How to Preserve Your Valentine's Day Flowers: 4 Simple Methods

You know that sinking feeling when you watch your beautiful Valentine's Day flowers start to droop? Last year, I nearly cried when the stunning roses my partner gave me, from a local farm here, started looking sad after just a week. There I was, standing in our kitchen in Kingscliff, staring at these wilting flowers that just days before had made me feel like the luckiest person alive. That's when I thought, there has to be a better way than just watching them die.

As it turns out, there is. Actually, there are several ways, and after 17 years in the flower business (and many failed experiments that left our workshop looking like a botanical crime scene back in the day), we've figured out which methods actually work and which ones are complete rubbish.

The Day We Discovered Flower Pressing (Thanks to a 6-Year-Old)

Back in 2010, my daughter came home from school in Terranora with a Mother's Day card that had a pressed pansy on it. It was perfectly flat, still purple, and apparently had been sitting in her teacher's craft box for three years. Three years! Meanwhile, I couldn't keep flowers looking good for three days.

That weekend, we raided the op shop for the heaviest books we could find (scored a massive encyclopaedia set for $5 - remember those?). The pressing experiments began, and let me tell you, our first attempts were...interesting. We tried to press a fully bloomed rose. Have you ever seen a squashed rose? It's not pretty. Lessons were learned. Also, on that topic, the now much older daughter is obsessed with thrift shopping!

Here's what actually works: thin, delicate flowers are your best friends. Think pansies, violas, forget-me-nots, and individual rose petals (not the whole bloody rose like we tried). The process is dead simple (no pun intended), flower goes between paper towels, paper towels go in heavy book, book goes somewhere it won't be disturbed for a month. Yes, a whole month. Patience isn't my strong suit either, but trust the process.

The colour retention still amazes me. Orange and yellow flowers stay like they were picked yesterday, for years. Pink ones fade a bit but still look lovely. Red flowers? Well, they tend to go brown, which can actually look quite vintage and romantic. Blue and purple flowers are trickier, sometimes they work, sometimes they turn into sad grey shadows of their former selves.

Air Drying: The Method Your Nan Probably Used

Remember walking into your grandmother's house and seeing those dried flower bunches hanging from the ceiling? As it turns out Nan (in my case, Sal was her name) knew what she was doing. Air drying is probably the oldest trick in the book, and it's still one of the best.

We stumbled into this method by accident. Years ago, I'd forgotten about a bunch of roses hanging in our workshop storage room (was saving them for "later" - we all know how that goes). Three weeks later, I found them perfectly dried, colours slightly muted but still beautiful, holding their shape like they were frozen in time.

The secret? Dark, dry, and airy. Our workshop storage room was perfect, well it was the back of the florist/gift store with no windows, good airflow from the ventilation system (but horribly in summer, no air-conditioning), and warm from being near the water heater. Your garage, spare room closet, or even a dark corner of the laundry could work. Just hang the flowers upside down (we use old coat hangers or string), make sure they're not touching each other, and walk away for 2-3 weeks.

What are the best flowers for this? The sturdy ones. Baby's breath (gypsophila if we're being fancy) air dries like a dream. So does statice, those little papery flowers that already feel half dry when fresh. Roses work well too, though they'll shrink a bit and the colours will soften.

The Silica Gel Game-Changer

This one was a revelation. We'd been struggling to preserve a special wedding bouquet for a customer when our supplier mentioned silica gel. "Like those little packets in shoe boxes?" I asked. "But bigger," she said. Much bigger.

You can buy silica gel crystals from craft or bargain stores now (back then we had to special order it). It works by sucking every bit of moisture out of the flowers while keeping their shape intact. It's like freeze drying without the freezer.

The process feels a bit like you're performing flower surgery. Pour a layer of crystals in an airtight container, nestle your flower in face up, then carefully pour more crystals around and over it until it's completely buried. Seal it tight and wait 5-10 days. The anticipation nearly killed me the first time, it's like waiting for Christmas morning.

When you finally uncover your flower, it's like magic. The rose looks almost exactly like it did when fresh, just... crispy. The colour is there, the shape is perfect, even the leaves stay green. We've used this method for countless special occasion flowers over the years we had the shop, and it never gets old watching customers' faces when they see their preserved wedding or Valentine's bouquet.

The Modern Way: Microwave Magic (No, Really!)

I'll admit, when someone first suggested microwaving flowers, I thought they were taking the you know what. Microwaves are for reheating last night's spag bol or fried rice for the local Chinese restaurant, not preserving precious flowers. But desperate times and all that you know what...

We had a customer who needed their anniversary flowers preserved but was flying out the next day. No time for traditional methods. That's when we discovered the microwave silica gel combo. Same idea as regular silica gel, but instead of waiting a week, you zap on low (like less than 900 Watts) it for 3-4 minutes.

