Making Rose Potpourri

from Garden Flowers and Herbs

I may earn commissions for purchases made through any Amazon links in this post. See disclosure here.

A Creative Way to Use Fragrant Herbs and Flowers from the Garden!

Since Valentine’s Day is almost here, I’ve got roses on my mind—but they’re certainly not blooming in my garden now! There are, however, other ways to enjoy my garden’s roses even in the wintertime.  Making rose potpourri is one of them.

There are several ways to use potpourri. To scent a room, you can put potpourri in a pretty container that’s open or has holes in it. I like to put it in sachets which I can slip into my dresser drawers. Rose potpourri sachets are also beautiful and much appreciated favors or hostess gifts. When I hosted a table for a women’s luncheon held at my church a couple years ago—set with vintage pink floral china and rose-fold napkins—I gave rose potpourri sachets to the guests at my table. I made the potpourri from dried rose petals and rose thyme from my garden.

Drying Herbs and Flowers

Before you can make potpourri in the wintertime, you’ll need to harvest and dry fragrant flowers and herbs from the garden during the growing season. But if you’re in a hurry or can’t get enough rose petals from your garden, you could, of course, buy them.

Because roses are edible—if grown organically like mine are—I try to make a habit of preserving petals from my Pink Knock Out® roses every summer. Sometimes I will crystalize them to use for decorating cakes and such. But drying them is easier, so I do that more often. After washing them, I air-dry the petals on paper towels spread over a baker’s cooling rack. I could use my dehydrator to dry them faster, but it’s not necessary since this air-dry method works well. The petals’ color deepens when I dry them. When the petals are completely dried, I stored them in a vacuum sealed jar. Dried rose petals can be used for baking as well as for crafts like potpourri. By February, my dried roses petals have lost much of their color, as well as some fragrance, so I would not use them for baking at this point.

It’s nice to have some rose scented leaves in the potpourri as well, but you may make it with all rose petals of that’s all that is available to you. I highly recommend rose-scented geranium leaves. My rose geranium, however, is not in the best condition at the moment. I need to take some cuttings from it and start new ones. Fortunately, I have a healthy patch of rose thyme in my herb bed which I could use instead. I didn’t have any dried rose thyme in storage, so I went out on one of our warmer 40-degree days in early February and harvested a bunch. Then I washed and air-dried it by laying it out on a screen or baker’s cooling rack.

Other supplies

Keep in mind that you’re not limited to rose potpourri. You could use lavender or any other blooms from your garden. You could even mix different scents! But choose scents that you can enhance with essential oils and get the oil you wish to use. I used rose oil.

You should also buy or make the sachet bags or whatever containers you plan to use for the potpourri.

How to Make Potpourri

First, gather all of the supplies noted above: fragrant dried flower petals and/or herbs, essential oil with the same scent, and sachet bags or other containers for the finished potpourri. You will also need an airtight container—I use a zip-seal plastic bag—for mixing the potpourri and a scoop or spoon for filling the sachets.

Second, mix the potpourri ingredients. If there are woody stems in your dried herbs, remove the stems first. I used scissors to snip clusters of thyme leaves off their stems. At this point, the rose thyme began to release more of its scent, which is just like roses. Once the herbs are prepared, mix the dried petals and leaves together. Place them in an airtight container and add a few drops of essential oil. Seal the container, shake it up, and then let it sit for at least 24 hours.

Third, scoop the potpourri into the sachet bags and close them. If you like, you may decorate your potpourri bags or containers. When I made these as favors for the tea party luncheon, I printed tags and tied them onto the sachets with pink ribbon. Then, until I was ready to pass out these gifts, I stored them in the same zip-seal plastic bag that the potpourri had been in. This kept the scent from dissipating.

Here’s a video that shows how I make rose potpourri sachets. (Click this link to watch it on YouTube if you prefer.)

For more ideas on how to use roses when you’re cooking and entertaining, read my post about throwing a rose tea party: Everything’s Coming Up Roses.