How to Dry Annual Ornamental Grasses
- 1). Plant your ornamental grasses in well-drained soil where they can receive full sun. Do not overfertilize or overwater your ornamental grasses; they may get leggy, with thin stems that flop over. Apply a light compost mulch or an early-season dose of diluted fish emulsion.
- 2). Select a variety of ornamental grasses to dry in the garden, adding visual interest to the off-season landscape. Remove other distracting annual plants from around them.
- 3). Choose sturdy stems of grasses with flowers that have not completely opened for indoor dried arrangements.
- 4). Cut each stem at its base with sharp utility scissors on a dry, sunny afternoon.
- 5). Lay about a dozen stems parallel on a table, then weave several lengths of string in and out near the cut ends. Roll the stems into a bundle and secure it with a small rubber band.
- 6). Hang the ornamental grass bundles from a beam, pipe or dowel in a cool, dry, dark location. Don't crowd the bundles; allow air to circulate between them.
- 7). Take down the bundles when the stems are brittle. Cut the rubber bands and string from the bundles; don't try to pull them off, or you may wind up inadvertently stripping the heads from the grass.
- 8). Store any dried ornamental grasses you don't use right away by laying them flat between leaves of tissue paper in a long-stem rose box or wrapping paper box, or stand them upright in a cardboard box loosely filled with dowels or cardboard tubes.
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