Smelling of roses - Making a potpourri

 Making your own potpourri is a natural way to add lovely fragrances to a room. A potpourri (a

French word which translates as ‘rotten pot’, but don’t worry the result is more appealing than it sounds!) is a mixture of ingredient such as dried petals, spices, cinnamon sticks, pine cones and citrus peels placed into a bowl to perfume a room. 

I am lucky to have roses, rosemary and lavender growing in my garden, so I decided to use them as the main ingredients for my potpourri. 

I gathered rose petals and rosemary and lavender stems and I let them air dry for a few days in my kitchen. 

The best way to dry herbs like lavender and rosemary is to tie the stems together in little bunches with an elastic and hang them upside down with a bit of thread. 

To add to this, I cut out some orange and lemon peels when I was making my morning orange juice and lemon tea and I also left them dry out for a few days in my kitchen. 

When all my ingredients were dry, I put them all in an empty, clean jam jar (you can also choose to make little bags for your potpourri instead). I then added a few drops of essential Lavender oil. 

I decided to decorate my jars as well with small ribbons I had in my sewing box and paper flowers I found in a charity shop. 

That’s it! Your potpourri is ready to display. 

I regularly top up the potpourris with a few drops of essential oil to boost the fragrance. 

You can also add orris root powder in your jar to enhance the scent of the essential oil and preserve the potpourri for longer.