The first attempt? Let's just say the microwave smelled like cooked roses for a week. Too much time, too high power. But once we got the hang of it (low power, short bursts, checking frequently), it actually worked brilliantly. The flowers come out preserved in literally minutes instead of days.

Fair warning though for you dried budding peeps, dedicate a microwave container specifically for this. We learned the hard way that reheating soup in the same container makes for some... interesting flavour combinations that is for sure.

What We've Learned from Years of Preserving Love

After helping countless customers preserve their special flowers over the shop owning years, here's what really matters: it's not about creating museum perfect, Instagram ready masterpieces, your goal is simply to keep the memory alive.

Some of our favourite preserved flowers are far from perfect. There's the rose from my daughter's year 6 graduation that got a bit squished in the book but still makes me smile, after it was lost on the VW for 6 months due to being hidden in a map pocket. The air-dried bouquet from our 20th anniversary that's dusty and faded but hanging in our bedroom. The silica-preserved corsage from my mum's 80th birthday that sits in a little glass box on her mantle in Taree.

Each method has its moment. Pressing for when you want to frame something special or add to a scrapbook. Air drying for that cottage garden feel or when you want to keep the whole bouquet together. Silica gel for those extra special individual flowers you want to keep looking fresh. And the microwave for when life gets in the way of your preservation plans.

Your Valentine's Flowers Deserve More Than the Bin

This Valentine's Day, when you receive those special flowers (or hey, when you buy them for yourself - self-love is important too!), think beyond their vase life. Those roses that made your heart skip? They could be pressed into a bookmark you'll use for years. That mixed bouquet that brightened your whole week? It could become a dried arrangement that brightens your whole year.

We've been helping people keep their flower memories alive since 2007, first from our little shop in Kingscliff, now through our network of partner florists across Australia. Every preserved flower tells a story of love, celebration, or just a random Tuesday when someone thought you deserved flowers, and you do by the way.

So don't let this year's Valentine's flowers just fade away. Pick a method, give it a go, and create something that'll last. Even if it doesn't turn out perfect (trust me, we've had some spectacular failures), you'll have tried. And sometimes, it's the imperfect preserved rose that ends up meaning the most.

After all, love isn't perfect either, is it? But it's worth preserving.

Preserving Flowers FAQ

Which preservation method is actually the best?

Ah, the million-dollar question! Honestly, after all my experiments, I can tell you there's no single "best" way, it all depends on the memory you want to create. If you want to keep a flower's beautiful 3D shape (like for a single, perfect Valentine's rose), silica gel is your winner, hands down. If you want to frame it or pop it in a scrapbook, pressing is the only way to go. And for that lovely, rustic, Nan's-house vibe with a full bouquet, you just can't beat air drying.

Can I preserve flowers that are already old or wilting?

I wish I could say yes, but my honest answer is no. You need to capture the flower when it's at its peak, right before it's fully opened up. Trying to preserve a flower that's already wilting is a bit like trying to bake a cake with rotten eggs, you're just preserving the decay. My advice is to always start with the freshest, healthiest bloom you can get your hands on.

What's the absolute fastest way to preserve a flower?

Hands down, the microwave-silica gel method. You can have a beautifully preserved flower in under 5 minutes. But, and this is a big but from someone who has smelled cooked roses, you have to be so careful. Too much power and it's a disaster. For sheer speed, it's the champion, but for a guaranteed good result, patience with the other methods is your best friend.

How do I stop the colours from fading so much?

The biggest enemy of colour, more than anything else, is direct sunlight. It's a flower's best friend when it's growing and its worst enemy once it's preserved. Whatever method you choose, keep your flowers in a dark spot while they're drying and display them away from bright, sunny windows afterwards. A little fading over the years is natural, think of it as your flower becoming a beautiful, vintage version of itself.

How long will my preserved flowers actually last?

If you treat them with care (meaning no direct sun or humidity), they can last for years! I have pressed flowers from my daughter that are over a decade old and still look sweet. A good air-dried bouquet looks fantastic for 1-3 years before it might get a bit too brittle and dusty. Those silica-preserved blooms, if kept in a sealed box or glass dome, can look almost perfect for a very, very long time.

Once they're preserved, what's the best way to display them?

This is the fun part! Pressed flowers are gorgeous in simple glass frames (we have them all over our house in Kingscliff) or laminated into bookmarks. Air-dried bouquets look amazing hanging on a wall or arranged in a vase (with no water, of course!). For those extra-precious silica-preserved flowers, I love putting them under a glass cloche (like the one from Beauty and the Beast) or in a little shadow box. It protects them from dust and makes them feel like a treasured museum piece.