Why Did My Pressed Flowers Change Colour?

Pressing flowers is a beautiful process, allowing you to preserve a moment in time to be enjoyed for years to come. Pressed flowers are natural, and therefore the pigments within them can change colour during the pressing process, as well as over time once they’ve been pressed.

During the pressing process, sometimes there are chemical changes within the natural petals and leaves that cause them to change colour. I’ve found pink flowers are particularly susceptible to this - whilst many stay pink, often they turn to much darker tones, and some varieties turn blue! It can be a bit of a shock to fill a flower press with pink flowers, to then open it three weeks later to find blue flowers! However I’d really encourage you to embrace the magic of colour change during pressing; it’s really fun to observe and means you never quite know what you’re going to get when you open your flower press! Many flowers reliably keep their original colour during pressing (for example I find yellow flowers tend to stay yellow), others like to keep us guessing, and it adds a wonderful extra element to the joys of flower pressing.

Sometimes there can be issues with flowers turning brown during the pressing process - there are many factors that can cause this, such as the variety or age of the flower, or the equipment you are using. If you are experiencing problems with flowers browning in your flower press, I’d recommend getting hold of a copy of The Pressed Flower Handbook - it will guide you through every process of flower pressing to help you to achieve gorgeous, colourful pressed flowers.

There is another element to colour change with pressed flowers, which is the colour change that occurs with the passing of time. This happens over many years, and even flowers that were wonderfully vibrant when you pressed them, will eventually fade and change colours to beautiful muted vintage tones. It is completely normal, and a process that I’d really encourage you to embrace and fall in love with. As a pressed flower ages, as the stories and memories it holds become increasingly important and poignant, it slowly changes colour, takes on a new character, and becomes even more precious as a result.