How to Make Potpourri at Home in 7 Easy Steps

Lay out your dried botanicals first so you can see what you're working with. Sally uses three: dried rose petals for the deep pink color and soft floral scent, dried lavender buds for the classic herbal note, and tiny pink heather buds for visual contrast.

Heather buds don't actually carry a scent, so don't expect them to. They're in the mix purely for how they look against the roses and lavender. Set out your lavender essential oil and rose fragrance oil next to the bowl.

Add a heaping spoonful of orris root powder to a small mixing bowl. This is the secret ingredient and the whole reason your potpourri will still smell good in three months instead of three weeks.

Orris root powder is a fixative. Without it, the essential oils evaporate within a week or two and the dried petals on their own carry only a faint scent. With it, the powder absorbs the oils and releases them slowly, keeping the fragrance steady.

Add a full spoonful of lavender essential oil to the orris powder, followed by a full spoonful of rose fragrance oil. Because this potpourri isn't going on skin, you can be generous - the more oil the powder absorbs, the longer your room will smell like a garden.

Let it sit for a few seconds and watch the powder soak the oil up. The orris powder draws the fragrance molecules in and locks them down so they release gradually over weeks.

Tip your dried rose petals into the bowl on top of the scented orris powder. How many you add is up to you - it depends on how much potpourri you want at the end. Sally fills two display bowls so she uses a generous handful.

Give the bowl a gentle stir as you add them. The goal is to start coating each petal with the fragrant powder so it picks up the scent.

Sprinkle in your dried lavender buds next. The bluey-grey of the lavender against the deep pink of the roses is what gives a finished potpourri its garden look. The lavender buds carry their own light herbal scent that layers nicely on top of the rose fragrance.

Don't worry about exact ratios. A roughly even mix of roses and lavender works for most rooms, but you can lean heavier on whichever scent you prefer.

Add the heather buds last for color, then stir the whole mixture so the orris powder and absorbed oils coat every petal and bud evenly. Lift from the bottom and turn the petals over rather than just stirring across the top.

Watch the bowl as you stir. If you see any wet patches on the petals, the orris hasn't fully absorbed the oil yet - spread the mixture out on a piece of greaseproof paper and leave it for an hour or two until it looks dry. If everything looks dry already (it usually does), you're ready to display.

Pour your finished potpourri into an open dish or shallow bowl. An open container lets the fragrance circulate into the room - a closed jar with a lid traps the scent and defeats the point.

Place the bowl somewhere people walk past: an entryway, a bathroom, beside a reading chair. Give it a gentle stir once a week to refresh the surface, and add a few extra drops of essential oil onto the orris powder every couple of months when the scent starts to fade.