Hey, I have a master gardener question for you. My Bradford Pear still has a lot of green leaves on it, but most of the leaves that have fallen have these AWESOME designs on them. How does that happen? It looks like they have been imprinted somehow. Also, got any tips for preserving leaves? I have them falling out of most every book I own. I just hate seeing them dry up and shrivel out on the lawn, so I gather them in an attempt to preserve them (and prolong the season). I've tried putting them between sheets of wax paper inside the books, but really can't tell a difference in color than when I just stick them in between the pages. Maybe the real key is how much weight is on the pages? How glossy the pages are? How long they have been in the books? any ideas?"I don't mind the leaves that are leaving, just the ones that have been here before"...Piglet (from A.E. Milne's Winnie the Pooh as he attempted to sweep leaves off his walkway)
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I just went to a "flower pressing" class - I am sure you can do the same things with leaves. Let me know if you want full instructions. You can certainly put them in a thick book with heavy books on top. I would use wax paper there - I have had leaves to stick to the pages. Not good. How long depends on size and moisture content - place like leaves together. Silica is good. One method which I haven't tried was to iron leaves between two sheets of wax paper - with a towel on top and bottom.
ReplyDeleteI don't have Bradford Pears but I have seen that beautiful leaf within a leaf stamp. We can press, iron, glue and everything else but I don't know how to keep the colors. Look at the one Jo has that I made in high school - evidently they last for a LONG time!