Making memory wreaths from dried funeral flowers
By Suzanne Randell, Suzanne Randell Floral Designs, Bedfordshire.
After a funeral one of the big questions is what to do with all the flowers?
Sometimes close family members may decide to take one of the tributes to enjoy at home in the house or garden, or sometimes the flowers might be donated to a residential care home.
Another option is for families to dry the funeral flowers and then to ask their florist to arrange them into a memory wreath.
Flowers from a funeral arrangement were dried at home by a client and then brought to Suzanne for her to use them to create an ‘everlasting’ memory wreath.
DIY flower preservation
One of my clients recently air-dried the flowers from her father’s coffin spray by bunching them up into individual varieties with rubber bands (this allows shrinkage, but still keeps the stems together), and then hanging them up to dry in a cool dark room, away from heat and direct sunlight. More professional floristry tips regarding drying flowers can be found here. She then brought the dried flowers to us and we got to work in creating three delicate dried memory wreaths for different individual family members.
How to look after dried flowers
Dried flowers make a lovely keepsake - all you need to do to preserve them almost indefinitely is to keep them away from humidity – this can cause the flowers to sag or wilt. Also try to keep dried flower arrangements away from stoves or heaters as strong heat can make the flowers lose colour and/or disintergrate. The only maintenance dried arrangements need is to an occasional light dusting with a small paint brush or you can blow dust off with a hair dryer on a cool setting.
