Each spring and summer, I used to go around to my friends' gardens and pick the flower petals up from the ground (do this at mid day when dew isn't on them.) Take the flowers or petals home and lay them out on newspaper on the floor and leave to dry (about 2 weeks.) Next, get as many glass gallon jugs as you can from restaurants and place a mix of different colored flowers in each. Then place different fragrance oils (essential oils) in each jar.
Ideas And Recipes
Put in 1 jar, small pine cones, twigs, red geraniums and cedar, etc., then add spruce oil (not pine oil or it will smell like pine-sol!) This is a colorful red and green "Christmas" potpourri.
Hint: For flowers that dry bright red, and don't turn brown, use red geraniums.
Save and dry citrus rinds like orange and lemon, then add crushed cinnamon sticks, cloves and mixed flowers and leaves. Then add orange oil for another wonderful Christmas potpourri.
Mix together 2 or 3 other different types of flower blends and put each of these into a GLASS gallon jar, then stir in essential oils, in each a different oil. TeaRose was very popular!
Keep these jars in a place with no sun and leave them sit until right before Christmas (stirring monthly.) I then put each floral blend into a different fancy clear glass jar with a matching ribbon. I sold them at my mom's work right before Christmas and at Christmas Craft Fairs.
Everyone loved them and they paid for my kids' Christmas that year!
When I posted this, only one of these ideas was a Christmas ONLY potpourri. (The spruce/cedar). The one with the orange/lemon & cinnamon can be used all year long... The scent you choose to use is yours to decide. I recommended Tea Rose because it was my best seller (& it wasn't a Christmas scent). I recommended selling the jars of potpourri to help pay for your Christmas, but you could sell them at ANY time of the year. In fact, you could do the same thing for summer potpourri. It all depends on the colors you choose & the scent you decide to add... Scents like Spruce are great for Christmas whereas Orange-Cinnamon, Vanilla, Floral & berry fragrances work great for the rest of the year. Make up your very own recipe, you don't need one! Just chose any essential oil you love & add it to flowers, leaves & berries that have a nice color when dried. Then leave them to sit for several months shaking weekly, & you can't go wrong! The most important thing is to have fun!
Aren't there any recipes for potpourri other than for Christmas? There really are 11 more months in the year besides just December!
Editor's Note: Here is another link to potpourri recipe and there are feedback with suggestions. Maybe this will give you some ideas for non Christmas potpourri:
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Tip: Make Your Own Potpourri (05/28/2009)
I sometimes make my own potpourri by using a tsp. of cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves (apple pie spices.) These make your house smell wonderful.
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Tip: Make Your Own Potpourri
Archived on 05/28/2009
I sometimes make my own potpourri by using a tsp. of cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves (apple pie spices.) These make your house smell wonderful. Just put them on the stove in a small pot of water to simmer on very low heat. Everyone coming in your home will be searching for the pies. You can also use other spices of your choosing. Pumpkin smells wonderful also!
By Michelle from Lanett, AL
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RE: Make Your Own Potpourri
I made homemade potpourri and gave it away as Christmas presents, it's easy and cheap to make so it's good for gifts for people you want to acknowledge but don't want to spend a lot of money. What I did was buy one bag of each: apples, oranges, lemons, and limes. I sliced them pretty thin and laid them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at like 200 degrees F for a few hours. This part is a little tricky because each fruit takes a different amount of time. You want to take them out of the oven when they're not all the way dried, if you let them dry all the way in the oven they will turn brown and ugly. They'll be a little brown but you'll still be able to see the orange or the red of the apple and so on.
Just put everything in a big bowl and let it finish drying naturally for a day or two. Then sprinkle the whole mix with spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg whatever you like the smell of. Then mix with dried cranberries, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves. Use your imagination, there's really no right or wrong way to do it, I put mine in jars tied with ribbon and in those little sheer bags you can find in the wedding isle at any WalMart or craft store. I found mine at the dollar tree 4 for $1, and they're great for putting in a drawer or suitcase. You can even simmer some on the stove in a pot of water. I don't have one but I would think if you used a food dehydrator to dry the fruits you would be able to retain more of the color in the fruits, but the oven method works fine for me. Have Fun! (04/02/2007)
