This “data sheet” is a nuts-and-bolts program for making your own potpourri from flower and shrub petals, and herbs salvaged from the garden. Making potpourri isn’t difficult or cumbersome, but the process is time-consuming if you want spectacular results. Commercial potpourri purchased at retail stores doesn’t last very long because the “cooking process” is generally compromised in terms of time. If you want to make potpourri that lasts, patience will have its own rewards.

Basic Materials

There is a wealth of plant material in home gardens from which to make potpourri. Obviously, roses provide the foundation for making fragrances and scents, but even here there are nuances about the best rose petals to gather. Not all flowers produce a distinctive rose aroma. Today, most roses produce fruit-like scents because they are widely used in sachets and dried floral arrangements. Trial-and-error experience will help you determine those roses with the best keeping fragrance. Of all species, the best for making potpourri are “damask roses” because the attar of rose is salvaged from the petals.

Potpourri materials come from many sources, including the following: spring bulbs like jonquil and narcissus, baby’s breath (gypsophila), citrus plants, gardenia, honeysuckle, jasmine, lilac, lily-of-the-valley, mignonette and sweet woodruff. Backyard garden herbs may also be used, including basil, coriander, lavender, lemon verbena, marjoram, oregano, peppermint, rosemary, thyme, spearmint, sweet marjoram and verbena. Tie stemmed herbs with twine in small bundles, hung in a cool dark place for a week or two to dry fully.

Preparations

Always gather rose blossoms and other flowers in mid-to-late morning before the sun is overhead. Flowers must be perfectly dry, so capturing blossoms in late morning allows for the overnight dew to dry. With roses, you must prune flowers to leave behind a five-leaflet branch (shoot) on the stem; this way, a replacement flower will develop in its place. Gather flowers carefully so blossoms and their petals are not bruised afterward. A surplus “window screen” is perfect for placing flowers after they are pruned. When the screen is full, take your blossoms indoors, placing them on sheets of newspaper.

When all flowers have been captured and moved indoors, gently pull the petals from the flowers. Don’t bruise them as you pull. Set them on newspapers until you’re ready to move onto the drying phase.

Now comes the regimen that’s going to drive you crazy. Everything, every last petal, must be dried, and not in any way you may have done it before. The bad news: you need lots and lots of screens, in effect creating a “drying rack” for petals.

How is another thing, where is also a problem.

Choose a place indoors where there is poor humidity, where you won’t mind the inconvenience of rack after rack of drying flower petals. If there’s a handyman in the house, he can fashion long screens supported by 1 by 1-inch wood strips on all sides. The hardware or building supply store sells screening material cut to any size, also the thin wood strips in all lengths. It would be a good idea to make these screening racks before you start capturing flowers from the garden.

So, you have the racks, now what?

Ideally, screens should be separated to allow air to flow between racks and dry the petals. Racks should be spaced eight or more inches above one another. Supporting these racks is another engineering problem. You could place “cinder blocks,” one atop another at all corners, to support the screens. Don’t make a big deal of this, just remember you need air flow to dry the petals.

Place your petals on the screen, just one layer. Don’t place petals on top of each other. Fill the screen with the single layer of petals. Use a small brush to move petals around every day to accelerate the drying cycle. Drying in a humid-free environment usually takes two-to-four days, by which time the petals will have shrunk to the size of small corn flakes.

Is there a substitute method? How about the oven? Warm the oven to 100 degrees, leave the oven door open, then place cookie sheets of flower petals to dry for 60-75 minutes. Every 15 minutes, remove the cookie sheets, shake them for a few seconds, then return them to the oven. When you remove the cookie sheets, set dried petals on sheets of newspaper.

We’re getting close to making potpourri, but what is the volume of your dried petals?

Use a dry quart glass bottle to measure. Pour dried petals into the jar so it fills to the top, then empty the bottle. Repeat this to find out the volume of petals, etc., to be processed. Ideally, store dried petals in zip-lock plastic bags (maybe quart bags). Label and date the bags for use when you make potpourri. Collect flower petals through the summer (always keeping “quart size” in mind).

Potpourri menus are as different as cuisine in fancy restaurants, so you will want to experiment with different menus along the way. You will come to love experimenting because nobody will ever create the same fragrance as you do, no matter who repeats your recipe. Remember, the final fragrance depends on the flower petals captured when blossoms are peaking in the garden.

From here on, keep detailed records of your recipes. Date everything, label everything.

Supplies for Potpourri-Making

You love to shop, so you’ll want to shop locally or get on the phone to order supplies. To make great potpourri, you need a primary scent, fixatives and blenders, maybe some essential oils to impart a fragrance you remember from years ago. Let’s look at what’s involved:

Scent. You have the world from which to choose, so treat yourself. If push came to shove, what scent pleases you most? Choose from floral fragrances, citrus, gardenia, jasmine, lavender, anything your heart desires.

