Preserving Flower Blossoms
9/26/2023 | 3m 5sVideo has Closed Captions
Learn this easy technique to preserve both flower structure and color.
Our neighbor in the garden, Josh Choe, has mastered the art of preserving his flowers using silica gel. Qwantese learns how to preserve flower blossoms, a process that actively takes a few minutes and is completely finished in just a few days!
Let's Grow Stuff is a local public television program presented by PBS Wisconsin
Funding for Let’s Grow Stuff is provided by American Transmission Company, Ganshert Nursery and Landscapes, Willy Street Co-op, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
Preserving Flower Blossoms
9/26/2023 | 3m 5sVideo has Closed Captions
Our neighbor in the garden, Josh Choe, has mastered the art of preserving his flowers using silica gel. Qwantese learns how to preserve flower blossoms, a process that actively takes a few minutes and is completely finished in just a few days!
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Qwantese Winters: Hello, everyone!
Welcome back to Let's Grow Stuff!
My name is Qwantese, and this is my new friend, Josh.
And today, he's going to show us how to preserve flowers with an interesting method that I'm sure you've never heard of before.
You ready?
Let's preserve stuff!
[energetic electronic music] So, Josh, tell us what we have going on here.
- Josh Choe: So, you might have heard of a lot of different ways to preserve flowers, but we're going to use a method that uses this silica gel.
And it's kind of similar to sand.
Silica is like sand.
It takes the moisture out.
- Okay, so, I want to preserve this flower.
How should I go about doing this?
Just give me the step by step.
- So, it's really easy.
What we can do is we can pour some in the bottom.
You want to make sure that every surface of the flower is touched by the silica.
- Oh.
And we can just take the top right here, snip it right off.
- Mm-hmm.
And then, we can place this guy right in here.
So, this beautiful flower here, we see the silica on the bottom right.
And we can just fill on top, right until it's covered.
- How do we know when the flowers are done preserving?
- It's usually only one to three days.
And if you dry them too long, they actually can get quite brittle, and they will break if you try to pull them up.
And this is one we have from last year.
- Oh, wow!
- Can I pick it up?
- Yep, absolutely.
So, it's just like sand, right?
- Yeah.
- It's shaking it right off.
- I see what you mean about it keeping the structure intact.
Like, this is beautiful!
And it would be really hard to do something like this if we were to like press it.
It wouldn't really keep the-- - Yeah, you wouldn't get that 3D structure of all the blooms and the blossoms.
And this is from last summer, so it's over a year old.
Why don't we have you give it a try?
- Okay.
You can see how easy it is, too.
- I'm gonna do this one, this one, and this one.
and I cut.
You want to get close to the bottom of the flower.
- Like that?
- Yep.
So now, is there a certain way I have to face these?
- I usually like them to do face-up just because I like the way that looks, but either way should be fine.
And it also depends on the petals, too.
- Oh, there you go.
- Okay.
And then, just sprinkle on the top?
- Sprinkle on the top.
And then, you just want to get as much covered as possible.
And a little bit poking out is fine, too.
- Okay, so this is good?
Yep, couple days, they'll be good to go.
- Yay!
Who would have thought being neighbors in the garden would lead us to this awesome opportunity to learn how to preserve flowers in a really cool way?
- Yeah, I'm super happy that I was able to share that with you and with your viewers.
- Well, thank you so much, Josh.
And see you tomorrow?
- Yeah, I'll see you in the garden.
- Funding for Let's Grow Stuff is provided by the Focus fund for Wisconsin Programs and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
Let's Grow Stuff is a local public television program presented by PBS Wisconsin
Funding for Let’s Grow Stuff is provided by American Transmission Company, Ganshert Nursery and Landscapes, Willy Street Co-op, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.