Pressing Precious Flowers: How to Avoid Mould and Get It Right First Time

Most flowers you press are practice. Some are not.

A bouquet from a wedding, flowers from a funeral, the first ones someone ever gave you. You get one attempt at those, and the thing most likely to take them from you is mould. This guide is about getting it right the first time, because there is no second batch.

Practise on something that does not matter first

This is the advice people skip and then regret.

Before you press anything irreplaceable, press something ordinary. Daisies, lavender, small wildflowers, a few leaves from the garden. Learn how long your flowers take, how damp the paper feels at day two, how firmly you like the press tightened.

An afternoon spent on flowers you do not care about is the cheapest insurance there is. Everything you learn transfers straight across.

Start with flowers that are actually healthy

Preservation keeps what is there. It does not improve anything.

Choose blooms with strong colour and firm petals. Touch them gently, they should feel robust rather than papery or limp. Anything already wilting, bruised or browning at the edge will carry that into the press, and damaged tissue is where mould starts.

Timing matters more than people expect. A flower pressed the day after an event will always beat the same flower pressed five days later, however careful you are in between. If you cannot press immediately, keep them in water somewhere cool and out of sunlight, and get to them as soon as you can.

Clean, dry tools, every time

Moisture and residue left on your press or your scissors from a previous batch is a direct invitation to mould.

Wipe the boards down and let them dry fully before you start. Store the press somewhere dry and dust free between uses. Work with clean, dry hands, and handle the petals as little as you can get away with. Every touch leaves a trace of oil and moisture behind.

Small batches, and nothing touching

This is the single biggest technical difference between flowers that survive and flowers that do not.

Press a few at a time rather than cramming a layer full. Space between blooms means air can move, and moving air is what stops moisture pooling. Petals that overlap dry into each other, crease, and turn brown at the join.

Keep flowers of the same type on the same layer where you can. They release moisture at a similar rate, so the whole layer dries evenly instead of one bloom sitting damp next to one that finished a week ago.

Keep every layer the same thickness

A press applies even pressure. That only helps if what is inside it is even.

Put a thick rose next to a flat viola and the press rides on the rose. The viola gets almost no pressure, the rose gets all of it, and neither comes out right. Sort by thickness and give each group its own layer. If you are stuck with a mix, pad the thin side with extra blotting paper, tissue or a cotton pad until the layer sits level.

It is also the reason a square press is easier to work with for this kind of job. Nothing sits off the edge, so pressure lands the same across the whole sheet, and laying out an even layer is much simpler than working around a shape.

Thin out the thick ones

Roses, peonies, ranunculus and anything with a dense centre hold far more water than they look like they do. Pressed whole, that moisture has nowhere to go and the middle stays wet while the edges dry.

For anything precious, take them apart. Press petal by petal, or remove the outer petals and split the centre. You can rebuild the flower however you like once everything is flat and dry, and the result is usually better than the whole bloom would have been.

Press thick centres on a separate layer, or in a separate press altogether, so every layer stays uniform. There is more on the chunkier blooms in how to press big, thick flowers.

Check precious flowers more often than normal ones

With everyday flowers you change the blotting paper after 24 hours, then every few days, then weekly. With something irreplaceable, check every two or three days for the first fortnight.

You are looking for two things. Paper that has darkened and feels cool or limp, which means it is holding moisture against the petals and needs swapping. And any grey or fuzzy patch, which is mould and needs the affected flower out immediately before it spreads to the rest of the layer.

Keep more dry paper on hand than you think you need. Running out halfway through is how people end up putting damp sheets back in.

If you are pressing a whole occasion, not a few stems

A full bouquet is a different job. You need room to lay everything out with nothing touching, and you need the layers to stay level across a much wider surface.

That is where a larger press earns its place. If it is a wedding bouquet specifically, our guide to pressing a wedding bouquet covers the whole process from the morning after onwards.

Frequently asked questions

Why do precious flowers go mouldy more often?
They usually do not. It just hurts more when it happens. Mould is moisture with nowhere to go, and the causes are always the same: flowers that went in damp, layers packed too tight, or paper left in place too long.

What do I do if I find mould?
Take the affected flower out straight away and bin it. Replace every sheet of paper in that layer with dry ones. Do not try to rescue a mouldy bloom, you will lose the rest of the layer with it.

How long should I leave precious flowers pressing?
Two to four weeks, and err on the longer side. They are ready when they feel papery and are no longer cool to the touch. Cool means moisture is still in there.

Can I press a flower that has already started to wilt?
You can, and it will preserve as a wilted flower. If it is the only one you have then press it anyway, but do not expect pressing to undo the damage.

Should I use a press or a book for something irreplaceable?
A press. Books press unevenly, warp as they absorb moisture, and can transfer ink onto damp petals. For flowers you cannot replace, that risk is not worth taking.

The short version

Practise first. Start with healthy flowers. Small batches, nothing touching, even layers. Check every two or three days and change the paper the moment it feels damp.

• Flora, our square press for small careful batches and even layers.
• Lilabelle, the extra large press when it is a whole bouquet.
• XL blotting paper refills so you never have to reuse a damp sheet.

Flowers are natural, and nature is not always predictable. Sometimes a bloom will not turn out however carefully you work, and that is part of it. Do the things above and the odds are strongly on your side.

Happy pressing. Tag us at @berstukstore, we love seeing what people make.