Herbarium in a jar. How to design a herbarium title page

Do you know how to dry blades of grass? "Certainly! What’s so difficult about this?” Mom will say when she sees the entry “Bring dried leaves and flowers” in the diary. We went outside, picked up anything, ironed it - done! Hold it, daughter, take it to labor class. Stop! Not everything is so simple, let's figure it out without haste.

What is a herbarium?

Since childhood, the familiar word “herbarium” literally translated from Latin sounds like “grass” and means dried plants. Wikipedia also considers the broader meaning of this word - it is a building in which collections of dried plants are stored, or even an institution that organizes and processes dried collections. The largest herbariums in the world are located on the basis of museums and botanical gardens.

We, of course, do not always collect plants as required by a classically compiled herbarium (all parts of the plant, along with the root and withered leaves), and only avid botanists make albums with the names, place and date of collection signed on the sheets.

Most mothers and fathers in childhood probably dried plants in books, calling it “... we collected a herbarium,” implying drying individual parts plants in flat form. In fact, the herbarium method of drying plants (under pressure) is far from the only one, and depending on what we want to use herbs and flowers for in the future, we can use other methods.

Herbarium method (pressing)

Herbarium method Allows plants to dry flat. Dino prepared a special detailed master class about how to do it right. See.

It's simple. We take a thick book and put the plants in it, skipping a few pages. We put the book under the press and after a couple of days we transfer the material to dry pages so that mold does not form.

IMPORTANT! Take a book that you don't mind spoiling, because... the pages will become stained with plant sap and subsequently become wrinkled from moisture. If you go for a walk, take the transport book with you, so the plants will not wither or become wrinkled. At home, you can place them in another book or under a special press for final drying.

In order for the plants to completely dry, it may take from 2 to 4 weeks, it all depends on the thickness of the stems and buds, and on the presence of moisture. In the future, it is convenient to store them in a dry place in books, sorted by type. If you put them in boxes, then over time they may wrinkle, reacting to the humidity in the apartment.

There are more quick ways drying plants for herbarium - this is an iron or microwave. They should be used in rare cases when you need to save time. The main thing is not to overdry the material, otherwise it will become brittle and brittle and lose color. When drying with an iron, be sure to iron through the paper.

Rules for collecting plants for herbarium

1. You cannot collect plants for a herbarium in the early morning when the dew has not dried or immediately after rain.
2. Do not uproot the plant, take only a few leaves and flowers so as not to damage the entire plant.
3. Don't rip rare plants, listed in the Red Book.
4. Don't tear more than necessary.
5. Collect leaves and flowers different sizes so that in the future, when compiling flower arrangements, there was a choice (small, large, open flower, bud).

Remember: the “younger” the flowers or inflorescences (1-2 days), the more stable their color. Taken at the end of flowering, they, as a rule, disintegrate when dried, lose their petals, and the color becomes dull.
If plants are collected away from home, they are immediately placed in a book or newspaper. If you did not have time to process and lay the flowers for drying, then put them in water and start drying them the next day.

