The lazy gardener's guide to potpourri

Flower & Garden Magazine, June-July, 1996 by Donna Bickley

I'm A Lazy Gardener. I Want to spend my time enjoying the garden and its bountiful harvest. Among the pleasurable products of my garden is potpourri, the sensual mix of dried flowers, herbs, spices and oils that delights the nose and sometimes the eye as well. But elaborate, time-consuming recipes for making potpourri don't appeal to lazy gardeners like me.

I suspect that most gardeners who want to brew potpourri think as I do. We want to use flowers we have grown (or gathered) ourselves, with only minor additions of purchased materials. We want to be able to locate additives easily. We don't have degrees in chemistry, yet want to end up with a fine scented mixture without going back to school. The good news, fellow lazy gardeners, is that simple dry potpourri is easy to make.

Start first with flowers and scented leaves. Let your nose be your guide. Most scented flower petals and herbs do well in potpourri. Start with a simple single-scent potpourri, using a preponderance of petals of one scent, such as rose or lavender. Later you can expand to other, more complex mixtures.

For a rose potpourri, select the highly scented types like the hybrid teas 'Tiffany' and 'Mr. Lincoln,' or floribundas 'Saratoga,' 'Iceberg' and 'Betty Prior.' Even some of the miniatures, like 'Jenifer' or 'Sachet,' are fragrant. Many old-fashioned and species roses are heavily perfumed, including some rugosas and the memorial rose (Rosa wichuraiana). When you select roses for your garden, whatever the type, look on the plant labels or in guidebooks to find the ones that are listed as "fragrant" to "highly fragrant."

If you don't like rose fragrance, grow lots of lavender, and base your mixture on it. Lavender plants provide bloom and leaf for potpourri. Any of the Lavandula species or the cultivars 'Hidcote' or 'Munstead' work well.

Other herbs make good additions to potpourris for both color and fragrance: the leaves of lemon thyme, rosemary, lemon verbena and scented geraniums including the rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) and lemon-scenteds like P. x, limoneum and P. crispum. These cold-sensitive geraniums can be grown outdoors as annuals; harvest the leaves several times during the growing season.

Any of the spearmints can be added to your fragrant mixture. Be sparing, as mint can overwhelm other scents. For interest, add a little variegated pineapple mint, which has a subtle fruity odor and ivory-and-green patterned leaves. Try adding lemon thyme, either variegated or green; the flowering heads of creeping thyme; lemon balm (I prefer the golden 'All Gold' or 'Aurea'); or any other herb whose fragrance you like. Trust your nose.

Potpourri mixtures often contain whole dried blossoms, seedpods and leaves -- even those that have little or no fragrance -- for the color or beauty they add. For example, use the mopheads that form after clematis blooms. Try clusters of hydrangea florets (set the whole flower cluster upright in a vase to dry, then snip off small segments), clusters of blue caryopteris blooms, baby's breath or the common pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), picked before fully open. The flowers of hyssop, feverfew, tansy or santolina, cut just when coming into full flower, are in suitable for your mixture. Experiment with other favorite flowers from your garden.

Silvery flowerheads and leaves of Artemisia, such as A. ludoviciana 'Silver Queen,' add visual interest to your mixture, as do spidery dill seed heads (picked when seeds have formed but not turned brown). Add chive blossoms (Allium schoenoprasum, either the common form or the cultivar 'Forescate' with larger, rosier blooms) not for the fragrance but for their beauty. Chive flowers dry well and retain their color. Don't worry; your potpourri won't smell like chives.

Wildflowers gathered from woods or fields (make sure they are not protected or endangered plants) can also enhance the appearance of potpourri. Try adding small sprays of dried goldenrod, picked in the different stages of bloom, or the feathery heads of Queen Anne's lace, pulled apart. Add the dried brown button centers of any black-eyed Susan, wild or cultivated. Small divisions of brick-red sumac seed clusters, burdock seed sprays, dried thistle flowers, white wild yarrow (as well as the cultivated colorful ones), flower heads of grasses and sedges, clover blossoms in pink and white and the dusky purple blooms of Joe-Pye weed all add to the attractiveness of your mixture.

It's important to pick all potpourri materials when dry -- preferably at midmorning on a dry day. Never pick just after a rain, and avoid materials that show signs of rot or decay. If your potpourri is intended to please the eye as well as the nose (to be displayed in an open or see-through container), choose materials in good condition.

As soon as you've gathered materials for drying, strip flower petals, leaves and pods from stems and scatter them on newspapers spread out of direct sunlight in a dry room. Stir them every couple of days to ensure even drying. Drying times will vary depending on temperature and humidity.