Hanging bouquets upside down vs using silica gel - what's the real winner?

I was talking to my neighbor Martha last weekend while she was showing me her dried lavender, and she said I was crazy for using silica gel because it strips the natural scent out. She hangs everything upside down in her dark closet for 3 weeks and swears by it. But I've had a few bouquets get moldy that way, especially my eucalyptus that just refused to dry right in the humidity here. What's your go-to drying method and has anyone else had trouble with silica gel ruining the smell of their flowers?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph4481mo ago

That "silica gel ruins the scent" thing is just another case of people clinging to what grandma did like it's a sacred law.

skylerc861mo ago

...and honestly @joseph448 is onto something here, my grandma used to hang everything upside down in the boiler room and half her roses ended up looking like sad little brown lumps. I tried silica gel for my peonies last summer and yeah they lost a bit of that sweet perfume smell but they kept their color so much better I didn't even mind. Martha probably hasn't dealt with august humidity where your eucalyptus just sits there and rots like mine did, hanging them in my basement was a total disaster with mold spots all over.