If some flowers had to be picked after the rain, they are placed in water and allowed to dry, and then dried.
You can collect wilted flowers: dried, they give a graphic and picturesque composition.
Petals, leaves, stems are dried separately. You cannot put tender and rough parts of plants together, since they require different loads: for tender ones - 8–16 kg, for rough ones – 20–40 kg or more.
For lush flowers such as aster, dahlia, peony, rose, the stems and leaves are dried separately. All green parts are removed from the flower heads, except those directly holding the petals. Using medical tweezers, lift the petals row by row and place thin layers of cotton wool between them. The processed flower (or 3-4) is placed in a bookmark under the press. Some of the petals are placed and dried separately under a load of 5–10 kg.
Peonies are cut (torn) into 4–8 parts, lined with cotton wool and dried. In the future, whole flowers can be easily and quickly assembled from such parts.
When drying autumn dahlias, you need to take the most blooming specimens. The middle of the flower is removed and filled with cotton wool, the petals are raised in rows, laid with a thin layer of cotton wool and the entire flower from the front and reverse side covered with cotton wool.
Tulips can be dried individual petals (removing the middle), and then mount the flower. If you dry a whole tulip flower, then you need to let it wither.
Chamomiles, gerberas, annual dahlias, marigolds and other similar flowers are placed on newspaper with the stem up, the petals around the stalk are completely covered with a cotton wool roller, and dried in bookmarks with several pads under a load of at least 15 kg. Delicate white and pink petals are especially difficult to dry. They are placed in a white bookmark or paper napkins without a pattern and often change newspapers, which act as pads.
Small flowers, necessary for creating miniatures and landscapes, are dried entirely. Forget-me-nots, buttercups, hemlocks, yarrow, blooming rowan, jasmine and bird cherry flowers are placed in a newspaper bookmark along with a twig, covered with newspaper pads, cardboard (plywood) and dried under a press of at least 15–20 kg.
Roses are also dried individually or as a whole - well-withered.
Don't throw away wilted bouquets! Some of them can be taken for future panels.
In summer and autumn, try to stock up on a variety of seeds, fruits, poplar fluff, cotton grass fluff, fireweed, coltsfoot, dandelion, and thistle. This is an amazing "white paint".
Be sure to dry the bright ones autumn leaves. Before putting them to dry, clean them from dust and dirt with wet cotton wool or a soft cloth. The leaves of silver poplar, autumn raspberry, coltsfoot, Norway maple, and elecampane have a white, gray, gray-bluish color on the underside. Common maple leaves are different colors and shades, which makes it possible to create beautiful backgrounds for compositions.
In order for succulent stems (tulip, narcissus, dicentra) to retain their color, before storing them in the herbarium, they must be cut lengthwise with a razor blade or a sharp knife and the core scraped out. Thick or woody stems (onion, carnation, gerbera, rose) are simply divided in half.
It is good to dry dense, leathery, juicy, and bright autumn leaves by ironing them with a hot iron through paper. Flowers are not dried with an iron. The exception is cornflower, which can be dried with an iron.

What is a herbarium for?

Children love collecting herbariums. Teach them to do it right. At the same time, you can repeat the names of plants, compare the shape of leaves and flowers in different specimens, find similarities and differences, talk about how the plant has adapted to the place where it grows, what helps it survive and obtain the required amount of moisture, how it reproduces, when the seeds ripen, etc. The information that a child can receive while collecting plants for a herbarium will be remembered much faster than that read in a textbook.

Autumn is in full swing, which means there are a lot of fallen leaves in the parks. The time is coming best time for collecting herbariums. Today we will tell you about this educational and exciting process and we will prove that collecting plants is not only a way to learn something new, but also a creative process. Dried leaves, flowers and herbs make incredible beautiful compositions. We'll give you some useful tips and we'll show you illustrative examples this technique.

The concept of herbarium traditionally includes two concepts. The first and most popular is collecting plants for subsequent drying and cataloging. The second is the creation of compositions based on selected dried flowers (without educational implications). Let's talk about them separately.

Herbarium as cataloging

Probably all children of the USSR and the 90s remember what a homemade plant catalog is. As a rule, natural history or botany teachers assigned it to be compiled for the summer. The students obediently searched for plants from the list, dried them in the sun and in books, and then pasted them into their notebooks.

The notebook page was folded in half, like an envelope. The plant was placed inside, and a note was made on the pocket: name / what species it belongs to / date of collection. To some, such catalogs seemed like a real punishment, but mostly the children excitedly went in search of oak leaves, blades of sedge grass and dandelion inflorescences. Drying them was quite a task.

In general, this is a very useful practice. Looking at pictures in a textbook is not as effective. It is much better to collect plants with your own hands, find all the information about them yourself and arrange everything in a herbarium. In short, this is a very important experience.

Nowadays, collecting herbariums is still relevant. Teachers still guide children in such hands-on activities. True, almost no one glues notebooks anymore. In any art department you can find a stand (or even several) dedicated to the collection of herbariums. There is everything here: special paper, special albums and even tools for the correct preparation of samples. By the way, modern herbarium albums even provide space for photography. That is, you can even capture the place where the sample was taken. In short, now collecting the herbarium has turned into exciting game, which is actually not bad either.

