Beautiful red roses reminds us of our romantic first dates. It makes us think of how lovely life is. So the next time you receive roses from your secret admirers and loved ones, don't waste them. Just when you think it's their time to hit the trash can may prove to be the best time to turn them into something special and lasting.



If those roses in your vase are fully opened, the next thing that will happen is they'll start wilting. This is the best time to make them into fragrant potpourris. Don't wait until they are completely dried out in your vases. Making potpourris is a magnificent way of bringing that romantic rosy scent in any room.

To make the potpourri, remove the petals of the fully opened roses. Dehydrate the petals by putting them in a warm oven for few hours or you can put them in a microwave on a high setting for just about three to five minutes. Just remember to put them in one single layer. Dehydrating the rose petals will dissipate its fragrance. But don't you worry, putting a little rose oil to them will do the trick! This will restore its fragrance.

You can also add other flower petals for variety. Once all the petals are dried, put them in a nice bowl or a basket. Nice decorative glass jars also make nice potpourri containers. If you want to give this as gifts, you can make sachet bags out of pretty old fabrics. Add rose oil in your potpourri every now and then to perk up their fragrance.

If making potpourris is not your style, try pressing your flowers. This is one of the nicest things to do with flowers. More so, pressing flowers doesn't require any special equipment or skills. All you'll need is your flowers, absorbent paper like blank newsprints which are available in office supply stores, some pressure and warmth.

To provide the necessary pressure to press your flowers, any flat and heavy object will do. Examples of this are old phone books. It is not recommended to put the flowers directly into the book's pages as flowers tend to stain them. Start by putting your flowers in between sheets of absorbent paper. You may want to arrange them in the position you'd like them to be. Put this on a shelf or put a stack of book on top of it.

To prevent bruising, you can also sandwich them using cardboards to make sure their thick and thin parts are pressed evenly. Wait for the flowers to dry. Drying flowers vary. Temperature, humidity and the type of flower being dried all play an important role. Small flowers dry quickly, it may only need 4 to 5 days to dry them while larger flowers may take more than 8 days. Store pressed flowers in between sheets of tissue papers in a warm dry place. Pressed flowers are perfect for any greeting card, embellishing scrapbooks and enhancing writing papers.