount of damage to their fragile petals and is the easiest way to transport them from the field.If you plan to use tall vases for your dried bouquets, keep the final look in mind while harvesting.
If you don’t know how you’ll be displaying the flowers, leave as much length as possible on the stems. You can trim them to your desired length later.
Select hardy flowers with low moisture content.
Choose flowers that are almost at full bloom.
Harvest flowers and herbs in the morning.
Opt for flowers that have long, straight stems.
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