Mother’s Day flowers ideas: Amazing things you can do with all the Mother’s Day flowers you have, instead of throwing them out

Mother’s Day is done and dusted, and many lucky mums across the country have woken up to gorgeous displays of flowers in their kitchens and living areas today.

They’ll be good for the week, at least, depending on the care with which they have been transitioned into vases.

Those of us who added plant food or sugar and a little vinegar – and bothered to trim the stems – can expect them to last a little longer, but others may be facing wilting chrysanthemums and roses by Thursday.

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The less sentimental of us will simply toss them in the bin and move on with our lives. By the way, these go in the green bins, please, but make sure to remove any plastic and ribbons and paper and cards before doing so.

However, more sentimental mums may be hesitant to throw them away.

These are the mums who will keep their flowers long after they are past their best days, when there is wilting and the delicate waft of decay. Particularly if you are a first-time mum or, like me, this year was the first time one of your children was employed, and bought them with her very own money!

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Here are some things you can do with Mother’s Day flowers that you may not have thought of, and your kids can help with most of them, extending the Mother’s Day experience beyond the day.

1. Dry the entire bouquet

Creating your own dried flower displays is such a lovely idea, and very much in-trend judging from their use in decor and in weddings.

This is easy enough to do, according to TikTok content creator Jason Jin on his Flower Academia account.

Watch the video above.

You simply remove all the yucky parts, in particular older leaves from the bottom of the stems.

Then, tie up the entire bunch with string and hang them upside down indoors. Or, as Jin explains, you can tie them up individually if you only want to keep a few.

I did this recently with a bouquet of flowers my daughter had been given and it worked perfectly. They take up to three weeks to dry. I hung ours on the door frame of a door we don’t use much.

You will know they are done when they feel brittle. To preserve them, give them a spritz with hairspray.

Then you can use them as decoration around your home, either back in vases or simply by laying them on shelves throughout your home.

2. Press them

Pressing flowers is a forgotten artform and has so many uses. You can press as many as you like, or perhaps choose some of the more special ones from your bouquet for saving.

An easy method to do this has been shared by TikToker Chloe Grayling of Love Chloe Jane.

You take your flowers and place them in a microwave-safe towel or similar, and then place them between two microwave-safe dishes for pressing, she explains.

Then, you simply microwave them on half power for around 90 seconds. Once they cool they will become stiff and dry.

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You can then use these for so many things – simply frame them, or create other, more elaborate works of wall art such as mosaics in larger frames, using the petals individually or the entire flowers.

I remember pressing flowers as a child using books and baking paper, although this can take up to 10 days. However, it may be are more suitable method if you are doing it with kids.

3. Make potpourri

Whatever happened to potpourri?

It was so popular in the ’90s, and I can remember it being given often as gifts, whether it was home-made or store-bought. And they were made specifically to place in your clothing drawers so everything smelled amazing, with lovely material and ribbons in cute little parcels.

Other people placed bowels of potpourri on tables around their home for a decorative air freshener, or simply filled decorative containers and vases with them.

Potpourri deserves a comeback, and is probably the best use for large amounts of flowers.

TikToker Jennifer has reminded us of how to make it on her Jennifer, Home and Garden Guru account.

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You remove all the petals and leaves from your flowers and then place them on baking paper on a large, flat baking dish.

Then, put them in a very low heat oven, approximately 90 degrees, for “a few hours”. Just keep on checking them until they feel dry to touch.

You then want to scent them by soaking some cotton pads in the essential oil of your choice.

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Place the flowers in a plastic bag with the soaked cotton pads for around a week before turning them into different potpourri creations. By adding them to cute little bags, you can put them in drawers, wardrobes and linen cupboards.

Bowels and decorative vases of potpourri can be placed around your home.

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