Last Minute Flower Pressing

If you’re an inhabitant of the north as I am, now is the time for fervent last minute flower pressing. Here in Wisconsin there have already been a number of hard frosts, but a few hardy flower souls remain, such as my sunny yellow and orange calendula, a handful of weary osteospermum, and of course my hardy mums.

Now that I’ve been pressing flowers for a number of years, I finally have the forethought to press an ample supply of greenery as well. A week or so ago I trimmed all the fronds off of my maidenhair ferns and pressed them. Even though some of them were a bit ragged at the tips, the beautiful lacy green foliage will come in handy for my pressed flower gift tags and pressed flower collage cards. I also like to press as many long slender pieces of grass I can find (the grass along the cornfield that my husband always misses with the weed-wacker). Grass makes a perfect flower stem in a pinch, especially for flowers that have really thick stems, such as calendula or cosmos.

Don’t forget to press extra leaves as well. I tend to find that most flower leaves are pretty brittle, so it’s nice to have lots of extras on hand. My favorite leaves to press are tarragon leaves from my herb garden. They tend to be just the perfect size, they’re fairly durable, and they smell great when they are being zapped in the microwave with my Microfleur flower press.

Happy pressing!