When I first started pressing flowers, I assumed the prettiest flowers would make the prettiest pressed flowers. That is definitely not always the case.
Roses were one of the flowers that taught me that pretty quickly. A smaller rose doesn’t necessarily look like it should be that difficult to press, especially once you flatten it down a little, so it’s really tempting to just put the whole thing in and tighten the press.
The problem is all those layers in the center.
The first time I tried pressing one whole, the outside petals dried enough that at first glance I thought it had actually worked. But when I started looking closer, the petals toward the center were darker and the thick part at the base was still soft. The moisture had nowhere to go fast enough, so while the outside was drying, the inside was basically still sitting there damp.
It wasn’t completely destroyed, but it also wasn’t something I was going to use.
That was when I started realizing that pressing flowers isn’t really about figuring out whether a flower can go into a press. It’s figuring out how that particular flower needs to go into the press.
With a pansy, the answer is basically: put it in.
With a rose, I’m pulling it apart.
With a daisy, I’m checking how thick the center is first.
With a hydrangea, I’m separating the individual florets.
Once I started looking at flowers that way, I ruined a lot fewer of them.
What Makes a Flower Easy to Press?
The easiest flowers are usually pretty thin to begin with. They don’t have a huge amount of moisture packed into the center, and they naturally lay somewhat flat.
Pansies are almost ridiculously cooperative. Roses are not.
That doesn’t mean I won’t press roses, peonies or other fuller flowers. I just don’t usually put them into the press exactly the way they came off the plant anymore. I’ll separate petals, remove bulky centers or trim thicker areas from the back first.
That one change probably made a bigger difference in my results than anything else.
Pansies and Violas
If you’ve never pressed flowers before, start here.
Pansies are one of the easiest flowers I’ve worked with because they already want to lay flat. There isn’t a thick center fighting you, and the petals aren’t holding a ton of moisture.
You can put a pansy in the press, arrange the petals where you want them, close it up and have a pretty good chance of getting an actual pansy back out.
Violas behave pretty much the same way, just smaller. I use the little ones all the time because they’re really handy when I’m putting together an arrangement and there’s an awkward empty spot that needs something, but not another big flower.
They also tend to keep a lot of their personality once they’re pressed. You can still see the little faces and color variation in the petals, which is probably why they’re such a classic pressed flower.
Cosmos
Cosmos are another favorite of mine because they’re already built pretty well for pressing. The petals are thin, the center isn’t enormous, and they have that loose garden shape that still looks good once it’s completely flat.
The color can be a little unpredictable, though. I’ve seen pink cosmos stay a really pretty rosy color and others dry much softer and more muted.
I used to think there had to be some exact formula I was missing whenever two similar flowers came out differently. After a while, you realize there’s always going to be some variation.
Daisies
Daisies look like they should be incredibly easy, and a lot of them are.
The center is the part I pay attention to.
The petals can feel completely dry while that yellow center is still holding moisture. If I’m working with one that has a really thick middle, I’ll usually trim some of the bulk from the back before I press it.
Otherwise, you can end up with perfectly dry petals surrounding a center that’s still soft underneath.
It’s a small thing, but it makes a huge difference.
Forget-Me-Nots and Small Wildflowers
The tiny flowers are some of my favorites now, even though they’re probably the ones I would have walked right past when I first started pressing.
Forget-me-nots are especially useful. They dry easily and they’re perfect when I’m arranging a finished piece and need something small to fill an awkward space between bigger flowers.
The same goes for little wildflowers.
Some of the flowers that look slightly scraggly when you pick them become surprisingly beautiful once they’re pressed. Flattening them lets you see the shape differently, especially tiny branching stems and flowers that would never really make it into a vase.
Those are also some of my favorite things to press from trips. They don’t have to be impressive flowers to remind you where they came from.
Queen Anne’s Lace
I love Queen Anne’s lace in pressed flower pieces, but I usually break it into smaller sections first.
A full flower head has a lot of tiny stems and flowers crossing over each other, and I don’t really gain anything by trying to preserve the whole thing in one piece.
Smaller sections dry more evenly and are much easier to work with later.
It’s one of my favorite ways to add texture around larger flowers without making the whole arrangement feel heavy.
Ferns and Leaves
I completely underestimated greenery when I started pressing flowers.
Obviously the blooms are the fun part, so that’s what you naturally focus on. Then you start actually arranging them and realize that a frame full of nothing but flowers can look like everything is just floating around.
Ferns fix that problem really quickly.
They press easily, keep their shape well and give the arrangement some structure. Thin leaves can do the same thing.
I tend to skip really thick or waxy leaves because they hold more moisture and don’t always flatten the way I want them to, but delicate greenery is one of the easiest things to throw into a press.
Lavender and Delphinium
Lavender works really well if you use smaller sprigs. I wouldn’t put a thick handful of it into one layer because the stems start adding bulk pretty quickly.
I pick thinner sprigs and spread them out so they aren’t stacked on top of one another.
