How to Recycle your Graduation Flower?

Receiving flowers as a graduation gift is indeed priceless. Among other material gifts, flowers symbolize love, appreciation, affection, and good luck to the next journey of the graduate. That’s why it’s important to keep a piece, or even the whole bouquet, to have something to look back on in the future. The good thing is, there are many possible ways to recycle and preserve your graduation flower. Flowers usually wilt over time and you must eagerly plan on recycling or preserving at the soonest time. Here are a few ways to recycle your graduation flower:

1. Put the flower/s in a vase for decoration purposes

When flowers are cut from their stem, they would really not last that long without submerging the end of the stem in water. Flowers make a great decoration in many parts of the house including the dining table, reception area, living room, patio area, and even the comfort room! If you receive a bouquet as a graduation gift, this is the easiest way to recycle it. A good tip is to place the flowers in a vase, pour in at least three inches of room temperature water, and add flower food to make the flowers last longer. You can purchase flower food from a flower shop.

2. Create beautiful bookmarks from dried flowers

Another great way to preserve your flowers and recycle them is to create laminated bookmarks using dried flowers. Doing this is very easy! Just cut out the blooms, place them inside a thick book and put a heavy object over it to press it down. Leave it for a day or two and once the flower has completely dried and is pressed firmly, you may go ahead and have it laminated. You can place the dried flowers over special paper with printed text or just the flowers alone. It depends on how you want to decorate your bookmark. This is a great way to recycle flowers as once it’s already laminated, it won’t be exposed to oxygen anymore stopping its wilting process.

3. Create resin pendants from your fresh graduation flowers

If you’re not a bookworm, this is another way to preserve and recycle your graduation flower. It’s very easy to make and unlike the tip above, you can retain the actual freshness and color of the flower in this fun and creative activity. All you need are three materials – the mold, resin, and the flower itself. You can buy the mold and the resin from any craft store near you. Just pour in the resin halfway the mold, place your flower, and then fill in the mold with the rest of the resin. Wait for it to dry and release the resin from the mold. You should have a crystal like pendant with the beautiful flower inside. You can bore a hole through the pendant to make it a necklace. This way, you can recycle your graduation flower and hold its memory everywhere you go.

4. Create intricately designed bath soaps from your flowers

Another way to make the most out of your graduation flower is to make them into a soap! Yes, you read that right and the great thing is, you can do it at home. Not all flowers have a fragrant scent but if you happen to have received a rose, freesia, jasmine, or any other flower with a nice scent, you may go ahead and create your first soap. All you need are the soap base, flowers, and the mold for your soap. You can buy the soap base and the mold from the nearest craft store in your area. Just mix in the flowers with the soap base and pour it in the mold. After a few hours, you can already break it out of the mold and use it for bathing or hand washing. The scent of the flowers will mix in with the soap base as well as its color, if applicable. You can also just put this soap to display or even give it as a gift to friends and family.

5. Light up the night with customized candles made with your graduation flowers

Candles can be very pretty depending on their designs. But did you know that you can make one at home and use flowers to decorate it? It’s very easy to do and requires very little effort. All you need are the candle wax, the flowers, the wick, and a cylindrical or prism-shaped mold. Stick the flowers on the walls inside the mold. Melt your candle wax using a double boiler. Place the wick on the middle of the mold with its upper end stick out. Pour in your melted wax and keep the wick in place by tying it using a stick. Let it harden for a few hours and voila! Gently pull it out of the mold to keep the flowers intact. There you have it! You may also customize the scent of your candle wax using essential oils and match it with the flowers you used. You may use it, display it, or even gift it to your loved ones.

6. Create a fragrant potpourri using your fresh blooms

Flowers are naturally fragrant and can really fill an entire room with its aroma. If you have a day-old bouquet that you don’t want to dispose of so easily, you can create potpourri out of them. A potpourri is a mixture of dried naturally fragrant plant-based materials that are used for freshening a room with its concoction of scents. It is usually placed in a beautiful bowl and displayed in the center table. You may cut the flowers from their stems, dry them up, and mix them with other dried aromatic materials like cinnamon, cloves, dried citrus, and a lot more. Once mixed in a bowl, you may strengthen the scent by putting in drops of essential oil of your choice. This will really make your room fragrant and can relieve you from stress.

There are really many ways to recycle your graduation flowers. After the celebration, you can use them for creative purposes and create products that you can use in the future. This will not only make the most out of your bouquet, but the memory of the person who gave it will also be preserved.