Potpourris

Dry and moist for fragrance

Potpourri is a French word pronounced po-poo-ree. A literal translation might be "fermented in a pot." And that's what makes a moist potpourri-damp, fragrant, herbaceous material fermented, usually with salt, in a pot. Its companion piece, the dry potpourri, is a mixture of fragrant herbs, flowers, spices, and other odds and ends that have been dried before they are mixed. There's no salt in most dry potpourris, and the procedure is simpler than that for moist potpourris.

What goes into a potpourri, moist or dry, is up to its creator. There's lots of room to experiment. Because the ability to detect scent and the individual response to fragrances is a very personal affair, no potpourri recipe, including the one given below, could be exactly perfect for everyone. Each potpourri-maker should feel free to heighten or tone down fragrances given in recipes according to personal preference. Another truth is that though you might follow exactly the same potpourri recipe each of two seasons, the end product could vary considerably. That is because the strength and quality of essential oils purchased from suppliers will vary, as will the fragrance of herbs and flowers, for each harvest is different, affected by soil, sun, rainfall, and ripeness. Like gardening and cooking, potpourri-making is an individual enterprise, and a recipe is only a plan, not the arbiter of the final result.

In Egypt in ancient days, potpourris were made with rose petals and biblical scents, such as myrrh and frankincense. The Greeks and the Romans found that by adding orris root powder to fragrant petals, they could fix the scent and make it last longer. Toward the end of the Dark Ages, potpourris began to include more of the herbs grown in cottage and monastery gardens for medicinal use, cooking, and scent. When the Western world rediscovered the spice routes to the East, spices became part of potpourris.

The most common ingredients in potpourris, moist or dry, are lots of rose petals and lavender buds and leaves-the leaves of rose geraniums, rosemary, sweet marjoram, the mints, sweet bay, lemon balm and lemon verbena, thyme, sweet basil, sweet woodruff, tarragon, and many other fragrant herbs.

To these scented materials are added spices such as cloves, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg. Orange rind and lemon rind, cleared of white pith, stuck with whole cloves and dried, appear in many older recipes. Sometimes the dried rinds were pounded to a powder in a mortar before being included in the potpourri.

The fragrant oils in flowers and leaves fade rather quickly, and to retain them, fixatives are added to modern potpourris. Most fixatives have a fragrance of their own. Musk, civet, and ambergris were used in past centuries, but today we generally use orrisroot powder (many drugstores sell it), gum benzoin, Tonka beans, oak moss, patchouli, vetiver root, and others. To strengthen the scent further, we add essential oils. An "essential oil," the essence of a fragrance, is simply a very strong, rather oily distillation which is added drop by drop to a potpourri mixture.

Proportions for potpourris

To create your own potpourris, as a general guideline, use the proportions below:

• Rose petals: For a moist potpourri, you will need twice as many fresh petals as the potpourri will require. Drying them to the right texture for a moist potpourri reduces them by about half.
  For a dry potpourri, you will need about twice as many fresh-picked petals as the dried potpourri calls for, plus about 10 percent more. Dried to the right point for a dry potpourri, rose petals reduce by about 60 percent.
• Salt: When making a moist potpourri use unrefined salt, about 1 cupful to each 3 packed cupfuls of petals.
• Spices: Use about 1 tablespoonful of dried, ground spices to 4 cups of dried petals.
• Fixatives: You will need about 1/3 cupful of fixative-usually orrisroot powder-for each 4 to 6 cups of petals.
• Essential oils: About 4 to 6 drops for each 6 to 8 cups of petals makes a strong fragrance. When making any potpourri, add a few drops of each essential oil at a time and make sure you want the fragrance to be stronger before you add more. Rose and lavender essential oils are those most often used.

Making a moist potpourri

The basic steps in making a moist potpourri are similar whatever materials are used, and once you understand these steps, you can invent your own potpourris from the materials at hand in your garden.

• Pick twice as many rose petals as you will want. The best time to pick them is mid-morning before the sun gets hot. Dry the petals, one layer deep, on screens in a dry, dark, warm room that is well ventilated. When the bulk has been reduced by about half, they will have a leathery texture. This takes about 10 days. A leathery texture is the way petals for a moist potpourri should be before you begin the potpourri.
• In a large earthenware or glass crock, layer the rose petals with unrefined (kosher is good) salt. Use about 1 cup of salt for every 3 packed cups of leathery rose petals.
• Store the crock in a dark, dry, airy place where there is warmth. Stir every day or two. The contents of the crock will bubble and eventually will form a caked mass. After it has caked-in about 10 days-crumble it. It is the base of the potpourri.
• Mix dried fragrant flowers and petals, spices, herb leaves, fixatives, and essential oil into the potpourri base, seal, and cure 4 to 6 weeks in a dry, dark, well-ventilated spot.
• Transfer the potpourri to a decorative container, one that has an airtight stopper. Keep the potpourri sealed at all times. Uncover only when you want to scent a room.

