Potpourri and Essential Oils

For those areas in your home where you want to add a gentle aroma potpourri is an excellent solution.

Potpourri is made by mixing together dried, naturally fragrant plant material. The choice of ingredients depends on what is available, what is pleasing to your eye and the type of aroma you are looking for.

1. Mix your plant material together well then add an essential oil or an essential oil blend to increase the depth and complexity of your aroma.
   
2. Store this in a closed container, a glass jar or bottle is excellent for this, however a sealed plastic bag would work too.
   
3. Allow the aromas to meld nicely together. It will generally take about 5 - 10 days for the aromas to 'marry' nicely.
   

I would suggest that if you are making a blend you make up 5mls of this first, how many drops you will need will depend on how much plant material you have, how fragrant it is and how strong you want your aroma to be. This is something to have fun with so play around with it and make something you enjoy. The great thing about having the blend made up is that if your potpourri starts to lose its aroma you can always freshen it up with your essential oil blend. I would suggest that whatever you are not using at the time you keep in a sealed container. Potpourri is not only great to use around your own home, it also makes wonderful gifts for all sorts of occasions.

If you are a gardener you could collect your fragrant plant material all year round. Dried herbs, like rosemary, marjoram, thyme and basil all make wonderful additions to potpourri. Lavender on its own has been used for centuries in sachets to scent clothing and linens. Spices from the kitchen like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg are also all wonderful additions to potpourri. Flowers like roses, jasmine, chamomile and many others are a wonderful addition. Pine cones collected in the Fall can be added. Slices of dried citrus fruit or dried citrus peel. Wood shavings are another great ingredient. Many craft stores sell dried flowers and aromatics. There isn't a wrong or right recipe. Whatever you enjoy is right for you.

• Potpourri can be placed in any sort of a bowl or container. It can be as ornate or as simple as you like. It can be part of the decoration or it can be placed discreetly in the background. Just use whatever you have available.
  
• Potpourri can also be put into mesh bags. You can make your own from tulle, however I have noticed many Dollar Stores have gift bags made of netting with draw strings. These could work very well too.
  
• If you are giving it as a gift you can fill a cellophane bag with the mixture and pretty it up with ribbons and bows.

There is still time to make up your own special potpourri for the Holiday Season so here are a couple of ideas.

Pine Cones, Cinnamon Sticks and Orange: This looks nice if the pine cones are in a variety of sizes. Add the cinnamon sticks and orange slices and mix well. You can enhance this with an essential oil blend of orange, pine and cinnamon.

Orange, Apple, Bay Leaves, Cloves: Mix orange and apple slices with bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon sticks. You could also add pine cones and/or dried flowers. Here your essential oil blend can be made up of orange, cloves, bay and cinnamon or in fact anything else that you might like to add to it.

Any dried plant material will work in your potpourri and if you add essential oils the plant material doesn't have to be very strong. This is an easy fun project so get creative and make it your own.