Potpourri - Definition and Overview

Potpourri is properly 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.

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

Most modern potpourri however consists of any decoratively shaped dried plant material (not specifically from scented plants) with strong synthetic perfumes (and also often strongly coloured dyes) added, with the scent bearing no relation to the plant material used.