In the Cottage Greenhouse…Setting Up a Flower Apothecary

During this time of the year, “all is calm, all is quiet” on the lake and it’s a lovely time of year for playing in the cottage greenhouse. Not only did my plants need watering, but I had come out to the greenhouse to check on the roses and statice I’d left hanging upside down from the greenhouse rafters to dry.  

  I felt a tinge of pride as I looked at the flower bundles I had gathered and hung in September. They had all dried beautifully; the soft petals of the roses had dried, turning a crisp, crinkly texture and the colors of the flowers had faded to muted shades of red, yellow, and purple. As I gathered up some of the loose rose petals and placed them into a copper jar, I thought what a perfect place the cottage greenhouse would be for making potpourri. 

January is the month for dreaming.

~ Jean Hershey

As I looked around the greenhouse, my idea began to grow; my warm, little hovel filled with plants, paintings, antique glassware, forgotten bird nests, flower frogs, and lichen covered bark, would be a delightful place for mixing potpourri…an apothecary of sorts, a charming nook in the cottage greenhouse where my dried flower petals, spices, and scented oils would be displayed in an array of jars.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

Plato

I mused and thought what I would need for my flower apothecary. I already had plenty of jars. I had a collection of old jam and jelly jars that had designs embossed along their rims that were too pretty to throw away…my antique salt and pepper shakers…some Mason jars. All could be filled with dried flowers, petals, rosebuds, and spices. My idea began to grow, as I thought of making sweet, unique, handmade labels for my jars.

I had fun making labels for my jars using a variety of different papers and materials. I used cardstock, pictures I cut from magazines, washi tape, and stickers. I cut out butterflies and hummingbirds and covered some of the lids with pretty paper. Then I used my label maker to print the contents I put into each jar: lavender, coriander seeds, rose buds, rosemary, crushed coriander, and rose petals.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

William Shakespeare

I placed some of my jars in a quirky old sewing drawer I had placed beneath a folk-art painted mirror. Then to measure and scoop, and for cuteness, I placed some wooden and copper spoons among the jars.

 I placed an antique flowerpot tray at the base of my wooden flour box and filled it with pretty things for my flower apothecary. A glass saltshaker filled with dried, scarlet rose petals…a bottle of vanilla essential oil…a sweet bud vase…a glass inkwell…a green depression glass sugar bowl holding dried orchid petals…and a squatty jar filled with tiny rosebuds filled the tray.

The last thing I needed to complete my potpourri workstation were the essential oils. 31 bottles filled with the delightful scents of geranium, rose, thyme, frankincense, myrrh, cedar, lavender, jasmine, and sandalwood…just to name a few!

I still have some of my larger jars that are filled with chamomile and rose hips that I need to make labels for and bring out to the greenhouse, but the place I had imagined in my mind’s eye is finished. A “delightful place for mixing potpourri…an apothecary of sorts, a charming nook in the cottage greenhouse where my dried flower petals, spices, and scented oils would be displayed in an array of jars…tucked into a charming nook in the cottage greenhouse.“

It’s such a cute little nook, perfect for scooping up flower petals and mixing up potpourris. Have you enjoyed reading and seeing how I set up my Cottage Greenhouse Flower Apothecary? In my next post, I’ll share a beautiful homemade potpourri recipe I made.

P.S. I can’t end this post without telling you about the lovely surprise we received yesterday and today, here in East Texas…SNOW! Yesterday morning it began snowing with the tiniest, little flakes falling and swirling. The temperature was only 17 degrees Fahrenheit, so the snow didn’t melt and the flakes, though they were never large, continued falling throughout the day…into the night…and they were even falling this morning!  The way God flocks the earth is so beautiful! I love this word imagery from the Bible.

“He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.” 

Psalms 147:16

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson


From my cottage to yours ~ Trenda

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