This is exactly the kind of thing that when my Mum visits, makes her roll her eyes at me. I love flowers and always have vases of fresh flowers around the house. From time to time, I like to dry out roses rather than throw them out. Just before they start to wilt and droop, I gather them together with an elastic band and hang upside down in the airing cupboard. If you are outside the UK, then you probably have no idea what an airing cupboard is, so put very simply, it's a dry and warm cupboard that usually holds the water tank (hence the warmth) and clean linen. It's the perfect place to dry flowers. By hanging them upside down to dry they will dry out with heads straight. That's all you need to do. Simple!
If you don't have an airing cupboard in your home, just hang them in a dry room and see if that will work. I think it should.
Even if they end up crumbling, I love that it makes fresh flowers last a bit longer.
There is something stunningly beautiful about home dried flowers. They look more like paper flowers than shrivelled up dead flowers. I find that shop bought ones aren't as natural looking, and tend to have a smell that I assume is the preservatives used. If any of the flowers have drooped when you start to dry them, get rid of them. They will just look like flowers that have died and you've been too idle to remove, rather then purposely dried flowers.
The pink ones in the photo above have been in the airing cupboard for about a week now, after taking the photo I put them back so they can continue to dry out. In a couple of weeks they should be ready.
I still have the red rose corsage that my husband wore at our wedding (almost 5 yearas ago now), it dried out so well that the colour is still good and strong. A lovely keepsake from a lovely day. Especially as I threw my bouquet to the single women there, so had no chance of drying it out.
I'm not sure what I will use them for yet. I will probably use them in the same way as cut flowers for a while, but I've got a little thought in the back of my mind of using them on our Christmas tree this year. Cut down to just below the flower head, and decorated with a velvet bow, they would add a fragile air to tree when nestled in amongst the branches.