Ok so if you’ve been following me a while on Instagram, you may well remember my hydrangea drying obsession of summer. When to pick them/how to dry them/how to keep the colour… Well after varying success with colour, I dried so many flower heads this year that I don’t know quite what to so with them all. After I started making this wreath I dried shades of pink too, if I’m honest I think I would prefer them or a mixture of the two in this wreath though the overall effect is still one I’m really happy with!
You won’t need much to have a go, just a few items and a little spare time (simple but a little fiddly this one…) I used a 30cm twiggy wreath (I think it’s clematis but any twiggy-ness will do), some garden twine, 4 dried hydrangea heads, florists wire, secateurs and/or scissors.
First loop a length of twine around your wreath. This will be your hanging loop so make sure it is a little longer than you will need.
Next dissect your hydrangea heads into little sprigs with short stems. It should be clear enough where to cut, ideally just above a branch in the stems. You will end up with lots of these little flowery sprigs and a fair few fallen petals too.
Next to start attaching the sprigs to your wreath. Bend each wire to make a hairpin shape then thread the ends through the sprig and twigs so they appear on the reverse of the wreath. This is fiddly but will make them secure so it is worth persevering. I would suggest starting at the top next to your hanging loop then working your way around the wreath laying all the sprigs in the same direction (for example flowers to the left, stems to the right as you work around the circle).
Try and thread your wire through the forks in the stem and not at the end of the stem, again this helps secure the flowers as they can’t slip off the wire. At the back of the wreath, twist the two ends of the wire together then trim to a couple of cms, threading this back into the wreath to hide the ends and to prevent the wire scratching the door or surface you hang it on. Take care to push all the wire ends back into the wreath for just this reason. Then it is simply a case of keep on threading until you have covered the wreath with blooms…
Once you have no more space on your wreath, simply tie a knot in the hanging loop at the length you require et voila! It may be time consuming but how satisfying the end result is!
I would just like to say though that the blooms may well continue to fade outdoors. My front door is under a covered porch, sheltered from rain and wind, and I am not sure how well the dried petals would like more direct weather… Perhaps one to hang inside if you haven’t a sheltered door.
I’d love to see what kind of wreath you are hanging this year, whether indoors or out, you can share on Instagram with #12daysoffaffing.
Julia x
