How to Make Lavender Potpourri

If you grow lavender in your garden, making your own lavender potpourri is a lovely way to enjoy the harvest long after the flowers have finished blooming.

Lavender potpourri is simple to make, smells wonderful, and looks beautiful sitting in a bowl or tucked into a pretty jar.

You can use lavender from your own garden along with dried flowers, herbs, citrus peel, and a few warm spices to create a natural fragrance for your home.

It’s also one of those simple homemade projects that feels much more special when you grew the lavender yourself.

What You’ll Need

The nice thing about homemade potpourri is that you don’t need an exact recipe. You can adjust the ingredients based on what you have growing or drying.

For a simple lavender potpourri, you’ll need:

• 1 cup dried lavender flowers
• 1 cup dried rose petals or other dried flowers
• ½ cup dried lemon or orange peel
• 2–3 cinnamon sticks, broken into pieces
• 1 tablespoon whole cloves
• ½ cup dried herbs such as rosemary or mint
• 10–15 drops lavender essential oil, optional
• 1 tablespoon orris root powder, optional, as a fixative

You can also add dried eucalyptus leaves, rosebuds, chamomile, lemon balm, or other fragrant herbs.

If you’re using lavender from your garden, How to Press Lavender is another great way to preserve some of your flowers for crafts and decorative projects.

How to Dry Lavender for Potpourri

For the best results, your lavender needs to be completely dry before you make the potpourri.

Harvest lavender on a dry day after the morning dew has evaporated. Tie the stems into small bundles and hang them upside down in a cool, dry place with good air circulation.

Once the flowers are completely dry, gently strip the buds from the stems.

You can also use lavender you’ve already preserved using my guide to Harvesting Lavender for Tea: A Beginner’s Guide.

How to Make Lavender Potpourri

1. Gather Your Dried Ingredients

Place your dried lavender, flower petals, citrus peel, herbs, cinnamon, and cloves into a large bowl.

Don’t worry about making everything perfectly uniform. Part of the charm of homemade potpourri is the variety of colors, textures, and shapes.

2. Add Your Fragrance

If you’d like a stronger fragrance, add several drops of lavender essential oil.

Start with a small amount. You can always add more later.

Drizzle the essential oil over the dried ingredients rather than putting it all in one place.

3. Add a Fixative

A fixative helps the fragrance last longer.

Orris root powder is traditionally used in potpourri for this purpose. Add about a tablespoon and gently toss everything together.

This step is optional, but it can help your potpourri stay fragrant for longer.

4. Mix Everything Together

Gently toss the ingredients with your hands or a wooden spoon.

Be careful not to crush the dried lavender flowers and petals.

At this point, the mixture should already smell wonderful.

5. Let It Rest

Transfer the potpourri to a paper bag, glass jar, or other container with a loose-fitting lid.

Let it sit for several days to a week, gently shaking or stirring it occasionally.

This gives the fragrances time to blend together.

If the scent isn’t quite strong enough, add a few more drops of essential oil and let it rest again.

Lavender Potpourri Combinations to Try

You don’t have to stick with lavender alone. Experimenting with different combinations is part of the fun.

Lavender and Rose

Combine dried lavender with rose petals and a little dried orange peel for a soft, floral potpourri.

Lavender and Lemon

Dried lavender, lemon peel, rosemary, and a little cinnamon make a fresh, herbal combination.

Lavender and Rosemary

Try dried lavender, rosemary, eucalyptus, and a few cinnamon pieces for a more earthy garden fragrance.

Lavender and Mint

Lavender and dried mint make a refreshing combination that’s especially nice for summer.

How to Display Lavender Potpourri

Once your potpourri has finished resting, transfer it to a pretty bowl or decorative container.

Try placing it:

• On an entryway table
• In a bathroom
• On a bedroom dresser
• On a coffee table
• In a guest room
• On a bedside table
• In a decorative basket

You can also fill small fabric sachets with the mixture and tuck them into drawers or closets.

How Long Does Lavender Potpourri Last?

The dried flowers and herbs can last for quite a while, but the fragrance will gradually become weaker.

When your potpourri starts losing its scent, simply add a few more drops of lavender essential oil and gently mix it together.

Keep the potpourri somewhere dry and away from direct sunlight to help preserve both its color and fragrance.

Using Lavender From Your Own Garden

This is one of my favorite things about making potpourri. A handful of lavender that started as a plant in your garden can eventually become something beautiful to use in your home.

If you’re just getting started with lavender, you’ll want to make sure you’re giving it the right growing conditions. See Where to Plant Lavender for tips on choosing the best location.

You may also enjoy The Best Place to Plant Lavender in Your Cottage Garden, especially if you’re planning a cottage-style garden.

And once you have an established lavender patch, there are so many ways to use the harvest.

Try How to Grow Lavender from Cuttings if you’d like to make more plants, or learn When and How to Prune Lavender to keep established plants healthy and productive.

A Simple Way to Bring the Garden Indoors

Lavender potpourri is such an easy homemade project, and you don’t need much to make it.

A few dried lavender flowers, some herbs and flowers from the garden, and a handful of spices can become something beautiful enough to leave sitting out in your home.

It’s also a wonderful way to use up dried flowers that might otherwise be forgotten.

Grow it, dry it, and bring a little bit of the garden indoors. That’s really what simple garden living is all about.

Follow my lavender board on Pinterest.