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Potpourri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about plants. For the music group, see Pot-Pourri (group). For the musical term, see Potpourri (music).
Potpourri is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant material, used to provide a gentle natural scent in houses. It is usually placed in a decorative wooden bowl, or tied in small bags made from sheer fabric.
Naturally scented plants used in traditional potpourri include:
- Cedar wood shavings
- Cypress wood shavings
- Incense-cedar wood shavings
- Juniper wood shavings
- Lavender leaves and flowers
- Mignonette leaves and flowers
- Pinyon pine cones
- Rose flowers, hips, or oil
- Cinnamon bark
- Marjoram
- Jasmine flowers and oil
Much modern potpourri consists of any decoratively shaped dried plant material (not necessarily from scented plants) with strong synthetic perfumes (and also often strongly colored dyes) added, with the scent often bearing no relation to the plant material used. Sometimes, items which 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. Generally, orris root is used for this purpose.
Potpourri is used to give the air a pleasant smell. By mixing oils, leaves, or dried flowers to your taste, you make potpourri. When mixed, you need to enclose the mixture in a bottle or jar, and let it sit for a few weeks. Towards the middle of the weeks, the soon to be potpourri may smell rotten. If you wait a little while longer, it will start to smell better, so don't get discouraged or disappointed.
The word potpourri comes from the French word "pot-pourri," which was the French name for a Spanish stew with a wide variety of ingredients called olla podrida. In English, "potpourri" is often used to refer to any collection of miscellaneous or diverse items.
In ceramics manufacturing, a potpourri vase is a vase specifically designed for holding potpourri. In the traditional designs a potpourri container is provided with a pierced fitted lid, through which the scent may slowly diffuse.
