Drying Limelight Hydrangeas: the best way to harvest and dry limelight hydrangeas for arrangements, a dried limelight hydrangea wreath, or fall decor.
Several weeks ago I shared what I have learned about growing limelight hydrangeas. I have just three bushes that are two years old. They have produced the loveliest and most abundant blooms of anything I have ever grown. Growing limelights is easy, but drying limelight hydrangeas is even easier.
Drying Limelight Hydrangeas
My best advice is to let Mother Nature do all the work. Let the blooms dry right on the bushes. They may weigh the branches down a bit, but as long as they are not lying on the ground, they are OK. Mine survived through high winds and very hard rain. It’s best to wait until the blooms have darkened to green and have a paper-like appearance. The longer you wait, the better. I harvested mine a few days ago and here is my first project.
I used my twin silver urns to make dried hydrangea arrangements. You can use this method with any sort of container. Bowls, pitchers, pots…anything will work. The first thing I did was quickly and naturally clean the urns.
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To assemble an arrangement with limelight hydrangeas, here is what you need:
- dried limelights
- container (click HERE for a similar urn)
- floral styrofoam
- scissors
- a knife
- a hole punch/awl.
Floral styrofoam comes in all shapes and sizes. I bought these squares because they were the right height. I used a serrated knife to shave off the corners so they would fit snugly in the urns. It’s perfectly fine for the styrofoam to stick out of your container. The flowers will cover it up. Next is adding the blooms.
The stems of the limelight hydrangeas are sturdy, but it’s still hard to push them into the styrofoam. Use the hole punch first to make the job easier. Simply poke it into the styrofoam and then insert the trimmed stem of the bloom.
Make your arrangement big and fluffy or a little more controlled. If you put a stem in and and don’t like it, just take it out and put it someplace else. I promise you cannot mess this up!
I hope you aren’t tired of wreaths because I really want to see if I can make one with dried hydrangeas. If it turns out OK I will share it. I’ll be back this weekend with more of my living room refreshed for Fall. Thank you for stopping by…see you soon!
Click the images below for more on limelights!
