How to care for your dried flowers

January 9, 2026

How long your dried flowers last is dependent on how you care for them.

It is important to be aware that dried flowers are a natural product and are therefore perishable. They do not last forever. If you follow the care instructions below, you can help maintain the quality of your dried flowers.

Summary

How to care for your dried flowers:

1. Do not give your dried flowers water

2. Handle your dried flowers carefully

3. Keep you dried flowers away sunlight

4. Keep your flowers away from humid conditions

5. Keep you bouquet tied

1. Do not give your dried flowers water

What can you do?

When you go to place your flowers in a vessel don’t give your dried flowers any water.

What can you expect?

If you give your dried flowers water, they will rot.

2. Handle your dried flowers with care

What can you do?

Handle your flowers with care. To clean your dried flowers, carefully clean with a paintbrush or a hair dryer on a cool low setting.

What can you expect?

It is normal for shedding of leaves or petals to occur as dried flowers are shipped to your home, handled, moved and cleaned. It is also normal to accidentally snap stems when handling dried flowers.

3. Keep you dried flowers away from sunlight

What can you do?

Place dried flowers away from direct sunlight.

What can you expect?

Dried flowers exposed to direct sunlight will fade. As dried flowers will be exposed to indirect sunlight in your home it is normal for them to fade slowly over time.

4. Keep your dried flowers away from humid conditions

What can you expect?

In some dried flowers, such as paper daisies, flower heads can droop. There are two causes that I believe could contribute to drooping

1. Sometimes poor stem integrity and the heaviness of the flower head can cause the flower heads to droop.

2. Dried flowers absorb water from the air in their environment. This means they are no longer completely dry causing them to droop.

As well as drooping stems, some varieties of paper daises have yellow centres that can turn brown. I am not really sure why they do this. I believe it could be part of their natural aging process and partly related to exposure to humid conditions.

What can you do?

To prevent droopy flowers you can

- Avoid placing your flowers in rooms with high humidity such as bathrooms and kitchens.

- Do not untie your bouquet. In your bouquet, I have arranged flowers at risk of drooping to be supported by neighbouring stronger stems.

If your flowers go droopy you can

- Hang them upside down in a dark, cool, well-ventilated place for the flowers to dry out and straighten with gravity. Once they are dry and straight place them back in the vase

- Support droopy flower stems with stronger neighbouring stems. You can do this by lowering the position of drooping flower heads in the bouquet so that they sit within the stronger stems.