Fixative. These are plant parts and resins, the “glue” behind potpourri. They blend all the scents together, fixing them so your potpourri retains its fragrance for an extended period of time. Fixatives also contribute some fragrance to the final product. Fixatives commonly available include calamus and orris roots…gums and resins like balsam, benzoin, frankincense and myrrh…and ambergris and musk derived from animal products.

Blenders. This is where creativity has a role to play. Almost anything may be used to complement your fixatives and scent. Dissected pieces of citrus fruit (lemon, lime, orange, pineapple) may be added, also minuscule drops of essential oils available from suppliers.

Crock-Pot Potpourri

Here is a quick-and-easy recipe for homemade potpourri. In a large crock pot, place layer after layer of dry rose petals (dry so they look like tiny pieces of corn flakes). Cover dried petals with non-iodized table salt. Over this, scatter two tablespoons each of cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Stop. Make another layer of dried rose petals, covering with the same ingredients. Continue making layers of petals and ingredients until the crock is three-quarters full.

Important: place a dinner plate inside the crock pot on top of the upper layer of roses, then some stones (wherever) to weigh the plate down.

Now, cover the crock pot and let it age for two-plus weeks. Remove the stones, the dinner plate, then use a long wooden spoon or spatula to stir the dried petals. Next, return the dinner place inside the crock pot, the stones, and place the cover on the crock pot for another two weeks. Remove the stones and dinner plate, then package the potpourri in zip-lock plastic bags for future use.

Gardenia Potpourri

Again, use a crock pot. Add a half-quart of dried gardenia petals, four ounces of calamus or orris root powder, four ounces of dried geranium leaves, and four ounces of dried orange petals available at gourmet shops. To this, scatter two ounces of casis, two ounces of benzoin, and one ounce of vanilla oil (not the tract). Place a dinner plate atop the mixture in the crock pot, some stones to weigh the plate down, and cover the pot for two weeks. Remove the cover, stones and the dinner place, and stir the dried materials in the pot. Return the dinner plate, stones and crock pot cover for another two weeks. Remove the stones and dinner plate, and store your potpourri

Rose-Lavender Potpourri

This formula was created by Ann Fettner, author of “Potpourri, Incense & Other Fragrant Concoctions” which may be available at your library. Again, using the crock pot, add 10 ounces of dried rose petals, 10 ounces of dried lavender petals, 5 ounces of dried rose leaves, and 2 ounces of powdered orris root. Combine this with three-quarters of an ounce of broken-up cinnamon bark, a half-ounce of allspice, a half-ounce of cloves, and 10 ground-up Tonquin beans (available at gourmet shops). Place a dinner plate inside the pot, stones on the plate, to weigh things down, and the pot cover. Every week, remove the plate and stones, stirring the contents, and returning the plate, stones and cover. At the end of six weeks, your potpourri is ready.

Caswell & Massey Potpourri

Using a crock pot, combine eight ounces each of dry lavender petals, rose petals and powdered orris root. Over this, scatter four ounces of non-iodized table salt, two ounces of cloves, two ounces of cinnamon, two ounces of benzoin, two ounces of allspice, and three ounces of crushed Tonquin beans. Over this, apply one-quarter ounce of each of the following oils: lavender, sandalwood, rose geranium, rose, and bergamot. Finally, scatter one-quarter ounce of oil of lemon, a half-ounce ot oil of lemon, a half-ounce of tincture of musk, and a half-ounce of amber. Cover the mixture in the pot with a dinner plate, stones, replace the crock pot cover and let stand for four to 6 weeks. Once a week, remove the dinner plate and stones, and stir the materials. At the end of the sixth week, your potpourri is done. It imparts a fruit-like bouquet to the room.

Potpourri Supplies

* Aphrodisia, 28 Carmine St., New York, NY
* Atlantic Spice Company, P.O. Box 205, North Truro, MA. 02652; (508-487-6100)
* Caswell-Massey, 320 West 13th St., New York, NY
* Essential Oil Company, P.O. Box 206, Lakee Oswego, OR. 97034 (800-729-5912)
* Lavender Lane, P.O. Box 7265, Citrus Heights, CA. 95621 (916-334-4400)
* Lebermuth Company, P.O. Box 4103, South Bend, IN. 46634 (800-648-1123)
* Lorann Oils, P.O. Box 22009, Lansing, MI. 48909 (800-248-1302)
* Penn Herb Company, 10601 Decatur Rd., Philadelphia, PA. 19154 (800-523-9971)
* Rosemary House. 120 S. Market St., Mechanicsburg, PA. 17055 (717-697-5111)

Footnote: We invite other suppliers of scents, fixatives, blenders and essential oils to communicate with us so we may add more sources for potpourri supplies.