A Gorgeous Dried Hydrangea Wreath Easily Made By You

You can either purchase already dried hydrangea flowers from your local craft store, or you can dry your own. The biggest trick when drying your own is the timing of when you pick the flowers. It is best to pick them right before you anticipate your first fall frost. If you pick them mid-summer, they just will not dry correctly. Dried hydrangea wreaths are so beautiful and versatile in a home, and a lot of fun to make as well.

To harvest and dry your hydrangeas, cut them and strip all leaves off of the stems. Either hang them upside down in a darkened room to dry or simply put in a vase to dry, but again a darkened room works best to preserve the color. Try picking blooms off different plants if possible to have a variety of colors to work with.

For a wreath base pick any type you want, I like either grapevine types or Styrofoam, depending on the look I'm after. Take floral wire and wrap it around the wreath and form a small loop in order to hang it when finished.

For a Styrofoam base, use a low melt point glue gun. Separate each bunch of hydrangea heads into smaller florets. Glue each to the wreath base, poking the stem into the base at the same time. Space the blooms over the surface of the wreath from top and bottom, left to right, inside and outside of the base until you completely fill it in.

The thing you're looking at now is balance. Step back and look at a distance. Consider balance of color, shape with each side balanced, not to full or sparse anywhere, and none sticking out noticeably farther than the rest.

The balance of color is especially key. This is why it's important when first building the wreath to move consistently around the base with each bloom to help get a good color balance.

Now that your wreath is complete, you may want to leave it with this plain, simple look. You also may want to add baby's breath or other dried florals to it, or a bow. Experiment with the type of look you like.

For a grapevine wreath, it's the same principal but a different look. You can tie a bow on the wreath if you want (if you do, do so before adding flowers), or ribbon. I like to leave bare spaces on these to be able to see the grapevine portion as well. Again, look for balance. You can also add dried roses to it or any other type of dried flowers or grasses too. You can get really creative with these and come up with very different looks. Experiment to your heart's content.

Sunlight will greatly reduce the life of your hydrangea wreath. Although when next year comes around, feel free to strip off the old blooms and redo with the current year's harvest.

Sometimes people are disappointed in dried flowers because they expect them to look great for many years. Really that's a myth because they really will only last about a year looking nice.

Article Source: http://www.articlesfeed.com

By Rachel Ray an avid gardener who enjoys getting out there in the fresh air. Visit her site for creative ideas you can do at home.

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