Extend the life of your fading blooms by turning them into potpourri. Potpourri is easy to make and can be customized to include your favorite aromas. The fragrance can last for weeks, and can be refreshed with a spritz of essential oils, or the potpourri can be boiled to release its full aroma for a special occasion.

When choosing your blooms and foliage, select ingredients that have interesting or complementary foliage, colors, and scents. We’ve chosen sweet annie, zinnias, carnations,marigolds, cloves, oranges, and lemons.

What you’ll need:

• Sheet pan
• Parchment paper
• Scissors
• Spray bottle
• Small bottle essential oil, (We used lavender).
• Flowers, citrus fruit, cloves

You can use fresh or faded blooms to create your potpourri. For fresh blooms:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
2. Cover a sheet tray with parchment paper.
3. Trim flowers to flower head, or foliage into small pieces and place in single layer on parchment paper.
4. Slice citrus fruit in thin layers and place in single layer on sheet.
5. Add 1 teaspoon of essential oil with 1 tablespoon of water in spray bottle.
6. Spritz potpourri ingredients and coat thoroughly. Do not leave standing water in tray.
7. Dry on center oven rack for at least 2 hours, leaving oven cracked open to allow moisture to escape. Flowers should be brittle but not burnt.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
9. Spritz lightly with essential oil/water mixture and allow to dry.
10. Gently mix potpourri and set out in bowl or place in a closed container for later use.
11. Spritz with oil/water mixture to refresh.

If you choose to use faded blooms, allow them to fade thoroughly, and then remove from plant and place in a single layer on a sheet pan with parchment paper and skip to step 9.