Potpourri part 2 ...

I started making potpourri about a month ago, back in the heady days of May when my roses were just coming into bloom.You can find my potpourri recipe here: Recipe for Rose Potpourri.

This morning I had a look at my petals and flowers and came to the conclusion that they're sufficiently dry to move on to stage 2 of the process. Like to have a look at them? This is everything that I've dried spread out on the picnic table outside:

I'm pleased with how it's all turned out. I kept them in a cool, dark room in the basement, which was well ventilated. There's been no moulding and only minimum discolouration of the petals, which is brilliant.

The peonies, which were a bit of an experiment, have dried out beautifully. They're the smaller, thinner, darker petals. The bay leaves have curled up a bit, but have kept their wonderful dark green colour. The rosemary has also kept its colour well and the geraniums still look like ... well, geraniums, which is a good result.

After I'd done my little bit of admiring how nicely they'd all turned out I placed the dried flowers and leaves in a mixing bowl, added the cinnamon sticks, cardamon pods, coriander seeds, orris root powder and rose and geranium essential oils.

I gave it a very gentle shake around to make sure that the orris root powder, which is the fixative got everywhere.

 Now I've got a bit of a thing for old jam pots. I have a strange urge to hoard them and it's a real struggle form me to put them in the recycling bin. I've always got two or three boxes of them in the garden shed in all shapes and sizes. When I need a storage jar for something they're brilliant. As you can see from the photo above I've got an old mustard jar pressed into service so that I don't have to fiddle with the rather annoying plastic bag that my orris root powder was dispatched in.

When it'd all been given a gentle shake-around so that the orris root powder had coated everything in a powdery dust I decanted the mixture into an old sandwich box, placed the lid on and left it to mature on a dark shelf.

Every day or so, for the next week or two, I'll give the box a gentle shake around to make sure that the powder doesn't settle to the bottom. I'll have a sniff and maybe add extra spices or essential oil if I think the fragrance needs a bit of tinkering with. After that I'll just leave it for the scent to mature and strengthen until the autumn when it'll be ready to mix with the other things that I want to include.

I've got some fabulous dried lavender, which I'll mix in, and I've got some pretty little pine cones which will add texture. I found these on my travels and have them stored in another small jam pot (what else!) where they are also infusing with rose and geranium essential oil.

I haven't added the cones to the general mix of infusing petals because they would damage the flower heads and petals when I give the mixture a shake about every now and then.

So that's it. Everything is brewing nicely and should be ready for use in the autumn. If you'd like to make some for yourself, there's plenty of time and loads of roses still in bloom. As I've mentioned you can find the recipe and method in my earlier post: Recipe for Rose Potpourri.

All the best,

Bonny x
As shared on Creative Mondays