How to Dye Fresh Flowers
Daisies are naturally attractive flowers. But when I recently displayed a dozen of them in my home, I wanted to turn up the volume on their color and jazz them up. When family and visitors saw them, I didn’t want them to just say, “Oh, Daisies.” I wanted them to exclaim, “Oh, wow! Look at those gorgeous Daisies!”
So, I dyed them. It was an easy process, and it didn’t take long to do either. You can dye virtually any type of flower no matter what color it naturally is. However, white flowers work the best because the dye can be seen better.
The first step I took in this project was to gather a dozen or so fresh-cut, white Daisies. I divided the flowers into small groups. Then, I placed each group into a separate glass vase. Glass vases work the best for dying flowers. The dye doesn’t stain the glass like it does plastic.
The next step was to fill each glass vase with five or six inches of water. Even though the stems of the Daisies were cut, they were very long. That’s the reason I used so much water.
The third step was to decide what colors I wanted to dye my white Daisies. I chose pink, blue, yellow, and purple. I then added several drops of food coloring into each vase. I carefully swished the vase from side to side in order for the food coloring to mix with the water.
The fourth step was to add some granular plant food into each vase. I knew it would take a few days for the Daisies to turn colors, and I wanted to keep them as fresh as possible.
Then, I waited. As the days passed, the petals of the flowers slowly started to transform from white to pink, blue, yellow, green, orange, and purple. The color change started at the outer edge of each petal, and then the color moved inwards.
How does this dying process work with flowers? Normally, flowers and plants gather the water they need through their roots. With fresh-cut flowers, there are no roots, so water is sucked up through the cut ends into the outside layer of the plant. From there, the water continues to move up into the flowers and into the leaves. Naturally, water evaporates, but the dye, or food coloring, does not. It remains in the flowers and leaves. When you dye flowers such as white Daisies, you can see a slight change in the colors of the leaves and in the round middle of the flowers. These parts don’t retain much of the new color, though, so they pretty much look the same.
After a few days, my daisies had finally become the bright, rainbow of colors I wanted them to be. I put them together into one large vase and I displayed them on my dining room table. They drew plenty of “Ooohs!” and “Aaahs!” from family and friends, and they brightened up the room with their presence.
Now, in order to keep my Daisies looking fresh for as long as possible, I changed the water in the vase every few days. I also trimmed the stems- always cut them at a slant- and added a little granular plant food to the water. Fresh-cut Daisies usually last for a week or two.
