A combination of rose heads and petals complement the lavender in this concoction.
A combination of rose heads and petals complement the lavender in this concoction.
Lavender Potpourris
The word potpourri means a stew, a mixture, a medley, or a collection, and it is most popularly used to refer to a glorious mixture of scented botanicals that please the eye and perfume the home.
In the commercial marketplace, there is a huge variation in prices and esthetics of potpourris, as dyed wood shavings may replace dried flowers and herbs to reduce the cost, and artificial scents add a harsh or cloying note to the aroma. Though lavender buds are used in many commercial potpourris as part of the mixture, their delicate scent is often overpowered by chemical fragrances. If I’m taking the time and effort to bake a cake, I use butter, never margarine, to get the most flavorful results. My theory is making every calorie count. So it is with potpourris: The finest ingredients produce fabulous results.
When you make your own potpourris, you have the agreeable task of combining pure and delightful ingredients, and the very act of mixing the “stew” is a pleasure. Some prefer to combine all the ingredients and then dole out the mixture into bowls and packs for gift giving, with one or two special flowers on top. Others prefer to meticulously arrange their potpourris in layers and rows.
Before you start, consider four basic potpourri qualities: aroma, color, texture, and longevity, or keeping quality. Aroma is an absolute necessity, but the others are not. You can keep your mixture in a lidded porcelain jar with holes to let the scent escape while hiding the contents. You can stir and bruise your potpourri weekly to release additional scent, add a few drops of essential oils as the original scent begins to fade, or make a new potpourri every six months. To many, mixing a new potpourri is a treat.
This potpourri features the classic color combination of blue and gold, as well as the classic scent of lavender.
The longevity of potpourris, and dried flowers and herbs in general, has been vastly exaggerated by commercial interests. Any arrangement or mixture should be tossed after two years at the maximum, if only to get rid of the dust accumulation. I visited my attorney’s office about a business matter and spied in his conference room a once lovely arrangement that I had sent when he moved into new quarters about eleven years earlier. Although there was a semblance of color remaining, the structure was mostly intact, and the frosted glass vase was still elegant, I had to restrain myself from tossing the dusty, dismal arrangement in the trash.
Favorite scents are individualistic, based on both biology and learning. Special scents from childhood that evoke pleasant memories are particularly powerful. A whiff of summer phlox always evokes a memory of myself at three years old with a favorite uncle in a summer garden.
Some potpourri makers use essential oils to contribute most or all of the fragrance and concentrate on color and texture in the recipe. I prefer to use as little essential oil as possible, adding it only when I want a scent that is not otherwise available, such as patchouli or sandalwood.
Use lavender to add a sweet fragrance. Other delightful sweet smells are rose, lemon verbena, rose geranium, mountain mint, sweet Annie, heliotrope, lily of the valley, peony, and gardenia. For pungent and spicy smells, try bergamot, pinks, and carnations; cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon; eucalyptus; orange, lemon, and grapefruit rind; curry plant; tansy and yarrow; sage; juniper, spruce, and other conifer needles; star anise, patchouli, and sandalwood.
Lavender and rose potpourri can be displayed in a carefully designed pattern rather than in the traditional mixed form.
Add texture to your potpourri by using some choice botanicals that may not have any aroma but are interesting to look at and touch; they will make a nice contrast to the more delicate dried blossoms and petals. Using a few whole flowers in mixtures that are mostly broken pieces or petals also contributes immensely to visual appeal. Try air-dried roses on top of a potpourri of mostly rose petals, or dried heads of Queen Anne’s lace on top of any floral or woodsy combination.
Some good botanicals for texture are small conifer cones, whole or in petals; small pods, such as love-in-a-mist and Oriental nigella; rose hips; pussy willow catkins; juniper and other dried berries; Kentucky coffee beans; Job’s tears or other large seeds; small clusters of hydrangea flowers; leaves and buds of lamb’s ear; and any whole dried flower with an interesting shape.
Many cheap mixtures combine color indiscriminately, but the most beautiful potpourris are often those with botanicals that conform to a particular color palette or blend into one color range. In one of the potpourri recipes given later in this chapter, the rich blue bachelor’s buttons and blue hydrangea clusters are added for color and texture, though they add no aroma to the mixture. The lamb’s ear has a slightly bluish cast and a velvety texture that’s hard to resist.