Typical moist potpourri recipe

Here's a typical moist potpourri recipe you can use as a guide to create your own recipe. You need really fragrant rose petals. If not available, compensate by adding 4 to 8 drops of essence of rose-rose oil-to the finished potpourri before curing.

• 9 firmly packed cups of fresh rose petals
• 1 1/2 cups unrefined salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 8 dried lemon verbena leaves
• 1/2 cup dried rosemary
• 3/4 cup dried lavender buds
• 1/2 cup orrisroot powder
• 1 cup dried flowers for color
• 4-8 drops essence of rose

Dry the rose petals to a leathery texture.
In a large crock with a wide mouth, arrange thin layers of rose petals with layers of salt, ending with a layer of salt. Put a weight, not metal, on the jar contents. Set the jar in a dry, dark, airy place for 10 days. Stir up the contents daily.
When the mixture is dry, crumble the caked portions, and mix in the remaining ingredients. Seal the jar, and cure the potpourri 6 weeks, shaking occasionally. Transfer to a decorative container. Open when you wish to scent the room.

Making a dry potpourri

The important difference between the moist and the dry potpourri is that the petals for a dry potpourri must be bone dry before you begin.

• Pick twice as many rose petals, plus about 10 percent, as the recipe calls for, and set them to dry on screens in a dry, dark, warm, airy place. When they are as dry as crackly cereal, in 10 to 15 days, they are ready.
• Combine the petals with the remaining ingredients, in a large crock with a wide mouth. Seal the crock, and store it to cure for 4 to 6 weeks, shaking occasionally.
• Transfer the mixture to a decorative jar with a tightly fitting stopper.

Typical dry potpourri recipe

Here's a recipe for a dry potpourri you can use as a guide to the creation of your own recipe. Dry potpourris in particular depend on essential oils for their fragrance, so one or more of these are usually included.

• 3 cups dried rose petals
• 2 cups lavender buds
• 1 cup dried lemon verbena leaves
• 1 Tbs. ground all-spice
• 1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbs. ground cloves
• 6 drops oil of styrax
• Peel of 1 lemon, dried, pounded to a powder

Combine all the ingredients in a large crock or a jar with a wide mouth. Mix in the oil 1 drop at a time, and stop when you feel the scent is strong enough. Seal, and store for 6 weeks in a dark, dry, airy place that is warm. Shake the jar contents daily.
Transfer to a decorative jar that has a tightly fitting lid. Open when you wish to scent the room.

Pillows and pouches

Potpourri mixes can be used in a whole variety of sachets and cushions, designed for different purposes. When closing up the opening after filling, use loose stitches, or seal the opening with Velcro. That way, you can easily open the sachet or cushion at a later date when you want to refresh or replace the filling.

Place mat

Make a place mat from a piece of quilted cotton wadding and a piece of pretty cotton fabric. Fill with the potpourri mix of your choice. When a hot dish or teapot is placed on the mat, the heat will release its fragrance.

Scented pads

This clever, old-fashioned recipe produces not one finished item, but two -an aromatic oil for toiletry use, and scented pads to perfume drawers and cupboards.

• Olive oil
• Fresh aromatic flowers and leaves of your choice
• Cotton wool or wadding

Steep the cotton wool or wadding in the olive oil until it is thoroughly soaked and heavy with oil. Place a layer in an earthenware jar. Cover with a layer of flowers and leaves. Repeat the layering of cotton wool and plant material until the jar is full. Seal and stand in a sunny place for 1 week. Remove the flowers and leaves and press the oil, now impregnated with the plant aromas, from the cotton wool or wadding. Pour into a bottle and seal. Use the cotton wool to perfume drawers and chests.

Sweet bags

These bags use a mixture of dried aromatic leaves and flowers. They may be placed in drawers and cupboards to scent them, beneath pillows where they will release their perfume when you lay your head down or -and perhaps most pleasing of all -hung over the backs of chairs where they will again give off their scent under the warmth and pressure of the body. Make the bags from muslin or a lightweight fabric in whatever shape you choose, leaving an opening for the filling. Add loops to hang the bags by, if wished. Fill with a potpourri mixture of your choice, then stitch up the opening or close with Velcro.

