Best Way to Decorate Your Home with Potpourri

Today, potpourri is usually a loose mixture of dried ingredients. The crinkly petals, foliage, and spices, with the addition of a few small dried flower and seed heads, are pretty as well as fragrant. Displayed in shallow bowls or elegant glass containers, potpourri can form a stunning centrepiece to a table or sideboard.

In former times, moist potpourri was more common: flower petals were layered with spices and salt (the word pourri, meaning ‘rotted’, clearly applies to this method). This did little for the appearance of the petals, but the fermentation produced a strongly aromatic ‘cake’. It was not meant to be seen but was placed in a pretty, lidded potpourri jar. The lid might have had holes to allow the aroma to escape, or it might have been left unpierced and removed only when the room needed refreshing. If you want to replicate this effect, gather roses and other fragrant flowers such as lavender as soon as morning dew has evaporated in the warm air. Lay them out on trays or screens and leave them in an airy place for a day or two so that they lose some of their moisture. Layer the partially dried petals and flower heads in a wide-mouthed jar with a scattering of powdered spices — perhaps a mixture of cloves, allspice, and nutmeg; top every few centimetres with a dusting of sea salt. When the jar is full, screw its lid tight and place it in the dark for a week or longer, until it forms a somewhat solid cake. Break the potpourri into pieces before filling your potpourri jars.

Most dry potpourri mixes include strongly scented petals from rose varieties such as the damasks (Rasa x damascena), the apothecary’s rose (R. gallica), the musk roses (R. moschata), and cabbage roses (R. x centifolia), plus flowers such as lavender. Also good for scent are bee balm and chamomile flowers. Whole or powdered spices such as cloves, coriander seed, and sandalwood are also an important ingredient of potpourri. For example, scattering a teaspoonful of cinnamon powder and another of crushed cumin seed gives a warm spice aroma. Aromatic leaves are often included; delicate leaves such as sweet marjoram and sage may crumble into small pieces, but rosemary and bay leaves hold their shapes well. Potpourris almost always include a few drops of essential oils to enrich and strengthen the aroma.