Also try adding opposite colors. The golden orange of calendulas, for example, is opposite on the color wheel from the blues and purples of the other materials and will add a cheerful note to your potpourri.
Most recipes call for a fixative to help keep the aromas of the potpourri from dissipating too quickly. They often contribute a fragrance of their own, thus adding in a second way to the mixture. One of the fixatives most commonly included is orris root, which is the root of the Florentine iris, dried and finely chopped or ground into a powder. If you can’t find it anywhere else, ask a pharmacist to order it for you. The chopped form is better to use for potpourris, as the powder of orris root, as well as cinnamon, another fixative, will coat the rest of the ingredients with a light film and alter the color.
Other aromatic fixatives are the whole forms of vanilla beans, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon stick pieces. Penny Black, in The Book of Potpourri, also lists chamomile flowers, coriander seeds, angelica, sweet cicely, cumin, and the dried leaves of lemon verbena and sweet woodruff as other easy-to-find fixatives. So when orris root is listed in a recipe, don’t be afraid to substitute.
To make a dry potpourri, Black recommends mixing essential oils and any spices or heavily aromatic materials with the fixative and rubbing the mixture with your fingers before adding the petals and flowers and other materials. She also suggests letting the mixture age in a tightly covered container for six weeks to achieve the longest-lasting results.
Here are three of my favorite recipes using lavender as a main ingredient. With any potpourri recipe, you can add or substitute any of your own favorite flowers, leaves, or aromatics.
Purely Lavender
INGREDIENTS
3 cups lavender buds
3 drops lavender essential oil
1 cup rosebuds and rose petals
1. Mix the lavender buds with the essential oil and place in a decorative container.
2. Place your best dried rose in the center and the rosebuds and petals in a pattern around the mixture.
3. To refresh and release more aroma as the weeks go by, gently reach in and bruise the lavender buds with your thumb and fingers, stirring gently so as not to disturb the rose pattern.
Bridal Potpourri
Many brides wish to preserve their bouquets, centerpieces, and other wedding flowers but think of it only when on their honeymoon. A phone call to mom from a faraway destination often prompts a phone call to me or another expert who preserves special flowers. When the flowers are two days old or older, I can never capture their once-magnificent look. There are three solutions: buy replacement flowers and dry the new and perfect flowers; toss them in the compost heap; or make a wedding potpourri.
In this bridal potpourri, the whole lilies and lilacs from the wedding bouquet are for show. Tiny buds of lavender have little visual impact, but their fragrance is notable.
To make a wedding potpourri, I like to use a decorative bowl or dish from the household treasury, perhaps a family keepsake or antique, or something new from among the wedding gifts.
1. Take apart the bride’s bouquet and any other flowers still available—a centerpiece, bridesmaids’ flowers, or altar arrangement. Hang the flowers in small bunches or lay them flat on window screens to air-dry. Most foliage— such as fern, lemon leaf, or ivy—I sandwich between sheets of newspaper and place under my dining room rug to dry.
2. When the drying is complete, sort through the materials and set aside the nicest ones. These will probably be the roses, fern, ivy, baby’s breath, heather, larkspur, and any other flowers that air-dry well. Discard any brown and disgusting-looking things.
3. To the reserved flowers, petals, and leaves, add ½ cup of lavender buds and enough other aromatics from your own collection to make 4 cups.
4. Add a fixative, as well as 5 or 6 drops of an essential oil in a scent to match the flowers or the season of the wedding—lily of the valley, lavender, or rose for spring or summer, or one of the spicier scents for fall or winter.
5. Decorate the top of the bowl with whole flowers.
I’ve Got the Blues
This is a simple mixed potpourri of dried blue flowers with contrasting touches of orange.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups lavender buds
2 cups bachelor’s button flowers
2 cups blue hydrangea clusters
2 cups lamb’s ear buds
1 cup calendula flowers
whole sunflowers, dahlias, or zinnias to decorate top
4 drops lavender essential oil
3 drops patchouli essential oil
1. Mix the 4 drops essential oil with one cup lavender buds. Cover and let age for several weeks.
2. Mix in all the other dried flowers. Dress the top of the bowl with whole dried sunflowers, dahlias, or zinnias.
