Just curious…if I purchase popourri at the store like most people do, am I getting the natural scents of the ingredients in that bag or do they artifically scent it? I’m sure I can buy natural somewhere, but do they doctor it up for general distribution at your local stores?
I know of no variety of dried rose petals that can be detected by their natural odor from eight paces.
I’m professionally trained to recognize different kinds and parts of plants, even in dried form, and I have noticed that potpourri consists mainly of painted woodshavings and a few pretty looking dried flowers that have no pariticulr scent at all.
When they used to scent a room in olden days, they did so by strewing the *whole floor * with scented reed and hay. A little bowl is not nearly enough.
So yes, commercial potpourri is scented. If you like the look of a bowl of potpourri, by all means refresh the scent with a bit of perfume or scented oil.
Thanks. Uh…what exactly do you do? It sounds interesting.
Field botanic.
I used to chart the places in my province that were of botanical interest. As not all flowers bloom at the same time, I often had to identify a plantspecies by its dried stalks or seedpods from last year.
Cool! Thanks.
This explains why you nailed that bit of that game show so well 
Although…about 10 years ago, when my mom sold the house all of us kids had grown up in, I made rose beads from petals from the New Dawn roses in the backyard as a keepsake. The beads STILL have a detectable rose scent (maybe not at eight paces now, but I could smell them from that distance for a good year or two).
Here’s directions on making them, if anyone is interested:
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_design_decorative/article/0,1785,HGTV_3565_1384204,00.html
I’m glad I made them, because the Philistines who bought the house destroyed the rose bushes and flower beds in the backyard. :mad:
Huh, Rosarys. I’d’ve never guessed. That’s pretty neat! 