Pomander balls—fruits studded with cloves—are natural air fresheners and moth repellents, yet they can be enjoyed simply for their beauty and scent. These fragrant globes of citrus and spice are thoughtful small gifts that can be made by anyone. They cost very little and last a long time.

Start with a perfect piece of fruit—a thick-skinned orange, a Delicious apple, a lemon or lime, even a grapefruit or pear. Discard any fruit that has a bad spot or an uneven shape. Plan a pattern for the cloves—stripes, circles, diamonds—or place them at random over the fruit. Traditionally, the fruit is studded closely all over (and this technique is still best for thin-skinned apples and pears), but open patterns on citrus fruits require less time and material to execute. There must be some space between the cloves since the fruit will shrink. If you use a pattern, first draw it on the fruit with a china marker or felt-tipped pen.

Keep the cloves in an aluminum foil tray, and work over this tray to keep the work surface clean. Use the best cloves you can find; poor cloves often contain many broken or misshapen pieces and they have a weaker scent- buying in bulk from an herb shop is best. If you do find broken cloves, they can be used in a potpourri.

Hold the fruit firmly in one hand but do not squeeze it. Pierce the fruit with a sewing bodkin, nail, poultry skewer, or tiny awl just deep enough to break the skin. Then press a clove all the way into the hole with your fingertip. Do one clove at a time; the work will go surprisingly quickly. Try to finish studding the pomander ball the same day you start it; otherwise, the unstudded part may be hard to work with later.

Many directions for pomander balls suggest rolling the fruit in a spicy mixture after it is studded, but that isn’t necessary if you keep the fruit in a dry place. You may prefer the look of the cloves without powdery spices. If high humidity makes it difficult to dry the pomander ball, roll it very lightly in orrisroot to help it dry.

After studding, let the pomander dry for several weeks until it is hard, brown, and shrunken. A sunny window is a good place or a shelf near the range. Turn the ball occasionally to help it dry evenly. Pomanders may be dried quickly by placing them on a cookie sheet in an oven with a pilot light. Leave the door open, and do not
turn the oven on. You want to dry the fruit, not bake it.

When the pomander ball is dry, you can wrap it in a piece of net, tie it with a ribbon or gilt cord, or heap several sizes of unadorned balls in a bowl or basket. This type of arrangement can substitute for flowers in the winter. Pomander balls can be mixed with fresh fruit, seashells, pomander buds (see the first post in this series), or dried flowers to make a table centerpiece.

Pomander balls can also be hung as decorations on a Christmas tree, in a closet, from a chandelier or mantel, or on a necklace or belt. Hanging is easier if you skewer a hole through the center of the fruit. Do this by pushing a metal knitting needle from one end of the fruit to the other, immediately after it is studded. This works best with citrus fruits without hard cores. Suspend the needle with the pomander ball on it between two objects so the air can circulate freely around it, and let it dry completely. Twist the pomander ball on the needle occasionally to keep it from sticking.

When the pomander ball is dry, pull out the knitting needle, and thread the ball on yarn, ribbon, a silken cord, or a narrow leather thong. Use a small metal crochet hook to reach through the hole in the fruit and grasp a doubled length of the yarn or other cord. The loop caught on the hook is the hanging loop; pull it
through to the desired length. Pull the loop through carefully to avoid catching the yarn or snagging the ribbon on the points of the cloves. Tie a bow in the yarn at the other end of the fruit, being sure the knot is large enough to keep the fruit from slipping down when the pomander is hung.

A few drops of essential oil or perfume extract will revive a fading scent.

This delicious-smelling herb potpourri, meant to be stuffed into a pillow, gives you a superb way to enjoy natural scent on a large scale in your home. Because many of the ingredients are left whole, the stuffing has enough bulk for plump toss pillows for a sofa. Smaller amounts can fill napping pillows for your bed (herbs have a calming, relaxing effect) or sachets for drawers or closets.

Ingredients for one pound of Stuffing Superb

3 ounces sage (cut and sifted)
3 ounces peppermint (whole leaves)
3 ounces hops (whole)
2 ounces lavender
2 ounces eucalyptus leaves (whole)
1 ounce dill seeds
1 ounce tarragon leaves (whole)
1 ounce rosemary

Pillow covers can be anything from denim to lace, decorated with embroidery or ribbon trim. If the cover is openwork, make an inner pillow of terry cloth or muslin to hold the stuffing.

Some interesting covers you can make: two large crocheted granny squares back-to-back with a terry inner pillow of a contrasting color; a patchwork of favorite fabrics; a fingertip towel (one that matches your sheets) folded in half and stitched; a zippered square of velvet (pack it tight for a fragrant pincushion); an old makeup bag (remove any plastic lining) to stuff and tuck in the bottom of your tote bag; a small chintz drawstring bag to hang from a hook in your closet.