Herbarium as a composition

In fact, these are not exactly herbariums. Paintings made from dried petals, leaves and herbs are more correctly called compositions. However, people call them herbariums. The name has taken root so well that it will probably not be possible to remove it from use.

Creating herbariums in the idea of paintings is a wonderful creative process. There are even entire courses dedicated to this art.
Dried plant art is a great way to decorate your home. These compositions make the house very cozy. They fill it with some special warmth.

Herbarium postcards are also very popular. In this case, drawings are applied to a cardboard base, supplemented with various dried flowers, which are fixed with glue. Others can also be placed here. natural materials. These cards look very cool.

But the most important thing is that the herbarium is an excellent activity for children's creativity. If you have a child, teach him the art of herbarium collection. Take him on a short trip through the park, select beautiful leaves, dry them, and then create a picture together. At the same time, you don’t have to know the names of all the plants (although this will be useful for the child, of course), the main thing here is beauty and inspiration. Such moments are never forgotten!

If you decide to master the art of collecting herbariums, you will need some useful tips.

Collection:

never harvest plants after rain because this will make drying more difficult
never break off branches, leaves and flowers - be sure to cut them with a knife or scissors
never collect leaves and flowers damaged by diseases or blackened by rot
to design albums, take several samples

Drying:

spread the collected plants on newspaper and leave for a day (indoors or outdoors if the sun is shining)
place the plants between two sheets of paper and place under a press
zigzag the plant if it is too large

Decor:

use a glue stick to fix the petals and leaves
use superglue and tweezers to secure small items
avoid liquid adhesives, do not use paste
For panels, choose special paper for herbariums or thick cardboard
The finished painting can be placed in a frame under glass - this way it will live for a very long time

Don't be afraid to try putting together a flower arrangement yourself! Autumn is the right time for this creativity. Collect colored leaves, decorate them, create. Complete the compositions with bright drawings made using paints.

Try to assemble a flower in a vase using petals, blades of grass and leaves. Try making different animals from stems, branches and fancy leaves. Try to create an abstraction. The main thing is to start and you will see how great it is.

Making herbariums is a great way to decorate your home. A great idea is to make a lot of paintings and place them in wooden frames and hang them on the walls.

This decor will become the highlight of the interior and will always please the eye!

Creating a herbarium is a simple and fun activity. The leaves themselves have a unique charm and can be combined with flowers and incorporated into other interesting projects. Collected herbarium can also be good teaching aid. Although drying leaves for herbarium is not at all difficult, a number of precautions must be taken to achieve the best results.

Steps

Identification and selection of leaves for herbarium

Learn to recognize poisonous plants before collecting leaves. For example, leaves of hogweed, sumac or wolf's bast They can be a beautiful addition to a herbarium, but they can also cause an unpleasant skin reaction. If you want to include these leaves in your collection, be sure to use latex gloves when picking and drying them. The dried leaves will then need to be coated with transparent acrylic varnish so that they do not provoke a skin rash.

Collect leaves in sets from the youngest to the most mature leaves in the sap. If you take leaves that are too mature, they will be drier and their color will become faded.

The leaves can be harvested at any time during vegetative growth, but if you want them to look as green as possible, they should be harvested in the spring before hot summer weather sets in, which can damage the chlorophyll.

