home made pot pourri?

kyh

Hi

I am trying to plan on making some of my xmas gifts for family this year and would love to try to make home made pot pourri. Is this really easy? I have loads of lovely rose and honeysuckle petals that it seems a shame to waste. How do I make it and how do I get it to keep the smell

I also want to make lavender bas with soem of my lavender - how is it best to dry this? Tie it and hang it or in the oven?

Many thans in advance

K

kyh

:hello: Bump

savvy

Hmm you've got me wanting to make some now! So I googled and found this link and this one, and then this one..........seems like getting hold of some orris root is the way to go

Seakay

Spread the petals on newspaper on eg a cake cooling tray or a slatted fruit box from the greengrocers - you can have several layers of paper and petals. Leave in a dark and airy place - heat not necessary although an airing cupboard can speed things up.
Dry lavender stems in a paper bag, heads down, to catch any that drop off.

You can add ground and whole spices, dried citrus peel (bottom of a cooling oven, no pith).

Orris root (healthfood shops often have it) helps to 'fix' and preserve the scent but isn't vital.

For Christmas, a few whole spices eg star anise and or baby pine cones painted with gold or silver paint and or glitter add to the festive effect.

If you are dissatisfied with the natural scent (not all rose petals are very strong when dry) then a couple of drops of essential oil will do the trick.

Penelope_Penguin

Hi there :xmassign: This question is better suited to the Special Occasions board, so I'm going to move it over. Other threads there are:

Christmas Pot Pourri

Home made Christmas Pot Pourri

Penny. x

amyandoli

I'd like some ideas on this too, sounds great fun. PenelopeP- thanks for the links but neither really cover the OPs ask ( and now mine too lol) -im going to have a go at your third link savvy and see if i can come up with some ideas of my own. a brown/cream/gold one would really suit my mums house, brown/cream/blue for my sister, green/cream/silver for my sil.... and the list goes on lol

amyandoli

well, i'm back from the nearest town with a book called The Scented House- full of ideas not only for pot pourii, but scented sachets, pillows, cards, stationary, cosmetics, wall decor.... fab! if anyone wants any details just pm me as I dont want to go against copyright (ex librarian, uber geek me lol)

savvy

Well luckily I had a couple of dried rosebuds (knew I wanted to do something with them!) and a bunch of sweet pea flowers I bought for £1 have dried out too, so whacked them in a couple of jars I already had......................and now just need to work out what essential oils I have and what combination to put in and Hey Presto, LOL not bad for £1

Dried up flowers!

rosekitten

I was in TK Maxx in January they had
a large box of pot pouri in their sale
it looked lovely and smelt of nothing
at all as I think it was probably quite
old and the smell had long since faded.
I got it for 50p I just popped it into a
plastic bag threw in some scented oil
I had got in M&S,sealed it up left it for
a couple of weeks and then tipped it into
a large bowl it smelt lovely I had to shift it
into the hallway as the scent was very strong
might have put in too much oil,
but it calmed down within a week,the scent
lasted for about two months and then the kids
got it.I have another lot on the go now.


.

amyandoli

savvy wrote:

Hi
Wondered if you had a recipe that would go really well with rose and sweet pea (sort light floral I guess) in the book you bought? Also does it say anything about orris root being an essential at all??

Thanks for any help

hi savvy,

orris root powder or finely ground gum benzoin are used througout the book as a dry fixative. if you want to use an eo, the book suggests sandalwood, clove, cassia, cedarwood or patchouli.

theres an awful lot of recipes using roses, but none with sweet pea sorry.

i'll post this in the thread to in case it's of help to anyone else

hth x

-the colours of the roses and sweet peas look lovely savvy!

kyh

Thanks everyone for all your advice - i have decided to make start some this weekend as have a couple of hours to spare. Will let you know how I get on. Also going to try home made gel air freshner things I saw on here somewhere and also some lavender bags - going to see my brother in canada for Xmas and his wife and all her family will llove things like this