One trick to making your staging attractive is to add flowers. However once your garden stops producing fresh blooms, you need to either purchase store bought flowers or go without. Here's a little trick that will have you in blooms all year long.
One of my favorite seasons is fall. And one reason is because of the amazing yield that can be had by one hydrangea bush. Hydrangeas bloom all summer, however fall does something special to these guys.
I can't take credit for inventing this tip. A reader (I don't remember who!!) read one of my posts of frustration on why some hydrangeas dried all crumpled up while others stayed looking freshly picked all year long.
I'm glad she explained it, because now we ALL can have beautiful hydrangeas within our reach any time of year!
How to dry hydrangeas
1. Pick hydrangeas in the fall. Leave the blooms intact on the bush until the blooms start to go slightly crispy and some even brown. You want most of the moisture out of the petals.. this is key.
Tip: if you pick your hydrangeas in summer, they're generally one color. Wait till fall and you end up with an amazing rainbow of soft hues. The above yield was from one bush!
2. Cut the stems as long as you can so you have more variation with them later.
3. Leave them in water until they completely dry.
May as well make that drying time pretty. :)
I love how the sun came out right at this time, casting a beautiful late afternoon highlight.
Here are a couple shots with my new micro lens.
And today's quirk: there's only one bad thing about micro close. Look quick if you're squeamish. Ech!
I left that critter in there so you realize you cannot hide a THING with this kind of lens.
Free flowers to play with for the rest of the year - priceless. Literally.
Know why I picked these? They're for the 'She's Got Guts!' reveal for this Wednesday's link party.
Two more days to go... got the guts to be ready as well? :)
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