Crafting

ROSES FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

Enjoy Them Well Past The Holiday

If you recieve roses for Valentine’s Day, why not enjoy them for a few days then turn them into a lovely rose topiary to enjoy for the rest of the year.

Among the easiest flowers to dry, roses can be hung upside down in a cool, dark spot until they are crisp to the touch. To dry them when they are fully open but still fresh, carefully bury the blossoms until completely dry in the silica drying medium available at florists and crafts stores. Then use them to make a topiary you can enjoy for many months.

To begin, take a styrofoam ball,

insert a wooden dowel in the

bottom, then insert the dowel

into a pretty container that has

been filled with a solid piece of

florist’s foam. Now tuck a layer

of dried moss over the florist’s

foam and glue some moss

around both the ball and stem.

Decorate the stem with a few

of the dried rose leaves. Attach

the roses to the moss-covered

ball with a glue gun and use more

of the leaves to fill in the spaces

between roses.

Alternatively, order some dried rose buds. (Check Amazon or buycheaper.com for sources.) Using the same method, choose one of several styrofoam shapes available at the crafts store and use moss and the rose buds to cover them. Nice alone or in a group.

And if you are having a romantic dinner, why not use dried rosebuds to fashion some heart napkin rings. String the buds on a wire, then twist it into a heart shape and tie it around your napkins as Betsy Williams does.