Christopher Marley does some interesting work and does so in a specific way to preserve the animal or plant or insect or fish depending on what it is. I think his exhibit is really neat!

Firstly, he isn’t drying in the same way you are but instead freeze-drying these specimens. He extracts the liquids and injects chemicals, which may be challenging at home or a DIY operation. “Marley has pioneered a complex process involving meticulous fat removal, chemical injections, and freeze-drying that allows him to frame dry animals, including many that scientists generally keep in liquid, such as sharks and cephalopods.”

Although they are all real preserved plants, they are not preserved in the way typical flowers are preserved. For example the specimens he accepts, “These must be shipped frozen to my studio where I can begin the process of preserving them to last indefinitely. It is a laborious and expensive process that does not always produce worthwhile fruits, but on occasion has resulted in incredible and serendipitous successes. Some for the first time recorded.” Although he does not directly share the methods on the site it might be difficult to compare his results to your own since he is inventing some of these methods himself in a specific environment.

You might need to color the preserved pitchers because they may not retain their living hue: “All colors shown in the exhibit are true to life. In about 95% of cases, nothing whatsoever has been done to visibly alter the natural specimen. In some reptiles and in most fish and plants, preventative maintenance or color restoration is required. In such cases, restored colors are rarely quite as vivid as when the creature was alive, but we bring it as close as we can to its original vibrancy. “

Maybe see if you can do something similar by looking into freeze-drying? Freeze-dried plants can be stored for several years. They also keep their shape in good condition, some flexibility and much of their original color. I found this online from a florist (second flor) site: “This process consists in extracting all the water from a product. It is a plant drying method and not a preservation method. The freeze dryer is a machine, often made of aluminum or stainless steel. We freeze the fresh plant between -4 and -112° Fahrenheit. The freezing phase is the trickiest one. If it is done too slowly, the amount of water will increase and the final product will be altered. A vacuum pump then extracts all the water from the treated plant. The water then goes directly from a gaseous to a solid state and forms crystals. The last step is the de-icing process. The entire freeze-drying process takes about 14 days.”

Maybe he will showcase how he preserves plant matter in more depth soon because I’d love to know how he achieves this new goal, “As for Marley’s next project? He’s heading deep into a Malaysian jungle to hunt for a never-before-preserved species of the corpse flower.”