A potpourri scent for your home is one of life’s pleasures, so you may want to try different ones to mark the change of the seasons, holidays, birthdays, or anniversaries.

You can make the simplest potpourri by drying, and mixing with spices and oils, whatever flowers you have blooming in your garden or pick up in a bouquet from the flower stand on your way home from work. The most memorable potpouri is the one to which you add petals each time you receive flowers as a gift.

In the summer, make a combination potpourri and dried flower arrangement in a tall glass jar with flowers from the garden and a few ferns for greenery. Leave some flowers on the stems, and arrange them on top of the potpourri. Use whatever flowers are available, including as many as possible that are colorful when dry. Add an essential oil to intensify a single floral or green note.

For Valentine’s Day or an anniversary, fill a heart-shaped dish with a floral potpourri completely covered with pink-and-white straw flowers. These flowers have no scent of their own but they are very porous, and a single drop of a floral perfume oil is all that is needed to give them a distinctive scent.

For the harvest season, mix orange-peel pomander buds, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, pieces of vanilla bean, and bits of air fern with your favorite spicey potpourri in a straw basket. This potpourri is pretty in the kitchen.

For the merriest holiday season of all, pile pinecones, pine branches, and whole cranberries or raspberry candies in a green basket and set it on a table or mantel covered with silver foil. The pinecones are very porous and can be scented with drops of frankincense and myrrh perfume oils. For a touch of white, add popcorn.

There are two types of potpourri, moist and dry, but the dry version is more popular because it takes less time and effort to make. Dried flower blossoms, herbs, and spices chosen for their scent and muted colors are the dominant ingredients; seeds, woods, mosses, roots, resins, and the essential oils extracted from these are added for balance. There is such a vast array of these that you can make a potpourri as individual as you are!

A few recipes are given below; choose ingredients that appeal to you and feel free to cut the amounts in half or double them as your taste and budget allow. If you are lucky enough to have an herb shop nearby where you can purchase your ingredients, you will find them much less expensive. There are also many fine online sources for ordering all that you need to make potpourri. A small container is filled with two or three ounces of potpourri, and a sachet can be made with an ounce or less. Four ounces is usually the minimum amount you can buy of any ingredient; share with a friend or make several potpourris as gifts.

Because the flowers and amounts are never exactly the same, no two potpourris are ever exactly alike. As it ages, a potpourri will change scent, becoming more subtle with time, and you may like it even better six months after you make it.

The container for your potpourri can be the traditional clear apothecary jar with a glass stopper, or it can be as contemporary as a bright plastic cube. However, avoid plastic if your potpourri contains liquid perfume oils that will discolor or cloud it. If a potpourri includes ingredients chosen for their color or shape, a transparent container is important; otherwise, the container can be anything you like.

An old-fashioned way to use a potpourri is to pack it in a covered jar that you open for only half an hour or so each day to release the scent. If you like the idea of a clean, fresh scent surrounding you all the time, put the potpourri in an uncovered dish or basket. (If you use an openwork basket, line the bottom and sides with aluminum foil to keep ingredients from sifting through.) The scent fades more quickly when the potpourri is uncovered, but you can refresh it with a few drops of essential oil or brandy. An open mixture will probably last a season while a covered one may last for several years. Crushing some of the larger petals or leaves also releases new fragrance from an exhausted potpourri.

The making of the potpourri has been simplified, too. Time-honored recipes called for careful picking, sorting, drying in layers, and mixing thousands of rose petals with various spices; it took weeks for the potpourri to cure. But all that prepararation isn’t really necessary. Almost all flowers can be used for bulk if not for their shape, texture, color, or scent. Flowers that retain their colors when dried include corn flowers, marigolds, heather, lavender, blue delphiniums, and purple violets. White flowers (with few exceptions) dry to an unattractive tan color. Deep red roses fade to a prettier shade than pastel roses. Only the petals of roses, lavender, and tuberose hold their scent after drying, but a dominant scent in a mixture of dried petals can be created or emphasized by the addition of essential oils, spices, or herbs which also blend and unify the ingredients.

Depending on the amount of bulk you want in your potpourri or sachet, ingredients can be left whole, crushed between your fingertips, or sifted in a flour sifter.

When using flowers from your garden, cut them on a clear day, after the dew has dried. If you pick them solely for potpourri, cut the stems short, tie the flowers together in bunches, and hang them upside down to dry in a cool, dark, dry place. Or spread a single layer of petals on a wire screen or newspaper, and let them dry until they are as crisp as cornflakes.

Flowers picked for bouquets or ones from the florist can be enjoyed as fresh flowers for a day or two; then before they start to wilt, take them out of the water to dry. The sooner you dry them, the better they will retain their original shapes and essential oils. You must decide which is more important at the time—fresh flowers or the makings of a potpourri. Collect the blossoms, leaves, and petals as they fall off the stems, using them whole or crushing them between your fingers. Some flowers will dry intact on the stems; handle them gently and use them in a combination potpourri and dried flower arrangement. Perfect little roses can be nipped in the bud and used to decorate a potpourri too.

