Gypsophila aka Baby’s Breath make delicate dried flowers
Gyp for floristry
These tiny flowers are delicate and until recently were available in white only. These days you can buy a natural pale pink variety, or white Gyp that has been dyed a variety of bright or pastel shades. There is also often the choice of chemically preserved or air dried Gyp.
The delicate nature of the little white blooms explains the name Baby’s Breath, but also explains why it’s so popular at weddings. It’s commonly used in hair adornments and flower crowns as well as bridal bouquets and venue decorations.
Long lasting Gypsophila for weddings
Although Gypsophila is readily available in fresh form, the dry flower is becoming increasingly popular for use at weddings due to the option to make bridal bouquets and other items well ahead of time. They can also be treasured after the event as a keepsake and travel well when packaged correctly.
Chemical preservation of Gyp by treating with glycerine can be carried out, which leads to flexible stems, and dye is often added too. However preserving using this method can make the blooms twice as expensive as air dried flowers, and the colours can sometimes be variable. Chemically preserved and dyed Gyp often has stems in surprising colours!
Naturally air dried Gypsophila
I dry hundreds of bunches of natural white Gypsophilia every year in my Sussex workshop to sell in my shop. The main image on this page shows some of my flowers drying. It started out as an experiment, maybe thinking it would make a blog post. But then I realised I could produce dried Gyp bunches better then the ones being offered by any of my suppliers. At that time I was making a lot of wedding bouquets and decorations, so having a reliable source became increasingly important.
Natural Baby’s breath is always going to be a little delicate, but my own tends to be less droppy and retains the green stems better than any I’ve seen. Although I don’t grow the Gypsophila stems myself (we don’t have the space), I do make sure they are sourced from UK growers.
Tips for drying your own Gyp
I’ve written quite a lot of blog posts about how to dry flowers if you need help getting started, but here are some tips specifically for Gyp:
- Choose a large flowered variety as they’ll only shrink on drying.
- Make sure your flowers are fully open when you hang them up to dry in a warm dark place with good air circulation – they won’t open once they’re out of the water.
- Don’t wait too long once they’re in full flower before hanging them up – once they start to go over they’re more likely to become droppy.
- Hang them in bunches of not more than five stems and separate each bunch for best air circulation otherwise they may rot instead of drying.
- Don’t leave them hanging too long – test for brittleness after a few days – as soon as they’re crisp take them down or the stems will go brown and they’ll become droppy. Depending on your air temperature, this may take 1-3 weeks.
See more blog posts about gyp
Read more about how to dry blooms such as Helichrysum, Nigella, Hydrangea and more via our dried flowers A to Z
Dried flowers of Gyp from Daisy Gifts Ltd
You can see my shop listings for Gypsophila and read more about this bunch in the store.