I have blue to purple hydrangeas and would like to dry them. I have tried hanging them upside down, standing in a vase, cutting and rinsing the stems then drying in a vase.
Nothing seems to leave as much color in them as the ones I have seen for sale down on Cape Cod.
How do I dry them and preserve as much color as possible?
I've done this where I was able to retain most all color. Bring your stems (cut way down the stem to a main stem) inside and cut at an angle, put bottoms of the stems in an inch or two of water. Allow water to evaporate, slowly. Slow drying is the secret. I've done lots and lots of drying of flowers and even using silica. Hydrangeas need to dry SLOWLY. After drying I kept in big baskets out of the sun. One Christmas, I used JUST dried hydrangea flowers by just poking the stem into the body of the tree. Absolutely breath-taking. If you want to keep the flowers a bit longer, after they are dried, spray with hairspray (with uv screens) to keep colors vibrant and to dust. Spray with hairspray every couple of months.
Its quite possible the ones you saw for sale had been dyed, its not uncommon.
As mentioned in the other answer, silica helps - the link below might be of some use. The climate where you are makes a difference to the eventual, dried colour when allowed to dry naturally, but it covers that in the link.
