Bouquets from dried flowering shrubs
Shrubs are among the most multi-purpose plants in the garden. They can fill your garden with color, shape, and texture throughout the whole year, enjoy you with flowers in the spring, lovely foliage in the summer, or berries and bright leaves in autumn. Even your winter garden will recall you about spring colors.
A peony’s bloom period is brief during the late spring, but both the flowers and open buds can be dried for later use in bouquets. If you are going to dry your flowers, after cutting, hang the flowers upside down to air dry or use a desiccant such as silica gel. The drying process will take about 5 days. And then the heavy flower heads will need to be wired into place.
Hold the peony blossom between your fingers and run about 10 inches of thin, flexible wire along the stalk, working it through the head just off center. If you happen to push the wire just into the center, the bloom may fall apart.
Ease the wire along, squeezing it lightly to support it, holding your thumb on top to feel it coming through.
Fasten the bloom end of the wire into a small loop when it is through.
Softly pull the loop back down into the flower so it places on the base of the head.
You may attach a longer wire to the stalk for insertion into your bouquets.