PERFUMING THE HOUSE USING HERBS

Sweet-scented and colourful pot-pourris, sachets, cushions, lavender bags and pomanders make delightful Christmas and birthday gifts.

Potpourri s a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant material, used to provide a gentle natural scent in houses. It is usually placed in a decorative wooden bowl, or tied in small sachet made from sheer fabric.

Potpourri is used inside the home to give the air a pleasant smell. The word “potpourri” comes into English from the French word “pot-pourri.” The French term has two connotations. It is the French name for a Spanish stew with a wide variety of ingredients called “olla podrida,” specialty of the town of Burgos. The word was taken and copied by the French military during the Napoleonic occupation of Burgos (1808-1813).” Literally, however, the word “pot” in French has the same meaning as it does in Spanish and English, while the word “pourri” means rotten. In English, “potpourri” is often used to refer to any collection of miscellaneous or diverse items.

In early 17th Century France fresh herbs and flowers were gathered—starting in spring and continuing throughout the summer. The herbs were left for a day or two to become limp, then layered with coarse sea salt. The aging mixture was stirred occasionally as layers were added to it. Often the mixture would ferment or even mould as the summer went by. In fall, spices would be added to the unsightly grey mix until a pleasant fragrance was achieved, then scent preserving fixatives (see below) were added. The finished potpourri was set out in special pots with perforated lids to perfume rooms. Modern homes avoid having pots of mouldy substances laying about, and potpourri is usually purchased in stores.

There are no hard and fast rules to follow when making pot-pourris but a few basic points should be remembered. The petals, herbs and leaves must be carefully dried to preserve their colour and scent so that they will remain fragrant for a long time. To add bulk and extra colour to your pot—pourri dry brightly coloured flowers and buds, even those without much scent of their own. Include larkspur, marigolds, anchusa, grape hyacinth and the curry plant, which does not retain its rather strong smell when dried.

Pot-pourri mixtures can be made dry or moist. The latter, generally made moist with brandy or orange peel, is best kept in china jars with perforated lids. Stored in this way the mixture will stay fragrant for many years.

Dry pot-pourris are placed in open glass or china bowls around the house with a lid put on only when no one is in the room. Colour is important in dry mixtures to make them look as attractive as possible.

The bulk of most pot-pourris is made up of strong-smelling rose petals from the sweet—scented wild dog rose as well as the sweetbriar or eglantine rose. Gather these when dry and spread out on sheets of paper in a shaded but airy room. Other flowers and herbs especially good in pot-pourris are: sage, costmary, bay, lemon balm, eau-de—cologne mint, peppermint, bergamot, myrtle, rosemary and lemon verbena leaves. As well as rose petals add flowers of violets, summer flowering jasmine, lily of the valley, lavender, red bergamot, chamomile, philadelphus (mock orange) and the sweet-smelling pinks. Once the fragrant flowers and leaves have been collected and dried, mix them all up in a bowl and add a fixative.

A fixative of some kind must be added to pot-pourris to blend all the fragrances together and to retard the evaporation of essential oils which provide the scents. The fixatives most often used are: common salt for use in moist pot-pourris; orris root which comes from the rhizomes of Iris florentinu, and gum benzoin, from a tree native to the Far East. Both the last 2 have a fragrant scent of their own which enhances the pot-pourris. Crushed or ground spices are also added to the mixtures. For these choose from coriander, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and mace, anise and tonka beans or vanilla pods (beans). Use 1 tablespoon of fixative to about 1.2 litres/2 pints/5 cups of petals whether you are making a moist or dry pot—pourri.

Although oils may be added to strengthen the scents they should be used with care, for too many different ones will be overpowering. Try rosemary, geranium, lavender, rose, peppermint or bergamot oil.

A SIMPLE MOIST POT-POURRI

Use a large earthenware crock and put in a 10 cm/4 in deep layer of rose petals. Immediately over this put a thin layer of common salt. Continue to add alternate layers of petals and salt until the jar is filled. Cover and leave for about 10 days, or until the mixture has settled, in a dark but airy place.

Break up the rose and salt mixture with a wooden spoon and add dried orange peel, crushed clove and orris root. Blend all together and leave, covered and sealed, for 5 or 6 weeks. Shake frequently to keep it well mixed. Add a few drops of essential oil if required and reseal for another 2 weeks.
The pot-pourri is then ready to put into small pottery jars.

LEMON POT-POURRI

To make a dry fragrant pot-pourri use 4 parts of dried rose petals to 1 part each of lemon verbena, lemon thyme and lavender flowers. Mix with the finely grated rind of an orange and a lemon. Leave for two days then add the fixatives – orris root and gum benzoin – and the spices — finely ground allspice and cloves. Use in the proportion of 15 g/§ oz of each spice and fixative to 9 litres/2 gallons/20 pints of petals, flowers, herbs and leaves. Stir the pot-pourri every day for a week, then put out into open glass or china bowls.

Naturally scented herbs and spice plants used in traditional potpourri include:

allspice,
cedar wood shavings (toxic, a moth repellent),
cinnamon bark and cassia bark (smells like cinnamon only less potent)
cloves,
cypress wood shavings (toxic, a moth repellent),
fennel seed,
incense-cedar wood shavings
jasmine flowers and oil,
jujube flowers and blooms,
juniper wood shavings (toxic, a moth repellent),
lavender leaves and flowers,
lemon balm leaves and flowers,
lemon peel,
marjoram leaves and flowers,
Mignonette leaves and flowers,
mint leaves and flowers,
mugwort (toxic, adds a musky note, a moth repellent)
orange peel,
pinyon pine shavings and cones (seeds edible, bark toxic),
rose flowers, hips, or oil,
rosemary leaves and flowers,

Much modern potpourri consists of any decoratively shaped dried herbs or other plant material (not necessarily from scented plants) with strong synthetic perfumes (and also often strongly coloured dyes) added, with the scent often bearing no relation to the plant material used. Sometimes, items which do not originate from plants are mixed in with the potpourri, to give it bulk and to make it more aesthetically pleasing. It is possible to spray scents onto potpourri, however a fixative is needed so that the scent is absorbed for slow release. Generally, orris root is used for this purpose.

The number of plant species used in potpourri is large. Researchers have identified 300 species from 95 families, including herbs, fungi and lichens. A few toxic ingredients have been found, such as fruits from Strychnos nux-vomica, the strychnine tree.

Bill & Sheila’s A-Z of herbs
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