How to Dry Sun Flowers
Sunflowers come in a variety of warm colors ranging from yellow to burnt orange to red. Not only will they grace a summer garden with their beauty, sunflowers can also be dried and made into beautiful home decorations for year round enjoyment. Sunflowers can also be dried to harvest the seeds, making a delicious and healthy snack.
- Cut sunflowers before they are fully open to dry for crafts or decorations. Choose sunflowers that have nice, full petals with no damage.
- Tie several of your cut sunflowers together with string and hang them upside down in a warm, dry location until they are dry.
- Dry sunflowers on the stem if you want to harvest the seeds. This is an easy and natural way to dry sunflowers for seeds, but don’t wait too long or the seeds will fall or get eaten by birds.
- Watch for the back of the sunflower’s head to turn yellow and the flower petals to fall off. At this point, the sunflower seeds will be ready to harvest soon and need to be protected.
- Cover the sunflower head with a brown paper bag. Loosely tie the bag at the base of the sunflower head with string so the bag won’t blow off. The sunflower will be drooped over so if any seeds fall out they should collect in the bag.
- Replace the brown paper bag should it rain. If the seeds get too moist they will mold.
- Wait for the back of the sunflower head to turn brown.
- Cut the sunflower below the spot where the bag is tied. Don’t let the bag fall off because there may be seeds contained in it.
- Dry sunflowers for seeds off of the stem by cutting it off when the back of the head starts to yellow. Cut the flower off a foot down the stem.
- Store the cut sunflower in a warm, dry location to dry until it is brown and the seeds are dry and hard.