Choose leaves that are in good condition and free of stains, tears and damage from pests, as these imperfections will become even more noticeable after drying.
1. On the other hand, carefully inspect leaves that have been chewed by insects. They can acquire a beautiful lacy structure with a naturally expressed partial or complete skeleton of veins. Such leaves can also be an excellent addition to a herbarium. Make or buy a herbarium press.
  - A press is a simple device made of wood, cardboard and thick paper with mounting bolts, weights or fastened straps. The idea of a herbarium press is to dry the leaves under pressure. You can look for such a press in a craft store, purchase it in an online store, or make it yourself.
    - The press manufacturing process is described below.
    - Buy two planks of plywood measuring approximately 20 cm by 30 cm and about 1 cm thick (or any other size that suits you). Typically, lumber stores can cut pieces to your measurements.
    - Drill holes for bolts in the corners of both planks. It is best to pre-mark the position of the holes so that they match when you align the boards on either side.
  - Insert the bolts into the four holes of one board, placing washers under their heads.
2. Cut pieces of clean cardboard and paper to fit the dimensions of the inside of the press. They must be kept clean, so replace them as needed. If you have a rectangular press, then it is better to lay corrugated cardboard in channels along its short side to ensure increased air circulation. Place the leaves under a press.
  - For each layer of leaves in the press, you will need two pieces of cardboard and several sheets of absorbent paper of the appropriate size. Place the bottom plate of the press on work surface
  - . Place a piece of cardboard in the press, put paper on it, then leaves, another piece of paper and finally another piece of cardboard.
3. Repeat the procedure as many times as necessary. It is permissible to overlay leaves on top of each other only if they do not have pronounced veins. Do not allow the cuttings of some leaves to touch the surface of other leaves, as they leave behind unsightly marks. Cover the contents of the press with a second board and tighten the bolts with nuts and washers. Check the condition of the leaves after a couple of weeks. Place your hand on the layer of paper covering the leaves; if it is cool to the touch, then the leaves have not yet dried. Close the press again to complete drying. IN in this case there is no need to change the paper to new one.
Drying leaves in a book
Microwave drying
1. Place the leaves in a press. Put the bottom ceramic tiles or cardboard on the work surface. Place a piece of cardboard and a couple of sheets of paper on top. Lay out the leaves on the paper, cover them with a couple of sheets of paper, a piece of cardboard and a top tile or press cardboard. Tie your abs with rubber bands.
  
  Dry the leaves. Place the filled press in the microwave and microwave for up to a minute on low power. Then remove the press and open it to release the steam. Once the press has cooled, close it again and return it to the microwave for 30 seconds. Continue heating the press for 30 seconds at a time, then opening and cooling until the leaves are dry. Be sure to ventilate and cool the press every time so you don't accidentally cook the leaves. You need to dry them flat. But cooking will never give the desired result.
- To ensure even pressure is applied to each sheet, you can place paper towels or napkins in the press. This is useful in cases where the leaves have uneven thickness and are very rich in moisture, for example, like hosta. But usually this is not required.
- You can use an old telephone directory as a press. If it is not there, it is permissible to take any book.
- The leaves of maple, ginkgo, fern, peony and iris look amazing in the herbarium. To make your collection more interesting, collect leaves of various shapes and sizes.
Warnings
- Be careful when picking leaves. Some of them can sting you or cause a rash, while others can be poisonous. Remember that the leaves of hogweed, sumac and wolf's bast are best left alone.
- Never place metal objects in the microwave and always use oven mitts when removing a hot ceramic press from the microwave.
- Respect the law. Do not collect plants from protected nature reserves, nurseries or national parks without permission. The easiest way is to ask the responsible personnel what can and cannot be done in such places. If there are no rare endangered plants in the area, you will most likely be allowed to collect a herbarium.
What you will need

Drying leaves under a wooden press
- Two identical plywood boards
- Drill
- 4 bolts with washers
- 4 wing nuts
- Cardboard
- Paper
Drying leaves in a book
- Big thick book
- Paper
- Heavy load
Microwave drying
- 2 ceramic tiles
- Rubber bands
- Cardboard
- Paper
- A heavy weight to place on top (such as books or a microwave-safe, airtight container of water)

Content

Autumn is a very beautiful time of year, golden foliage, deep blue sky, dried flowers and leaves. Some landscapes you want to save and place in your home so that they give warmth and delight the eye for a long time. winter evenings. Autumn is the best time to collect and make a herbarium of flowers, spikelets and leaves.

To make a herbarium with your own hands that will last a long time, you need to know several nuances and rules for its collection and design. Firstly, it is better to collect materials and plants for a future herbarium in dry weather, because wet flowers and leaves are more difficult to store. Secondly, in addition to standard plants that are usually used for flower arrangements, you can also select whole buds and individual petals, spikelets, seeds, etc. Thirdly, it is better to collect already fallen leaves and dried flowers, rather than plucking all the plants in a row, destroying nature. And it’s easier to dry dry materials at home.

