Pick Your Flowers at the Right Moment

The best pressing begins in the garden, not at the craft table. Choose a dry morning, ideally an hour or two after the dew has lifted, when petals are crisp and free of damp. Anything picked wet will brown in the press. Take a small basket or a shallow box rather than a bag, and lay the stems flat so the heads don't bruise on the way indoors.

Flat, single-layered flowers press best. Pansies and violas are the classic choice and hold their colour beautifully, along with cosmos, buttercups, forget-me-nots, cornflowers, single daisies, larkspur florets and the tiny individual blooms you can tease from a geranium head. Roses and other thick, many-petalled flowers should be pulled apart and pressed petal by petal — a whole rose head simply turns to mush.

• Keep well: yellows, blues and purples generally hold their colour for years.
• Fade quickly: whites drift towards cream, while reds and pinks often dry to a soft buff or brown.
• Avoid: fleshy succulents, thick tropical blooms, and anything already wilting when you pick it.

Set Up a Simple Press at Home

You don't need a proper press, though a wooden one with wing nuts is a joy if you happen to have one. A heavy stack of books does the job perfectly well. Start with a piece of rigid card on a flat surface, then a sheet of blotting paper. Arrange your flowers face down, spaced so they don't touch — overlapping petals stick together and tear when you try to separate them.

Lay a second sheet of blotting paper on top, then more card, then the weight. For that weight, choose something genuinely heavy: a pile of hardbacks, a couple of cookbooks, or a chopping board topped with books. Aim for a few kilos, spread evenly rather than heaped in the middle. A layer of corrugated card or felt between the papers helps air circulate, which cuts the risk of mould.

Two things to avoid. Don't use newspaper directly against the petals — the print can transfer, especially if the paper becomes damp. And don't assume that more weight means faster results; even pressure matters far more than sheer tonnage, and a lopsided stack produces lopsided flowers.

Changing the Paper and Judging When They're Done

After twenty-four hours, open the press and swap the blotting paper for dry sheets. This is the single most important step for preventing mould, and it's the one most people skip. Repeat every two or three days for the first week, then once a week after that.

Thin flowers such as buttercups and violas take around ten days to a fortnight. Chunkier material — daisies, marigolds, layered petals — can take three to four weeks. Test by lifting one corner gently with tweezers. If the petal comes away cleanly and feels like thin paper, it's ready. If it clings to the sheet, give it another week.

Handle dried flowers with tweezers rather than fingers; the oils on your skin mark them instantly. Store them flat between sheets of plain paper in a dry, dark drawer or a cardboard folder, where they will keep for months. Pressed flowers fade in light, so keep them tucked away until you're ready to use them.

Plan the Picture Before You Glue Anything

Lay everything out on the mount board first and move the pieces around until the arrangement pleases you. A small posy, a single stem with a few leaves, a scattered meadow look, a simple wreath or heart — all work well, and each suits a different room. Before you commit, photograph the layout with your phone. It's surprisingly easy to forget exactly where a particular stem sat once you start lifting pieces.

Less is generally more. Five to nine elements usually reads better than thirty, and generous margins around the design will make it look considered rather than crowded. If you have a deep frame, you could also layer a few flowers on a raised piece of card behind the main arrangement for a subtle sense of depth.

Mounting, Framing and Keeping It Looking Good

Use acid-free mount board in cream or off-white. Ordinary card yellows over time and can stain the petals it touches. Glue with acid-free PVA applied in tiny dots using a cocktail stick or the head of a pin, or use archival glue dots for larger pieces. Place each flower rather than dragging it into position, and hold it for a few seconds while the adhesive takes.

Choose a frame with a cut mount so the flowers sit inside a window, and look for a deep rebate or a spacer so the glass doesn't press against the petals. Most standard frames are too shallow for anything with texture. Hang the finished piece away from direct sunlight — a hallway or a north-facing wall is ideal — because even the most colourfast blooms will bleach within a season or two in a bright, sunny spot.

Finally, press a few extra of everything. It's the pressed-flower equivalent of keeping a spare button, and it means you can repair or extend a picture later without waiting a fortnight for the next batch to dry.