The humble PotPourri seems to be taking the decoration world by storm these days. Walk into any modern home and you will find at least 1 bowl of flowers in the homes as part of the room décor or part of the bedroom furniture. These beautiful flowers with a shelf higher than any real flower come in 2 choices – the natural flowers or the artificial flowers. It’s common to see these in exquisite, sometimes specially designed decorative flower pots or potpourri bowls as part of any interior designers kit or most well-known celebrity or beautiful homes. Here’s a list of everything you ever wanted to know about Potpourri that can make you the “know-it-all” of Potpourris!
WHAT IS A POTPOURRI?
PotPourri is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant materials like flowers, popularly rose flower, jasmine flower, lavender flower, orange flower, tuberose, purple roses or blue roses even. This dried lavender, dry lemon, dry dried lavender flowers, dried lemongrass, dried peaches, dried rose petals, dried strawberries are used to provide a gentle natural scent, commonly in residential settings. It is often placed in a decorative bowl or customized potpourri bowls and adds a subtle fragrance to the room. As per Wikipedia, 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”, a specialty of the town of Burgos.
The word was taken and copied by the French military during the Napoleonic occupation of Burgos (1808-1813). The word pot in French has the same meaning as it does in Spanish and English, while the word pourri means rotten.
HISTORY
Pot-pourri was used in rooms since ancient times, in a variety of ways,
including just scattering them on floors. In early 17th-century France,
fresh herbs and flowers were gathered–beginning 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 oreven mold 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.
Much modern potpourri consists of any decoratively shaped dried plant
material (not necessarily from scented plants) with strong natural and
synthetic perfumes (and often colored dyes) added, with the scent often
bearing no relation to the plant material used. Sometimes, items that 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
USAGE, STORAGE & LIFESPAN
Dried flowers can last anywhere from two months to 20 years, depending
on the chosen blend. There are many ways to use Potpourri, and many
different purposes. The most popular uses of Potpourri are for:
1. Gentle, natural and subtle positive fragrance in the room.
2. Neutralise bad odour.
3. Add furniture decorative value.
4. It is floral decoration unit that never goes wrong and can complement or add the right dosage of contrast in a room decoration.
5. It makes for a great gifting choice when combined with multiple fragrances, with the right aroma oil fragrance or simply with the right choice of decorative pots or bowls.
6. Hang the potpourri at the entrance of your home in small decorative sachets or in dainty quaint mini-bags adding to the visual surprise.
7. Use in a shower by hanging it on the shower head. Enjoy the exotic smells – though this would mean that you need to replace your potpourri quite – another reason you will feel like royalty!
8. Placing the potpourri over a lampshade will make the perfume multiply with the light warmth of the lamp light.
Storing Potpourri is fairly easy. It is far lower maintenance than having to handle fresh flowers on a regular basis. Potpourri can be stored in specially designed bowls for the whole day. Subsequently, at night, putting an airtight lid on it or putting the potpourri flowers in an airtight jar will increase the life of the fragrance significantly.
Many people have come up with innovative ways of using potpourri in sachet bags, mini bags and putting them inside their cupboards, shoe racks, at the entrance of the home and much more. These dried flowers, fruits and spices can make a mild but heady fragrance for many different purposes.
The thumb rule for increasing the lifespan of these beautiful flower decorations is simple and easy:
1. The first option is to regularly spray the dried flowers with essential oils
2. The second option is to mix the essential oils with a little vodka and spray them every 15-20 days. Adding 4-5 drops of vodka makes the fragrance last a lot longer
3. The third option is to simply tuck all the flowers&fruits – dried ones into an airtight jar at the end of every day.
Even Vastu recommends that storing the right color of these dried flowers, potpourri in the right section of the house can strongly benefit the owners constructively
ADDING A DASH OF SUPER POWER TO YOUR POTPOURRI
If there is a bad odor, your potpourri has to work overtime. Authors Bruce and Jeanne Lubin advice all users of potpourri and other dried flowers to use these simple hacks in the secret to a clean bathroom:
1. Hide a charcoal briquette in your potpourri bowl and it will absorb foul odors. Not only that, but it will also absorb moisture, which will help stop mold and mildew build-up in the bathroom (just make sure to use briquettes that haven’t been soaked in lighter fluid). Then, you can enjoy the beautiful scent of your potpourri even more.
2. Keeping your Potpourri clean is no mean task: Part of keeping your potpourri’s scent going strong is keeping it clean. Here’s an easy trick to clean your potpourri: Pour it into a resealable plastic bag, close the top, and use a fork to poke some small holes into the bag. Shake the bag over a garbage can to catch all the dirt and dust that will fall through the holes. Now your potpourri will be as good as new!
IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT FRAGRANCE FOR YOU
We at HEM Incense with over 3 decades of experience in fragrances strongly believe that a very important step of using any product with fragrance is to identify the right fragrance for your personality type and to avoid potential allergies.
For this purpose, we always recommend doing a trial for 5-10 minutes of a fragrance and checking for the slightest discomfort of any kind before putting any fragrance based product for long term use.
INGREDIENTS
The most authentic Pottpourris are made from natural flowers, natural spices and natural fruits or leaves. These include a whole host of products like:
- Flowers
- Rose Flower
- Blue Rose
- Climbing Plants
- Jasmine Flower
- Blue Flowers
- Green Flowers
- Lavender Flower
- Orange Flowers
- Pot Decoration
- Purple Flowers
- Purple Roses
- Small Flowers
- Tuberose
- Lavender Leaves
- Natural Rose Flower
- Peach Flower
- Perfume Smell
- Plant Sterols
- Dried Lavender Bundles
- Edible Lavender
- Strawberries
- Oranges
- Apples
- Spices
- Essential or Aroma oils
THE POWER OF GREAT FRAGRANCES – SUBTLY
Unlike many room fresheners, Potpourri serves many purposes in one go. Potpourri also enables users to have the complete benefit of aroma or fragrance therapy without any overwhelming fragrance media. The power of this subtly fragrance diffuser – a term loosely associated with potpourri can directly impact your mood, help you feel positive and happy, or focused and calm – depending on your choice of fragrance.
To learn more about the benefits of each type of fragrance and their uses, keep a watch in this section only on hemincense.com [1]! To find out about the choice of PotPourri products – you can click here!
Links:
—— [1] http://hemincense.com