Variations

Lavender bags are made the same way, using the dried flower heads as filling.

Sleep pillows

Make a small cushion and fill with a potpourri mix containing dried lavender and chamomile flowers, and dried hops, and use it to soothe you to sleep.

Wreaths and table decorations

Although most dried arrangements use flowers, herbs -some of which have attractive flower- or seed-heads of their own - can make decorative arrangements, too, and they have the added benefit of being aromatic.

Potpourri and posy ring

This decorative wreath takes the color, texture and aroma of a floral potpourri mixture and transforms them into an irrestibly pretty decoration.

• 15cm/6in straw wreath form
• Potpourri mix
• 1 m/1 yd velvet ribbon, 2.5cm/1in wide
• Selection of dried flowers
• Medium-gauge florist's wire
• Fine-gauge floral wire
• Glue sticks and glue gun

If you are going to hang the wreath, begin by winding some medium-gauge wire around it to make a discreet loop. Gather the dried flowers into a posy and cut the stems short, then bind them with a piece of fine-gauge floral wire. Spread a thick layer of glue on a small area of the wreath form (in front of the wire loop), then press some potpourri firmly onto the glue. Make some medium-gauge-wire into a V-shaped staple, place the posy over the potpourri, and press it firmly onto the wreath form with the staple. Continue gluing potpourri to the form, working in small areas at a time, until the whole form is covered. Glue one end of the ribbon to the back of the form and gently wind it around the wreath. Attach the loose end with more glue.

Herb and spice wreath

Here is a decorative way of storing culinary herbs -make an aromatic wreath for your kitchen wall with dried bay leaves and other herbs. Any herbs that are glued to the wreath, rather than attached with wire, will not of course be edible.

• Selection of herbs and spices, such as bay leaves, fennel stems and seed heads, marjoram flowers, purple sage leaves, star anise, garlic corms, cinnamon sticks, dried red and green chillies
• Raffia, for bow
• 25cm/10in wreath form
• Medium-gauge florist's wire
• Glue sticks and glue gun

Wind some wire around the wreath and form into a loop at the back by which to hang the wreath. Gather the herbs into bunches, trim the stems, and secure with wire, twisting the ends tightly at the back. Attach the bunches to the wreath form at intervals by pushing the wire through the back of the wreath and bending it flat. Attach the spices and the chillies in the same way, arranging them singly or in small clusters. Using the glue gun, glue the star anise (if using) to the wreath. Tie the raffia in a bow around the wreath.

Lavender basket

For a pretty bedside or table decoration, fill a small basket with dried lavender. Twist a length of purple or blue satin ribbon around the handle, and finish in a bow.

Suggested potpourri mixes

Gather and dry your ingredients in the same way as you would culinary and medicinal herbs, separating out the petals of larger flowers and keeping smaller buds whole. Drying the flowers in dark conditions is especially important if you want to preserve their colour. When the flowers and leaves are crisp, but not powdery, they are ready for use. Only observation will tell when they reach this stage -it can vary from a day to a week or longer. The proportions below are for a fairly standard mix, which you may like to vary slightly as your experience grows.

INGREDIENTS

• 450g/1 lb whole buds, petals and leaves
• 1 tablespoon ground spices
• 1 tablespoon orris root powder
• 3 drops essential oil

The orris root acts as a fixative which, along with the oil, brings the different aromas together and stabilizes the scent of the potpourri. Mix together the flowers, leaves and spices in a large, airtight jar (ideally earthenware, and not metal). Keep covered and stir daily for 4 days. Then add the orris root and essential oil, cover and leave for another 6 weeks, stirring daily if possible.

Selecting ingredients for a potpourri is very much a personal choice, also dependent on what you have available. Here are some combinations to start you off.

Rose potpourri

• rose petals
• scented geranium leaves and petals
• small quantity rosemary and lavender
• cinnamon and cloves
• rose and lavender oils

Lemon and spice potpourri

• rose petals
• a mixture of equal parts marigold, carnation and azalea petals
• lemon verbena leaves
• small quantity thyme
• rose and carnation oils

Mixed herb potpourri

• rose petals
• lavender, rosemary, bay, southernwood
• cloves and allspice
• sandalwood oil

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