Recycle your Roses

Did you get roses yesterday for Valentine's? I've always loved getting flowers and I have always tried to immortalise them, especially on special occasions. For the last 5 years with my boyfriend, I've been keeping and drying out a rose from each special bouquet I've gotten (anniversaries, valentine's, etc).

I hang the roses upside down to dry for a few days, then place them in this glass vase filled with polished rocks. I really wish looking back that I had added a little tag to each flower with the date and occasion. But C'est La Vie.

Now the vase has gotten a little full and I wanted something new to do with my flowers. So I've started making potpourri out of them! This is great for several reasons, again, I can keep the flowers that mean so much to me (you can also take a fine tipped pen and put the date on one of the petals), and it's also completely functional. They make a beautiful decoration and have a nice scent.

To make potpourri:

1) Pluck petals from roses before they start to wilt and lay them out on a flat surface to dry.
2) Once dry (they will be brittle) place them in a glass jar. For every 1 litre of petals add 1 tablespoon of fixative. Fixatives stop the roses from losing their essential oils. The fixative can be things like dried lavender, orris root, and sandalwood.
3) Then you can add any spices that you feel compliment the scent you are trying to acheive. Things like nutmeg, cinnamon, citrus peel, rosemary. Really anything you want.
4) Finally add some essential oil or perfume. Again anything you feel compliments the scent. Vanilla, more lavender, or even extra rose oil to really bring out their scent. I put several sprays of my own perfume + some vanilla oil and they smell delicious. You can find many of these ingrediants at health food stores or craft stores. I personally had the most luck at Michael's.
5) Cover the glass jar and let the creation mellow for 10 days. Stir or shake the jar every day to ensure that everything is well mixed.

My one bouquet of a dozen roses made enough potpourri to fill about 5 of these bowls. What I also think is great is that you can add special petals to this for years to come. Big anniversaries, special occasions, or even your wedding bouquet. It's a great, fun, functional way to keep the memories of those flowers and occasions alive.