Hi I feel your pain, years ago I found presses didn't work, I use plain old phone books and computer printing paper and weights put on top.I shared this with a fellow Master Gardener one day and he used to work for the phone company and told me why it works so well, they put fungucide in the paper so my flowers don't mold at all. I just section out pages between my pressings and use two sheets of printing paper with flowers in between. I have been pressing for many years, see my site www.petalpress.com for examples all done with phone books only. good luck, so easy. Here is a link that might be useful: My Petal Press

I use polyurethane (low density) cubes for lettuce. I score the top of each sheet in a grid pattern using a circular sewing pattern knife (looks like a pizza cutter). I put the foam in a flat storage tote containing an inch water that has been sitting out overnight to de-gas the chlorine. I squeeze the air out the foam to get it thoroughly wet, sprinkle the seeds on top, then cover the tote with it's white translucent lid to keep the seeds moist. Every 24 hrs I open the lid, mist the seeds, close the lid again. For lettuce,I also leave a daylight CFL lamp shining on the lid to help it germinate. After 3 days I open the lid and remove the excess standing water. By now the foam retains about 50% of it's maximum capacity, plenty for the lettuce seedling once the roots penetrate that far down (by this point all the seeds have germinated) I continue misting once a day for 4 more days. By then the roots have reached the bottom of the cube, the cotyledons are fully open, and I move the seedling to the half strength recirculating hydo solution tray, which has about 1/2" of solution continuously flowing through it. A week later and the roots are hanging an inch or more out the foam, the first real leaves have opened, and it's ready for transplanting. Different plants will require longer to sprout, and/or may prefer less moisture while germinating. Some need heat, some may need to be kept dark. Lettuce likes it cool, moist, light and airy. The fun is figuring each one out!

I live close to Disneyworld and the Polynesian resort has a lot of Plumeria trees on the property. Well my roommate has an obsession with them and has gotten me quite obsessed myself. I picked a few blooms and took them home but I forgot to take them out of my truck, leaving them on my dashboard. They stayed in my truck for about a day in the sun and the next morning for work I noticed they had shriveled up and dried out. They shrunk in size but their color and fragrance were preserved. This is the best way I found to preserve the blooms. I've tried pressing them but in doing that it tends to make the petals paper thin and they turned a bit brown as well. I've taken to drying them in the car with natural heat works best and I've now got quite enough to use as homemade potpourri. Hope this is helpful for you. They look awesome and definitely bring a nice touch to my home decor. And it's been pretty fun for my nieces to do when they come to visit

mclarke - none of those flowers are real? i hope not... so there'll be hope for me and fake plants in my future... lol! my sister does! "I'd grow succulents before I'd use plastic" she has acres of cacti, oleanders etc. but she'll also put a ficus tree on her porch and some silk? fake ones from Michaels' (w/ coupon). looks great. no one knows. except family and friends. her land is gated and the porch can only be seen from way down at the road. I'll do the same once I get into my new place. I have several acres here with cacti, mesquite, bird of paradise etc but I'm terrible in growing them. all but the BOP have been here for ages - long before me. I'm hoping to have a porch of some sort out front!