The uses for dried rose petals will have you intrigued, where you can do practically anything if you put your creativity into it. Let's find out how you can turn ordinary roses, into something quite useful...
Who doesn't love the smell of roses? Their earthy, deep fragrance echoes something you'd smell while standing amidst the trees in a rain forest. Its myriad of colors makes it even more of an attractive flower, blooming in colors of pink, white, yellow, lavender, red, blue and even black. We're constantly sending off roses to loved ones and those we know when an occasion or special event rolls in. But what happens to those roses when they shrivel up and die? No one ever really ponders about what more can be done with a rose, except toss it away at the first signs of its petals browning and drooping. Here we explore newfound ways on what can be done with roses, without having to toss them away when they start to wither.
Ways to Use Rose Petals
These ways on the uses for dried rose petals, will perk your interests and have you starting off on quite an experiment.
❃ Potpourri Bowl of Assorted Rose Petals
To make your very own potpourri mix, all you need are the right ingredients to put this together. First you'll have to gather the following items.
- A fixative (bergamot orange)
- An essential oil (your choice)
- Spices [vanilla bean (1), cinnamon sticks (2 medium-sized ones) and dried lemon peels (2 strands)]
- Two roses (one red, one blue; you can choose any two colors that you'd like or add in more than two roses)
- A medium-sized jar
How to Prepare this
To make the potpourri, the first step is to make sure that your roses are in full bloom, before plucking out the petals of both roses. Spread them out properly (make sure they don't overlap) on a newspaper sheet, and along with this, place 2 curly strands of peeled lemon skin to dry out as well. Drying roses is a simple method, when laid out on a paper in open air. You can keep a window open but make sure there are no strong gusts of wind to topple your petals over. As long as a window is open in the room, your petals should be able to dry faster. Once your petals turn brittle to the touch, carefully place them in the jar, and add to this two teaspoons of essential oil, one teaspoon of the bergamot orange fixative, cinnamon sticks, the two long strands of lemon peels and the vanilla bean.
Carefully tip your jar over to an upside down position briefly, before turning it upright again. Place this in a cool, dry area for about 10 days (every 2nd day just shake the contents of the jar), to allow the petals to saturate the essence of the ingredients within the jar. Place these in a nice bowl on your bedside table or on the center table in the living room or even on the dining table. Imagine waking up to the smell of roses - it is quite calming to the senses and can de-stress you through a couple of whiffs.
❃ Stuffed Cushions
The same dried roses mix can be stuffed into pillows/cushions to give it a refreshing smell, without a musty one seeping in. Whenever guests or family come over, rest assured that your living space will make them feel both comfortable and at home.
❃ Closet Freshener
Place these in little net bags and hang them in a closet space, keeping things in it smelling rosy and clean whenever you step into it. It keeps the closet area smelling great, with no room for a moldy smell to seep in.
❃ Gift Potpourri Pouches
You can make a complete combination of rose petal colors and place them in gift pouches, and hand these over to friends and family to use as potpourri. As you can see, making potpourri is simple, and isn't time-consuming.
❃ Decorative Purposes
Think up decorative purposes for your dried roses like using twine to connect dried rose buds together after shortening the stem. Stream them along the ceiling borders, or let them fall against your curtains or against your bedroom wall above the bed. It gives a home a more natural feel to it, and also allows a faint smell of flowers to waft through your room.
Use the ideas to bring to your home, the richness of rose petals and the fragrance that follows it. You can always use other color varieties of this flower when putting the ideas together.
