Waxing Leaves

Apparently waxing leaves is a forgotten art, by the snarky comments yesterday.  (Oh, you guys are bad! -grin-)  No, it doesn't have anything to do with removing hair from "limbs," and unlike shaving, it is more fun in a group.  I'm talking about dipping leaves in melted wax to help preserve them for a few weeks, and now that I know how from a professional, I think I'll be doing this every year.  (Thanks Mom!)

We melted a box of paraffin (which you can find in the canning section of the grocery store) in a metal coffee can resting in a larger pot of steaming water, sort of like an informal double boiler.  It took about fifteen minutes I'm guessing?  Just long enough to find the leaves in a slow walk around the block.  The fresher the better, especially in the heat we had this past weekend.  Avoid wet or dry, curling leaves as they won't show as well.

And then you just dip them in the wax, letting the excess wax drip back into the can before you give it a couple of good shakes and set them on a sheet of wax paper to dry.  Once dry, you can dip the stem, too, and they last a little longer. We did about three dozen each, I'm guessing?  It took about an hour with reheating the wax a few times when it was starting to lay down a little thick on the leaves.  The leftover wax my mom left in the can for the next time.   QED!  And it was a lot of fun.  ;-)