Large flower balls in blue, violet, white, pink or red: Hardly any garden perennial impresses with such a splendor of color as the hydrangea. We would like to go into more detail here about how the flowers with their special flair are constructed and how you can preserve them.
How can you preserve and preserve hydrangea flowers?
Hydrangea flowers can be preserved by drying: Cut fully ripened flowers with a 20 cm long stem and place them in a vase with a mixture of two thirds water and one third glycerin. The dried flowers remain elastic, colorful and are suitable as attractive room decorations.
The structure of the flowers
Wild forms of hydrangea form white, pink or blue false flowers at the end of the shoot, with which the plant attracts insects. The inconspicuous, fertile flowers are located inside and are often not recognizable as flowers at first glance by laypeople.
In garden hybrids, these fruity flower parts are often converted into false flowers, so that the hydrangea no longer produces seeds. An exception are:
- Climbing hydrangea
- Velvet Hydrangea
- Oakleaf hydrangea
- Plate hydrangea.
These species may therefore also be able to be bred from seeds.
Breaking out flowers
So that the hydrangea produces new flowers throughout the summer, you should regularly pull out the dead flowers. Alternatively, you can also cut off the spent umbels.
Drying hydrangea flowers
The large flower balls can be preserved and therefore last longer. To do this, cut off the fully ripened hydrangea flowers with a stem about twenty centimeters long. Mix two thirds of water with one third of glycerin (€14.00 on Amazon) and fill the mixture into the vase with the hydrangea flowers.
Since the dried hydrangea flowers remain elastic and soft, you can arrange them almost like fresh flowers. They retain their full color for many months and are an extremely attractive room decoration.
Tip
If the hydrangea only produces sterile flowers, you can still propagate them yourself. A large hydrangea can be divided into two or three plants. Breeding from cuttings is also easy.
