Potpourri

Potpourri and sachet ingredients can be found in your own garden, purchased from craft supply stores, or even ordered online--including essential oils. These enhance the natural aroma of your ingredients and provide a longer lasting fragrance to your potpourri than if it you just used natural ingredients alone. There are hundreds of choices for what kinds of stuff you can use in potpourri. A good strategy to "inventing" a potpourri is to first choose a primary scent that is to your liking, then select fillers based on their color, texture, and complimentary fragrances to your primary scent. A few additional tips:

Use whole spices, not crushed or ground. Ground spices quickly settle to the bottom of the container and lose their fragrance due to the high amount of surface area exposed to the air.

If you are taking cuttings from your garden, harvest your ingredients when they are at their best, usually in the summer when natural oils are at their peak. Harvest fragrant flowers for drying in the morning, after the dew has dried. Cut the stems well below the blossoms, just as the buds are beginning to open, and tie the stems into small bunches with string or elastic bands. Use only flower parts for sachets, reserving aromatic stems for other uses (burn stems individually as incense sticks, tie them into bundles and throw them on the embers of a fire or add cut stem pieces to potpourri). Inspect your cuttings carefully and remove anything that looks dead or in the process of decaying. These contain fungi and bacteria that you definitely don't want as part of your potpourri!

Dry herbs and flowers by using a dehydrator, or by hanging out of direct sunlight in a warm, dry room, with good air circulation. Keeping herbs and flowers separate ensures that distinct aromas stay separate as well. (Blending aromas should be a choice--not an accident, although no doubt some random discoveries of interesting combos have been made this way as well!) Blossoms can be left whole or the petals can be separated, but whole blossoms are a nice touch added on top of a potpourri display. Other dried items, such as citrus slices or some pretty pebbles can also enhance your display, as will choosing a decorative dish that compliments the colors and theme of your potpourri mix.

Basic Potpourri

In a small bowl, put in Orris Root. Add any powders you would like to use (eg. cinnamon, nutmeg) or any other spices. Next add around fragrance or essential oils . Mix really well and then store in an airtight container for 1-7 days to cure. (It gets stronger the longer it is stored)

After your orris root has cured , prepare a mix of your dried, decorative ingredients.

Add your orris root fixative to this mixture. Place in an covered jar (airtight-mason canning jars are a great choice) and leave in a dark place for 5-6 weeks. Shake the container every couple of days. When ready, transfer the potpourri to your decorative container of choice. Add a few drops of essential oils and mix with your hands from time to time as the fragrance diminishes.
When adding liquid scent to potpourri, drop it on other absorbent, sturdy pieces such as cones, pods, allspice, cloves or cinnamon chips, and then combine with the more delicate botanicals.

NOTE: Orris Root is the fixative (what holds the scent) in all these recipes so if you vary the ingredients, be sure not to leave that one out!!) Use in a ratio of about 6-9 drops of fragrance or oil for every 1 tbsp. of orris root unless another ratio is specified (then use that one)

Country Apple

Apple Slices, orange peel, cinnamon sticks (can be broken), cockscomb, cloves and rosehips

suggested scent: apple cinnamon fragrance oil

Victorian

lavender buds, rosebuds and petals, colored babu, colored angel wings, colored straw flowers

suggested scent: lavender or rose or musk

Rose Garden

2 c. damask rose petals, 1 c. rosemary flowers & leaves, 1c. chamomile, 1c. lemon verbena leaves, 1tbsp gr. allspice, cinnamon

suggested scent: rose (6 drops, 1 tbsp orris root)

Winter Spirit

white Globe Flowers, small pine cones, white Angel wings, Cedar Tips

suggested scent: Pine Fragrance oil

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