Have you ever had a flower press kit? They’re a Medieval torture device for cut flowers. As you tighten the screws on the stack of cardboard, paper, and flowers, the flowers flatten into ingredients for future craft projects (or ingredients for the trash can). It can take a month to press a flower this way.
Surely, there must be a way to speed up the process.
In the latest video for the ever-popular Hydraulic Press Channel, decorative flowers including a potted Gerber daisy, a cactus, and a fake flower with gravel. The results were not especially suitable for any DIY projects, but it was certainly fun to watch. Especially the cactus. The crushed cactus shows just how good cacti are at storing water. When the spiky succulent met the hydraulic press, it burst like a watermelon.
Editor’s note: Popular Science does not condone wanton destruction of plant life for purposes of internet virality.