Our house came with nearly 20 full-grown rose bushes as part of the landscaping. I knew immediately that I wanted to use the roses for as many different things as I possibly could as part of our efforts to be more self-sustainable.
Yesterday, we had a huge storm come through our area, and it knocked lots of petals off of the rose bushes. I went out this morning to gather them up, and they are now dried rose petals for future crafting projects.
Drying rose petals is so easy to do in your oven! Here’s a quick tutorial on how to do it.
First, harvest your petals. The petals I used today were what were knocked off on to the ground, but you can harvest them straight off of your rose bush as well.
Preheat your oven to 250^.F.
Next, spread the petals out in a thin layer on a pizza pan. I used a pizza pan so that the heat could easily pass through the bottom of the pan and speed up the drying process. You can also use a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. That helps with even heat distribution, and makes clean-up a breeze!
Once your oven is heated and ready to go, slide in your pan of rose petals.
I rotated the pan every 12 minutes until they were dried all the way through. I definitely recommend setting a timer so that you don’t lose track of how much time has passed and accidentally burn them!
You will know they are done because they will be crispy and dried all the way through. It is imperative that they are completely dry, because if they are not, they will actually mold and that’s dangerous.
Here’s a couple of photos from today’s harvest all dried out:
Stay tuned for more ways to harvest and use roses and rose petals in your home!
