This DIY potpourri craft is super easy using flowers from your garden or a fading flower arrangement. It's a great way to extend the enjoyment of your flowers. Perfect for gift giving and pretty home decor.
Have you ever made garden potpourri from flowers that grow in your garden? If you are growing flowers and herbs you might want to try this age-old craft. After all, it's so easy to make and can be adapted to all kinds of preferences and tastes.
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Three Main Parts to Potpourri Making
- Plants for color, plants for scent, and plants for texture.
- The other traditional main ingredient is essential or fragrance oil
- The third ingredient is a fixative. Fixatives are materials that hold the fragrance or essential oil for long periods of time. Here I'm using cellulose fiber which is affordable and readily available. Other options are orris root, calamus root, and oakmoss.
How to Make Dried Flower Potpourri
Gather some flowers, herbs, and seed pods.
Spread them out on an old screen in a warm place to dry out.
Here's what they look like after one week.
In a small bowl add several drops of fragrance or essential oil to the fixative and stir well.
In a large bowl mix together the dried flower heads, petals, scented leaves, and seed pods, discarding the stems. Then add in the fixative and any other materials you have on hand, such as whole spices or other dried materials. In this mixture, I added a few leftover tea rosebuds, small pine cones, and whole cloves.
Gently stir together and place in bags or jars for gifts or simply set it out to enjoy.
Plant Choices for Color
- Bachelor's Button
- Black Eyed Susan
- Calendula
- Coneflower
- Delphinium
- Globe Thistle
- Globe Amaranth
- Ornamental Salvias
- Peony
- Strawflowers
- Yarrow
Plant Choices for Scent
- Beebalm
- Citrus Peels
- Lavender
- Roses
- Lemon Balm
- Lemon Verbena
- Mint
- Rosemary
- Scented Geranium Leaves
Plant Choices for Texture
- Dried Berries
- Pine Cones
- Rose Hips
- Seed pods
Spices for Scent and Texture
- Allspice
- Cinnamon chips
- Cloves
- Coriander Seed
- Star Anise
This homemade garden flower potpourri smells as good as it looks.
More Dried Flower Crafts
DIY Potpourri from the Garden
Equipment
Materials
- Plants
- Fixative
- Essential oil
Instructions
- Gather some flowers, herbs, and seed pods.
- Spread them out on an old screen in a warm place to dry out.
- In a small bowl add several drops of fragrance or essential oil to the fixative and stir well.
- In a large bowl mix together the dried flower heads, petals, scented leaves, and seed pods, discarding the stems.
- Add in the fixative and any other materials you have on hand, such as whole spices or other dried materials.
- Gently stir together and place in bags or jars for gifts, or simply set it out to enjoy.
Heather @ new house new home
Gorgeous! I used to make potpourri with a group of friends every year - we had an arrangement with a local garden to trim their rose garden every week and gather the blooms. We had garbage bags full by the end of the season and gave it away for gifts. This brought back those fond memories. Will give it a try.
Patti
Hi Heather,
You know what they say. Everything old is new again, right? What a great idea regarding trading service for rose petals. They, of course, are one of the best for potpourri.