Flower petals dry beautifully to preserve their color and shape. Scented potpourris made of flower petals and other natural ingredients make lovely sachets and other home décor items. You can also add preserved flower petals to stationery and notebook paper for a beautifully feminine touch. Choose your most beautiful flowers from your garden and you can successfully preserve a variety of flower petals.
Select the flowers you will use to press to preserve petals. Carnations, lilies, irises, tulips and roses are some flowers that come apart well and press with good results.
Choose flowers that are at the peak of bloom (flowers that are perfectly open with no blemishes or imperfections). Remove the flowers from the stems when there is no dew or moisture on the flowers. Cut the flowers from the stems with about one inch of stem remaining under the blossoms.
Open the telephone book to the center and lay it open flat. Place a sheet of blotting paper over one page of the telephone book.
Begin to disassemble a blossom by pulling the petals from the blossom. Work carefully and slowly so that the petals are in one piece as you remove them from the blossom.
Place each petal onto the blotting paper on the telephone book page as you remove it. Space the petals so that they are not touching each other. Fill that telephone page with as many petals as you can fit and then place a second piece of blotting paper over the flower petals. Carefully turn approximately one inch of pages over onto the petals and place another piece of blotting paper onto the telephone book. Begin filling up another page with flower petals in the same fashion.
Fill the telephone book with flower petals to dry flat, with about one inch of pages between each page of petals. Keep the petals in the center portion of the telephone book with the beginning and ending pages of the book free of petals.
Close the telephone book when you are finished removing petals. Find a warm, dry location for the phone book where no one will disturb it during the preserving time.
Wait for at least two weeks and up to four weeks for the petals to dry. Check the progress of the pressed petals after two weeks. If they feel papery and dry when you touch them, they are dry. If they still feel moist, continue drying for another week.