WHAT IS FREEZE DRYING?

Freeze drying is the removal of water vapour from flowers while in a frozen state. This enables the flowers to retain their shape and size. Fresh flowers are placed on trays and loaded into the freeze-drying chamber. Moisture is locked into the cellular tissue of the flowers by freezing them solid. Air inside the chamber is pumped out creating a vacuum. Then ice within the flowers slowly changes to vapour. When these vapours contact the colder refrigerated ice condenser, they again change their state to solid ice. This cycle of solid-vapour-solid is described as sublimation. The end product is natural looking in appearance.

THE FLOWER FACTORYS 5 STEP PRESERVATION PROCESS EXPLAINED.

The Flower Factory carefully preserves your wedding bouquet using the latest Freeze Dry technology. Our five-step process ensures the highest standard of floral preservation.

Step 1: Hydrate.

Your bouquet is photographed, inventoried and dismantled. Each bloom is then re-hydrated.

Step 2: Pre-treat.

We pre-treat the flowers with a solution to make them more durable, shatter-resistant and retain their natural colour. The flowers are loaded onto trays and frozen to prepare them for the freeze drying process.

Step 3: Freeze Dry.

The flowers are placed in the specimen chamber of the freeze dryer and remain under vacuum for 12-16 days. Our state of the art equipment allows us to determine when all of the moisture has been removed from the flowers.

Step 4: Post-treat.

A wire stem is added to each flower head to prepare it for colour enhancement and sealing.

Step 5: Design & Frame.

Your bouquet is now re-constructed to the original design and framed in a 3D shadow box.