Dana asks...

"What is the best way to dry flowers?"

You can do lots of pretty things with dried flowers. There are three methods I know of to dry fresh picked flowers: flat drying, hang drying, and microwave drying (seriously!).

Place the flowers between two layers of paper towels, to absorb the moisture. I suggest putting some plastic wrap or aluminum foil underneath the bottom layer of towels, and over the top layer as well. This way, if the moisture seeps through a little, it won't stain anything because it can't penetrate plastic or foil.

Next, place this "flower sandwich" between the pages of a large book. If you have lots of flowers to dry, make several such "sandwiches" and place them in different parts of the book.

Finally, put the book on some flat surface and pile on as many heavy books as possible on top of it. Their weight will flatten the flowers. Leave them this way for a couple of days. If the flowers are not dry enough after two days, replace the paper towels with new ones and leave for two more days. Repeat the process until the flowers are completely dry and flat. (In my experience, some flowers are ready in two days while others may take ten! So don't get discouraged, just be patient.)

Hang the flowers upside down by their stems, using a clothespin. If the weather is nice, and if you have a clothesline outside, you can use it to hang the flowers from. If not, anywhere will do really, as long as they won't be disturbed.

This method doesn't flatten the flowers, so many of them may keep their original shape. However, some types of flowers tend to fall apart when using this method, especially flowers with large petals.

This is a good method if you are in a hurry. Put the flowers in the microwave on HIGH and cook them for a few seconds. Start with 5 seconds, and check the flowers. They will probably need longer than that, but I suggest cooking them for short intervals of time, no more than a few seconds at once, for fear of burning them.

As with hang drying, flowers with large petals tend to fall apart when you use this method. However, you can use the petals for lots of pretty things. With hang drying, the petals fall off and usually get lost or ruined, but with microwave drying, they are right there and you can use them!