You can save and reuse the glycerine. My druggist ordered a quart for me over 10 years ago and it's discolored a little but still works. It sometimes will get a little mold in it or leafy bits...just pour thru sieve. Keep in labeled bottle well capped. Also, it's important to use very warm water and stir well before adding your material. I'm not sure why, but most books mention this...it must aid in the plant taking up the solution more quickly. If I submerge Ivy or individual leaves, I rinse well with warm water after I remove them. Otherwise I just rinse the stems which were in the solution. One caution: don't store the plants preserved with glycerine in airtight container. A cardboard box with airholes is okay. I use wax paper or tinfoil between each layer. It's also a good idea not to store in same container as your material dried without glycerine. jo

I picked up glycerin locally at a drug store. You can also try the glycerin used in soap making as long as it's in liquid form. I've recently used glycerin to preserve white pine branches, dog wood stems, ferns, and other interesting leaves I've stumbled upon. Hope this helps.

One thought: At the risk of discouraging you further (smile), have you tried storing your glycerin-preserved greens with dried flowers attached? One of my books advised against sealing glycerine-treated items in air-tight container because of possibly developing mildew from retained moisture, and suggested hole-punched cardboard boxes instead. And most books suggest dried flowers be stored in airtight boxes with perhaps a little silica-gel added to guard against moisture. Just wondered how you had dealt with storage. (I've erased this once because I do seem to be discouraging...but since you were nice enough not to mind my running on, I decided to leave it in...smile). Hope your further experiments are successful. Although I decided I'd miss the scent of fresh-cut greens at Christmas, even if my experiments had gone well, it still would be nice to have some bits of greenery preserved for use at other times. And that reminds me. (I just checked and I do still have an unopened bottle plus one "used". Did you know the glycerine can be strained and bottled for reuse? It does sometimes develop a bit of mold while using...but doesn't affect it and strainer removes it. Also that you need to add water to the solution while your greens are soaking as the water level drops? Good luck...let us know how it goes. I'm tempted to try again with a few houseplants...maybe Dracaena or Cordyline leaves?~~smile~~ josh

This might be another reason - plants are trying to preserve water in the extreme heat we've been seeing: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/13/2401183/why-leaves-may-be-dropping.html#tvg If leaves are falling, it may be because the tree is trying to preserve water used by the leaves. Plants take water from the soil through their roots. Water is used throughout the plant and produced in the leaves as a by-product of photosynthesis. This extra water leaves the plant through openings on the leaves called stomata. This process is called transpiration. All leaves have these tiny openings. Most stomata are on the underside of the leaves, in the shade. Water and oxygen, produced during photosynthesis, exit plants through the stomata, and carbon dioxide enters through them. Leaves can reduce the size of the opening in the stomata to reduce the loss of water, but the opening never closes tight enough to completely stop the loss of water and the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. If trees lose more water from their leaves than the roots can absorb, many trees drop leaves to reduce the loss of water. This is a natural process and will not damage the tree in the long term. Leaf drop usually happens much later in the summer, but with the triple-digit heat that we've had for two weeks, some leaves are dropping now. Trees with large leaves suffer more than small-leafed trees. Irrigating for a longer time or even more often may not help stop leaf drop while temperatures are this high. Check your irrigation system to make sure it is working efficiently and mulch under the tree if possible. Evapotranspiration is the loss of water from the soil due to evaporation, and from the plant due to transpiration. If irrigation or rainfall match the ET rate, plants thrive. By measuring temperature, humidity, wind speed and solar radiation, evapotranspiration is determined and posted on the website at texaset.tamu.edu. Many irrigation companies are creating smart controllers that use ET as their guide for irrigation run times. Dotty Woodson is the water resources specialist at the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Reach her at 972-231-5362 or d-woodson@tamu.edu. Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/13/2401183/why-leaves-may-be-dropping.html#tvg#ixzz0wrw7uEY7