I made a small plant press (~ 5″ x 7.5″) a number of years ago in a community class and figured I’d give it a try for this assignment.
As for my flower choices, I didn’t start out with a purple theme in mind, but that’s how things turned out. I got started on this assignment later in the week, rather than earlier – so the specimens were not completely dry. I opened the plant press for the sake of the assignment pictures and then returned the plants to the press for further drying. The press is pretty effective with parts of plants, but I would definitely seek out a larger scale tool for ongoing work with more varied specimens. It was also a challenge to get the full inflorescence pressed in a way that made all the parts visible.
As these came from my yard, it’s not an issue – but I’m curious about issues of ethical harvesting when it comes to acquiring plant specimens to preserve. Is there some equivalent of best practice guidelines for removing plant material from areas not in one’s own yard?
Leave a Reply