Picking Blooms Early

The Life Cycle of a Flower 

Unlike cheese and wine, flowers do not get better with age. 

When picking flowers for pressing, another thing to note is where the flower is in it's life cycle. The younger the flower, and the more recently it bloomed, the better the end result. Usually, the older a flower gets, the thicker and tougher it becomes. Daisies are a great example. The center of a daisy especially can get quite hard and dense, making for a very difficult time pressing. If the center is so thick that the petals don't get pressed down all the way, it won't be very effective, and will not press evenly. 

Another example are Brown Eyed Susans. They cone in the middle gets incredibly tall and hard over time, making pressing nearly impossible. You would need to cut away some of the center in order to get them into the press. The younger they are, the softer that middle is, making pressing more feasible.  

Aim to pick blooms that are young. You can look for flowers that don't have pollen built up on them yet, which means they won't be as thick in the middle, and as an added bonus, will reduce the risk of turning the petals yellow. 

The earlier you can pick a flower, the better the outcome. Ideally, you'll want to pick them right after they've opened. That might be easier to do with flowers in your own garden, as you can keep an eye on them daily. But for flowers out in the wild that you haven't been able to keep track of, just look for blooms with thinner centers and less pollen!

Happy Picking and Pressing!

Microfleur