How to Dip Roses in Color

Dip roses in color to give them a new look.

You can dye fresh white roses to give them a new color or dye silk white roses.

1. Mix together in a large bowl 2 cups of water with ½ cup of aluminum potassium sulfate using a metal spoon. Add four drops of a food dye in the color of your choice and stir once more.

2. Hold your rose upside-down and submerge it into your dye mixture. Slowly stir the dye mix with the rose bud for 30 seconds then remove and let excess mixture drip off over old newspaper. Place in a vase and allow to dry overnight. For silk flowers stir for an additional 30 seconds to allow dye to permeate the weave of silk.

3. Mix up more dye and re-dip the flower bud if you want a darker color. Once satisfied with the dried color spray your entire rose with a mist of clear shellac. This will preserve your rose and its color while providing a shine to it. Allow to dry according to the brand’s drying time.

Tip

Another easy way to dye real roses is to add four drops of dye to a cup of water in a vase. Snip the stems of your roses and place them in the water-dye mixture. After a day or two, the flower will soak up the colored solution and its petals will take on the color of the dye. Mix different food dyes to yield some new colors. For example, you could mix a couple drops each of yellow and green with a drop of blue to create a teal shade. Mix red and blue for a rich purple, or yellow and red for an orange. Experiment with colors and drop your mixes onto a plain white sheet of paper to get an idea of how the dye will look on roses.