How Long Does it Take to Press Flowers?

If you are pressing flowers the traditional way, using a wooden flower press and layers of blotting paper and card, most flowers will need to be pressed for three weeks before they are fully dried out and ready to be used. Some flowers that are very simple in form and don’t contain a lot of moisture such as violas or individual petals may not take quite as long (especially in the Summer months when the days are warmer). Other flowers - those that are thicker (or ‘juicy’ as I like to call them!) - contain more moisture and may take more than three weeks: if they feel cold or damp when you open your flower press, they aren’t ready.

Three weeks may feel like a long time to wait, but it makes it all the more magical when the time comes to open your flower press. Some things can’t be rushed, and in this era of instant gratification and on-demand availability, traditional flower pressing encourages us to embrace slow living, accept that sometimes we have to wait, and to enjoy the process of taking our time and working to the rhythms of nature. One of the very best parts of flower pressing is the excitement and anticipation you’ll feel after three weeks when it’s time to open your flower press and discover the treasures inside.

To help you to know when it’s time to open your flower press, it’s a good idea to make a note of the date you added your flowers into your press. The Meadow and Thyme flower presses have a label holder on the front so that you can pop a little piece of paper in there noting the date you filled your flower press and the date you will be opening it. If your flower press doesn’t have a label holder you can tape some paper to the front to write on, or make a note of the date in your calendar.