Make your own potpourri

Make your own potpourri

People have used potpourri for centuries to decorate and add fragnance to their homes. Potpourri is essentially a combination of dry botanical materials, fixative to hold the scent and scented oils. Adding your own botanical materials and/or scented oil creates a distinctively personal touch. There are many ways of creating your own personalized potpourri blends. Choosing and mixing botanicals is probably the best parts of making potpourri. With these materials you invent the color scheme, texture and feel of the blend. Mixes can be brightly colored and bold a soft; muted blend of monochromatic colors. Textures play a big role in developing the feel of the blend. Large, chunky botanicals with lots of texture look wonderful together for a dramatic and modern presentation. Lots of tiny botanicals give a delicate, more natural flavor to blend. Generally, a potpourri blend has at least three different types of botanicals if not more. However, it makes a dramatic and stunning display to put out a container full of one type of botanical.

Build on pre-mixed blends to create your own, unique blends. Mixing in your dried materials gives you a chance to create unique blends.

Blending It All Together

You may be amazed how easy it is to make your own potpourri. To blend all your ingredients together and make up a batch of potpourri, just follow these three easy steps.

·         Choose all your botanicals first and mix them together until you create the perfect color and texture combination. If you choose some heavily scented botanicals that will steer the direction of your blend and cloud influence the scented of the oil you choose.

·         Place some fiber fix in a glass, ceramic or metal bowl and add the desired amount of scented oil. Stir the oil in well, cover the bowl (with a plate) and allow the oil to soak into the fixative for 2 to 4 hours.

·         Once the scented fixative is ready, stir it into the botanical blend. Mix everything well. Pour the entire batch of potpourri into a paper bag for “curing”. This curing process allows all the smells to blend into each other. Seal the paper bag with tape, staples or paper clips and set it in a cool, dry location out of the direct sun. Shake the bag once daily to keep everything blending evenly. After 5 to 7 days, the botanicals and scented fixative will have blending and mellowed into the final scent of the potpourri and it is ready to put out or bag and sell.

How many extra botanicals or how much extra scent you use is completely up to you.

 

Storage

If you plan to store potpourri for a long period of time you will need to put it in an airtight container. Make sure there is not moisture in the container. Place a packet of silica gel in every pound of potpourri you are storing. Silica packets absorb the moisture; preventing mold and mildew during storage should there be any moisture still in the container or in the potpourri. You can make a pack by sealing about a tablespoon of silica gel in a small envelope or a muslin bag.