The children learn quickly which flowers are good for hanging to dry.   Dahlias, zinnias, asters, straw flowers and blue salvia are some of the flowers that dry well when hung.  Some classes hang the flowers outside their classroom so all winter everyone can see the bright reminders of the gardens. 

To dry the flowers, we use the low tech method of simply binding a few flowers together by the stems and hanging to dry. Ideally, we would use rubber bands to secure the stems.  The first graders have trouble getting the rubber bands tight enough and mangle the flowers in the process so we use twine most of the time.  A donation of elastic of some kind would be great!

"It is best to pick immature flowers (ones that are not completely open) since flowers continue to open during the drying process. If you pick a flower at the time that it looks perfect, it will continue to open while drying, leaving you with a flower past that ‘perfect stage, Once you have cut your flowers, it is important to remove them from the sunlight as soon as possible. This, along with drying in the dark , is the most important factor in maintaining good color.  The reason we hang flowers upside down is simple to maintain straight stems. If you dried flowers right side up, they would bend over (like a wilting flower) and you would end up with dried flowers with distorted stems. " Scott Demmin , Keuka Flower Farm Around the first of the year, many of the classes use their dried flowers to make wreaths for their classroom doors using wild grape vines from our woods or made from our curly willow. Wreaths are so simple to make.  A little hot glue holds the flowers in place on the vines.  We have an abundant supply of ribbon volunteers buy for next to nothing at garage sales.