Autumn leaves DIY pot pourri

Yesterday, as I was leaving work I found a pile of the most beautiful leaves. I am not sure what trees these come from but they make lovely pot pouri as you can see here.

 Most English trees have leaves that dry to brown or yellow so I can only assume these are not indigenous species.

 Either way if you are looking for cheap (as in free) pot pourri and do not mind collecting a few leaves these type of fallen dried leaves make a lovely display.

 

 I mixed a few dried rose petals In with them which I saved from a bunch of lovely roses bought for me by some ex-colleagues when I left a temporary job in the summer.

  I was particularly moved by the nice people who bought me the roses ( after all I was only a temp!) so I saved a few of the flowers before they were totally gone and dried them on a wooden plate in a conservatory in the sun.

They do not have much fragrance and the leaves have none that I can decipher but all that is needed is a few drops of essential oil and I have this lovely and naturally pretty pot pourri.

  I know it should be highly scented and contain Orris root and such to help retain the scent but half of the effect of pot pourri is actually visual. I am also not that fussed about it being highly scented, but am more interested in the visual effect.  

Anyway as far as I am concerned I love this. I intend to keep a look out for a few conkers (horse chestnuts), acorns and pine cones and add these as I find them. The most surprising thing about these leaves was I only collected a few handfuls and when I got home and put them in a bowl I had far too many, so I also used a vase to hold the rest. Not the most obvious receptacle maybe, but it works, and looks very pretty as an autumn decoration, and will lead us nicely up to Christmas I think.

 As an after thought if you had some silver or gold spray paint or glitter you could also decorate a few leaves to make this more like a bought pot pourri. I do not have any paint right now so am sticking with the natural look.

Thanks for reading

Bracken