Make A Stunning Dried Hydrangea Wreath

Dried hydrangea wreaths are so beautiful and versatilein a home, and a lot of fun to make as well.
You can either purchase already dried hydrangea flowersfrom your local craft store, or you can dry your own.The biggest trick when drying your own is the timing ofwhen you pick the flowers. It is best to pick themright before you anticipate your first fall frost. Ifyou pick them mid-summer, they just will not drycorrectly.
You can either hang them upside down in a darkened roomto dry, or you can set them in a vase upright, evenadding a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the vase,although even that is optional. As long as they arepicked at the correct time, it’s difficult to fail withthem. It’s fun if you can, to pick several bloomsfrom different bushes, as it will provide a nicevariety of colors to the wreath. After they aredried, pick off any dead / discolored brown blooms.
Now, pick the type of base you want to use for awreath. My personal favorites are either Styrofoam orgrapevine type wreath bases. Take some floral wireand wrap it around the wreath, then form a loop of thewire to hang from the wall, and then wrap the wreathagain. You might try hanging it from the wall at thispoint to make sure it lies correctly, and then make anyneeded adjustments while the wreath is bare.
To do a Styrofoam wreath, use a low melt point hot gluegun. Separate each bloom into smaller florets. Hotglue each floret into the wreath base, actually pokingthe stem down into the Styrofoam base. With eachbloom, space it out over the surface of the wreath, forexample; a floret at the top, next left side, bottom,then right side, then inside the circle of the wreath,and outside of the wreath. Continue to do this witheach bloom until you fill it.
Balance is what you are looking for. Balance inshape, you don’t want any sticking out way above theothers, you don’t want one side of the wreath to befuller than the other. Try stepping back and lookingat a distance and just think “balance of shape”.
The second area to look for is balance of color. Thisis the purpose of doing each bloom all over, thenfilling in, so you achieve that balance of color.Give another once over to check on that.
Now, this wreath is either finished, or you can addperhaps add small sprigs of dried baby’s breath to it.Really depends on the look you want. Sometimes thesimplicity of only the hydrangeas is stunning.
For a grapevine wreath, it’s the same principal but adifferent look. You can tie a bow on the wreath ifyou want (if you do, do so before adding flowers), orribbon. I like to leave bare spaces on these to beable to see the grapevine portion as well. Again,look for balance. You can also add dried roses to itor any other type of dried flowers or grasses too.You can get really creative with these and come up withvery different looks. Experiment to your heart’scontent.
Many times people expect dried floral arrangements tolast forever, and are disappointed when they startlooking bad after a few years. This is amisconception. Expect them to look good for about ayear, that’s really about all they were meant to last.
If they are in direct sunlight it will be a muchshorter time. However, the next year, feel free tostrip the old flowers off, and make another with thesame base for another year’s worth of a gorgeous handmade wreath!


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By Valerie Garner-Mother, grandmother and candlemaker /owner of Joyful Designs in Soy.
She loves to write ona variety of topics with a warm, and engaging style. http://www.joyfuldesignsinsoy.com