How to make a beautiful herbarium

If you can find several leaves or flowers that are similar to each other, this can result in a very original symmetrical composition. You can collect everything you catch your eye in the forest, with a little imagination, and every piece and element will take its rightful place in the future herbarium. The best helpers in collecting materials for a herbarium are children - they don’t think about where and what can be used, but take everything in sight. Then you have to invent and find ways to attach all the collected plants, but the result is amazing.

Leaves and flowers are stored best and longest in dried form. To dry plants correctly, you can use one of the proven methods:

In addition to the means of drying materials for the herbarium, you need to remember a few more little tricks that will help in creating an original composition. For example, if the plant is dried correctly, it will be level and the top will not tilt down. The leaves can be slightly strengthened to make them denser using a solution of water and PVA glue, which are mixed in a ratio of 1:5.

You can add any dried flowers to the herbarium, but delphinium and dahlias retain color best and look best in the composition. Flower petals, dried separately from the bud, will last a long time and will decorate the picture.

Herbarium in the interior

A herbarium is a flat bouquet that can be stored in several ways: how decorative panel, in an album, in the form of bookmarks, in a photo album, as a three-dimensional picture and many others.

Decorative panel of dried plants

For this option, you need a base, the material of which can be fabric, canvas, or cardboard. The herbarium materials are laid out with the picture that you want to create and preserve, then each element of the composition is glued and left to dry for a day under heavy pressure. The herbarium can be laid out from painted plants and elements, or it can remain in its natural color. After all work is completed, the panel must be inserted into the frame.

In album

The herbarium on album sheets is a mini-guide on botany. A separate plant is glued to each individual leaf. Instead of glue, you can use tape or thread with a needle. The latter option is guaranteed not to affect the evenness of the flower or leaf, and so that the stitches are not so noticeable, you can then carefully tint them with a similar color. To preserve the herbarium for a long time, you can put thin tracing paper between the pages, or even better, place each leaf with a plant in a transparent file. All files can be collected in one folder - it’s beautiful and reliable.

Bookmarks

In order to make bookmarks, you need 2 strips of cardboard, which are glued together, and the ribbon of the future bookmark remains between them. A small composition is laid out on the surface of one of the sides; flowers or spikelets are better suited for such a small area.

The mini-herbarium is covered with tracing paper on top (parchment paper is also suitable) and greased with a mixture of PVA glue and water in a ratio of 4:1. The composition will be visible through the translucent paper, and the edges can be secured by sewing on a machine with thread of any color.

Herbarium painting

A painting using plants is a whole art that looks very unusual and beautiful. Part of the picture needs to be drawn with paints or pencils, and some elements should be laid out with petals, grains, and twigs. A little imagination - and the masterpiece will delight you with its originality.

Photo

Look how much different options design of the herbarium. You might find something you like.

How to design a herbarium

Photo album - this will be a mini book with a herbarium. Very similar to the way of storing a herbarium in an album, only the pictures and compositions will be small.

There is another type of herbarium - a clamshell. Sheets of paper are fastened together in a row, and the desired compositions or simply individual plants are laid out on them. When folded, it will be an ordinary notebook or book, and when unfolded, it will be a long strip with mini-pictures of plants.

Such a miniature composition looks very beautiful on the cover of a handmade postcard or on your favorite diary. It is best to secure the herbarium to the surface using self-adhesive film, which can be purchased at almost any stationery store.

If the herbarium is made in an album or photo album, the plants can be signed: names, a short description, medicinal properties(if the plant has them), where and when it was found. Signatures are best done on small labels, which are then pasted in the lower right corner of the page.

To interest a child in herbarium, you can offer him to buy a special bright album for this activity and an encyclopedia, where he can find all the names of leaves and flowers. You can search for information about plants on the Internet; here you will need the help of your parents. If a child knows that mom or dad will help in compiling a herbarium, the child’s desire will only increase.

Children are often asked to prepare materials for a herbarium during the summer holidays. A walk through the forest looking for leaves and flowers, and then working on a sketchbook on a quiet evening is a great time for the whole family. When collecting and forming a herbarium, the most important thing is not the end result, but a leisurely process that will bring pleasure and joy to all family members. And the original composition of flowers and leaves will delight you for a long time and remind you of warm sunny days.

Video about herbariums

In these videos you will not only learn how to beautifully make a herbarium, but also learn about unusual species herbariums.