With delphinium, I normally pull off the individual florets rather than trying to press the whole stalk. The florets are the part I’m eventually going to use anyway, and once they’re separated they’re surprisingly easy to press.
That’s something I do much more often now: I think about how I’ll actually use the flower after it’s dry before deciding how to put it into the press.
Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas look much more intimidating until you stop thinking of the entire flower head as one flower.
I pull the individual florets off before pressing them.
Once you do that, they’re actually pretty manageable because each little floret is thin. You suddenly have dozens of really pretty individual flowers instead of one giant ball that you’re somehow trying to flatten.
The color is the unpredictable part. Pinks can dry dustier, blues can soften and whites often become more cream-colored.
Sometimes the dried color is actually prettier.
This is also where the materials inside the press matter. I use a traditional wooden press with absorbent blotting paper because I want the moisture coming out of the flowers to actually have somewhere to go. These are the maple flower presses I make and use if you’re looking for one.
Baby’s Breath
Baby’s breath looks delicate, but a big bunch of it gets thick surprisingly fast.
I cut it into little sprigs before pressing.
Those smaller pieces dry much better, and that’s how I’m going to use it later anyway. I especially like it in wedding-flower pieces because you can tuck one tiny white sprig into an arrangement without covering everything around it.
Roses
Whole roses are something I pretty much stopped trying to press.
Once you actually pull a rose apart, you realize how much flower is packed into that center. There are layers and layers of petals, and the bases of those petals get thicker as you work your way inward.
That’s a lot of moisture trying to escape from one very small area.
Now I remove the petals and press them separately. I can always arrange them later in a way that suggests the original flower, and the petals dry so much better that way.
At first, taking apart a pretty rose — especially one from a bouquet I cared about — felt like I was destroying the exact thing I was trying to save.
Now I look at it completely differently. I’d rather save the beautiful parts of the flower than preserve the whole thing badly.
Peonies
Peonies are basically the same idea, only with an absurd number of petals.
I don’t even entertain the idea of pressing one whole. I take it apart and press the petals.
The larger outer petals can be especially beautiful once they’re flat, and having all of those individual pieces gives you a lot more freedom later when you’re making something with them.
The first time you dismantle a peony it feels a little wrong.
Eventually you just look at one and see a pile of really good pressed-flower material.
Flowers I Wouldn’t Start With
If this is your first time pressing flowers, I probably wouldn’t start with a whole rose, peony, carnation, chrysanthemum or large ranunculus.
It’s not that they can’t be pressed. They just make you think a little harder about preparation.
Can you remove some thickness from the back? Should you separate the petals? Is the center going to dry at the same rate as everything else?
When I started, I thought the press itself was supposed to solve most of those problems.
Now I know the press works much better if I deal with the obvious thickness first.
Flattening a flower and actually getting all of the moisture out of it are two different things.
Fresh Flowers Make a Huge Difference
You can choose the easiest flower in the world and still get a bad result if it’s already wilted or bruised before it goes into the press.
I try to use flowers while the petals are still firm and before the edges have started browning.
I also don’t like putting wet flowers into the press. If I’m picking from my yard and everything is covered in morning dew, I’ll wait. Same thing if it just rained.
Bouquet flowers are a little different because the clock is already running. If there’s something in a bouquet I know I want to save, I try not to leave it sitting in a vase until it starts looking tired and then decide I should probably press it.
You’re starting with a much better flower on day two than day seven.
Pay Attention to What Works
There are lists all over the internet telling you which flowers are best for pressing, but eventually your own notes become more useful.
They don’t need to be complicated.
Mine could basically be things like:
Pansy — easy, color stayed great
Daisy — trim the back of the center
Pink hydrangea — dried dusty pink
Peony — individual petals
Rose — take the whole thing apart
After you’ve pressed the same flowers a few times, you stop having to think so hard about it.
You know which flowers from your yard behave well. You know which ones tend to brown. You know which stems need to come off and which blooms need to be separated before they ever touch the blotting paper.
That’s when flower pressing starts getting a lot easier.
So What Are the Best Flowers to Press?
If you’re brand new, I’d start with pansies, violas, cosmos, forget-me-nots, small wildflowers, ferns or individual hydrangea florets.
They let you learn what a properly pressed flower should look and feel like without making you fight with a giant wet center at the same time.
Then start experimenting.
Pull apart a rose. Try some peony petals. Trim the back of a daisy. Press the tiny weed-looking flower you almost didn’t pick.
You’ll figure out pretty quickly that the flowers you end up loving pressed aren’t always the ones you would have chosen from a bouquet.
Ready to Press Your Own?
If you want to start experimenting, you can shop my reusable maple flower presses here. They use absorbent blotting paper with firm, even pressure, which is the same basic setup I use when I’m pressing flowers for my own projects.
Start with a few easy flowers and see what happens.
And if one of them comes out ugly, press another one.
That is genuinely how you learn.
