There are techniques for arranging hydrangea cut flowers; they can be enjoyed for two weeks and then turned into charming dried flowers

Hydrangea is a very charming flowering plant that likes to grow in partial shade and can bloom without needing too much light. Its flowers are truly spectacular, growing just like charming hydrangea blooms, with rich flower colors, including the most common pink, blue, purple, white and so on.

After hydrangea blooms, you can cut the flowers off and put them directly in a vase to keep them fresh, with a little clean water at the bottom. Cut the base of the hydrangea stems at an angle and soak them in clean water. If you want to keep the flower heads fresh longer, you can spray water on the flowers.

The method for keeping hydrangea fresh is very special. With other flowers, if you spray water on the blooms they rot easily, but hydrangea flowers wilt easily if they dry out. Frequent misting actually helps them stay looking good for a longer time. If they are kept in an air-conditioned room and misted often, they can stay fresh for about two weeks.

Hydrangea can also be made into very beautiful dried flowers. Once dried, they can be stored for many years and still look very attractive. Below is the simplest method.

The biggest challenge in making hydrangea into dried flowers is how to dry them quickly. If they lose water slowly, their petals turn brown and look very ugly.

The best time to make dried hydrangea flowers is from August to November. At this time the hydrangea flowering season is about to end, and larger petals will have grown. In fact, what we usually see as hydrangea petals are its sepals; its true flowers are actually hidden in the middle of these sepals and are very tiny.

Hydrangea can be air-dried directly; hanging it up in the air will dry it simply, until its sepals become papery. However, this method cannot preserve good color. The dried hydrangea flowers made this way look very dull and cannot be stored for very long.

Below is a method using water to help hydrangea dry. It allows the hydrangea to dry while keeping fresh color, and the fresh color can be maintained for several months. It also preserves a nice shape, and the stems become firmer.

Cut hydrangea stems should be about 15 to 30 cm long. After cutting, remove all the leaves, even the small ones.

Next, put the fresh hydrangea cut flowers in fresh water. At least half of the stems should be soaked in clean water. The vase should be placed in a cool spot, in the shade, away from sunlight, so they stay fresh longer.

If the water level in the vase has not gone down, do not add water. This is simply letting the hydrangea dry naturally, rather than drying it by hanging it in the air. This method lets the hydrangea dry slowly in water.

If you prefer to air-dry the flowers, you can simply hang the hydrangea upside down in the air. You can choose some larger flowers and separate them rather than bunching them together.

Hydrangea made by air-drying will be more brittle than hydrangea dried in water, but it is still very beautiful.

Of course, you can also use the most common flower-drying techniques, such as the most common silica gel powder and microwave. You can directly buy special silica gel powder for dried flowers, bury the flowers directly in the silica gel powder, then put them in the microwave and heat for two minutes to make shaped dried flowers.

The color of hydrangea dried flowers made by the above methods can last for about one year, after which the color will gradually fade.