Potpourri Recipes

Citrus (8 ounces)

4 ounces assorted citrus peels (lemon,
lime, orange, tangerine)
1 ounce lovageroot
1 ounce bay laurel leaves
1/2 ounce lemongrass
1/2 ounce acacia buds
1/2 ounce staranise
1/2 ounce rosemary

Herbs and Spices (16 ounces)

3 ounces cinnamon (crushed)
3 ounces pepper mint (whole leaves)
2 ounces hops (whole)
2 ounces camomile (whole flowers)
2 ounces mace (whole)
1 ounce tarragon (whole)
1 ounce cloves (whole)
1 ounce sage (cut and sifted)
1 ounce bay leaves (whole)

Idyllic Herbal (16 ounces)

4 ounces camomile (whole flowers)
4 ounces fennel seed
3 ounces elderflowers (whole)
3 ounces witch hazel (bark)
1 ounce rosemary (cutand sifted)
1 ounce rose hips

Floral (16 ounces)

4 ounces lavender flowers
3 ounces rosebuds
2 ounces angelica
1 ounce sweet woodruff
1 ounce rose geranium leaves
1 ounce lemon verbena
1 ounce mint
1 ounce orrisroot
1 ounce oak moss
1/2 ounce sweet cicely
1/2 ounce thyme

Forest Greenery (16 ounces)

2 ounces sandal wood (or other wood,
chips or powder)
2 ounces assorted mints
2 ounces cedarchips or powder
2 ounces rosewood powder
1 ounce oak moss
1 ounce sage (broken and sifted)
1 ounce eucalyptus leaves (whole)
1 ounce orrisroot
1 ounce camomile flowers
1 ounce lemon verbena
1 ounce musk crystals (synthetic)
1/2 ounce sweet marjoram
1/2 ounce bay laurel leaves

Pastoral (16 ounces)

4 ounces clover blossoms
4ounces heather
4 ounces grasses
4 ounces field flowers

There is something nostalgic about spicy pomander balls and jars of fragrant floral potpourri that make any room instantly cozy and inviting. Perhaps it is the memory of a grandmother who was always surrounded by an aura of lavender, or remembrances of childhood days helping in the kitchen. Whatever your special memory, you can recapture it today—and give your children some very special moments to remember, too.

Potpourri (preferably with a silent “t”) is a mixture of dried flowers, spices, herbs, and essential oils—essences that impart the characteristic fragrance of a plant—used subtly to scent a room. Small amounts of potpourri, crumbled almost to a powder, can be stuffed into plump little fabric bags as sachets to place in lingerie and sweater drawers or linen closets. Potpourri made of bulky ingredients can replace foam as a stuffing for toss pillows on sofas and beds.

Pomander balls are usually fruits studded with cloves used to give a spicy scent. The name pomander comes from the French pomme d’or meaning golden apple. In olden days, before deodorants and daily baths, pomander balls were worn almost as a necessity. They were made of precious metals studded with jewels or of porcelain artfully decorated and ribboned. The balls themselves were perforated to release the scent inside, which came from exotic and expensive spices pounded to a pulp. The pulp was drenched with aromatic oils and rolled in wine and honey. Such lavish pomanders were worn mostly by royalty and the upper classes. Peasant people made natural pomander balls of fruits studded with cloves and dried in the sun.

Pomander buds

Consider the humble orange peel, so often discarded. With a twist of the wrist, you can turn it into a pomander bud to decorate and perfume your surroundings.

The next time you pick up an orange for eating or cooking, try this: thinly cut the peel off the orange in a continuous spiral, starting with a flat cut across the top of the fruit.

Continue cutting the peel, keeping it fairly uniform in width, and leaving as much of the nutritious white pulp on the fruit as possible.

If the spiral breaks, use the longest section for a small pomander bud, and save the rest for potpourri; no peel need ever go to waste.

Both navel and juice oranges will work; the thick-skinned navel is easier to cut, but the thin-skinned juice orange will make a more compact bud. Lemons, limes, grapefruit and tangerines can also be peeled for pomander buds. Peel whatever citrus fruit tastes and smells best to you.

Curl the peel around itself in a tight rosette

Tuck the end underneath the bud—sometimes the bud looks better if you turn it upside down after it is formed

Let the completed bud dry for a week or so in a warm, dry place such as a shelf above the range or underneath a desk lamp. Moisture will cause mildew and must be avoided. The peels will shrink and become very hard when dry (the photo below shows a newly curled pomander bud, right, next to three dried buds).

But the dry peels will retain some of their natural scent. Put a bud or two in a drawer, mix them in a potpourri, or pile a collection of buds in a large brandy snifter as pictured at the top of this post. Adding a drop or two of an appropriate citrus-scent essential oil will refresh the scent.