A potpourri is a mixture of flowers, other aromatic plant parts, and oils kept in a decorative covered container. When you want the fragrance of the mixture to scent the air, you remove the lid for as long as it takes to achieve the desired desired effect. At other times you keep the container closed to conserve the fragrance. But potpourri can please the eye as well. Those made of colourful dried flowers and plant parts show off to a good advantage in a glass container; those made by the wet method can be kept in an attractive opaque container.
Although rose petals are the traditional ingredient of a potpourri, any number of other flowers, plant parts and oils can be combined to make for unlimited variety of scent and appearance. Roses have the advantage - shared by only a few other flowers, including lavender, lemon verbena, rose geranium, and tuberose - of not losing their scent with drying. Other flowers can be dried and then scented with their own volotile oils, or they can be used in the potpourri for colour and bulk. Other plant parts - leaves, roots, fruit rinds, etc. - can also contribute fragrance or add interest by providing variety of colour and form.
You can make your own potpourri by either the dry or the wet method. The dry method is easier and more common, and has the visual advantage of preserving the ingredients in something like their live state. The older wet method-often called "sweet jar" - actually accounts for the name potpourri, which comes from the French term pot pourri, meaning "rotten pot". Perhaps you'd rather not have been told that little tidbit but it's true: the ingredients, mixed with salt, do actually rot into an aromatic caked mass. Some claim that the fragrances are extracted and retained better in this method; but the wet potpourri is also more likely to take on a stale or musty odor with time. The dry potpourri tends to have a lighter more subtle scent.
To make dry Potpourri you can use a combination of any of these items which White Witch has in store:
Calendula, chamomile, cornflowers, linden, violet, jasmine, lavender, orange blossom, peppermint, rose buds, acacia, meliot, garden daisy, lemon balm, basil, bay leaves, thyme, lovage, sage, marjoram, meadowsweet, angelica root, tonka beans and tonka powder, rose petals.
You can also thinly slice lemons, mandarins and oranges and dry them slowly in a warm oven and use these to add colour and perfume to your mix. Spices such as cloves, mace blades, cinnamon quills, cardamom seeds and corriander seed as warmth and variety.
Fixitives include: Ambrette seeds, tolu balsam, benzoin, labdanum, myrrh, orris root, sandalwood, cedarwood.
You can uses any combintation of essential oils or concretes to add a stronger scent such as; jasmine, tuberose and rose.
Mix your flowers and leaves first and then your powders before finally adding your oils. Add your oils sparingly and carefully as carelessness at this stage could ruin a good potpourri blend. Experiment with small amounts.
Pot pourri mixtures can be divided up into pretty jars and covered with a lid. The fragrant mix can also be sewn into muslin sachets for hanging in your wardrobe or leaving in your drawers. They make wonderful natural gifts at Christmas time.
Here is a simple recipe for a potpourri sachet
- 50g of dried rosemary leaves
- 50g of dried lavender flowers
- 1 tablespoon of orris root powder
- 2 drops of rose geranium (optional)
Mix all the dry ingredients together and stir well before adding the essential oil. Then place in a sealed container for 6 weeks. Then sew small squares of muslin together on three sides and place a tablespoon of the mix into each one. Sew the fourth side of the muslin square to seal the sachet. Use to scent your drawers, linen cupboards and wardrobes.
Rose Bowl
- 100g of dried rose petals or buds with a good strong scent, damascena is best.
- 2 tablesppons of orris root powder
- 1 dessert spoon of ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon of crushed cinnamon sticks
- 1 teaspoon of crushed cloves
- Dried orange peel and lemon peel
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon of vanilla powder
- Dried vetivert root
- 1/2 teaspoon of rose geranium essential oil
Directions: Mix the first six ingredients together very well, then add little bits of dried orange and lemon peel, vanilla bean, vetivert root. Add 1/2 teaspoon of geranium oil, stir well; add a little lemon verbena oil if it appears on the dry side. Seal in a jar for 6 weeks. Open and stir well, add more rose petals if you like. Periodically close the jar for a period of a month so that the scent can become strong and permeate the new petals.
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