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| ROSE PETALS GIVE LONG-LASTING PLEASURE | |
| Published: July 05, 1997 | |
Beauty and fragrance preserved in potpourriQ:I would like to learn to make rose potpourri. Do you have information on this?A:Margie Manual, one of Lafayettes consulting rosarians, dries rose petals and blends them into potpourri for her own use and for gifts. She enjoys creating new blends by combining petals from various roses with different spices and essential oils. For beginners, she suggests the following basic recipe which calls for three cups dried rose petals, one cup dried small rose buds, and one-half cup dried rose leaves.Margie gently mixes these together in a large container. She combines separately six tablespoons crushed orris root, three broken cinnamon sticks, one tablespoon whole allspice, three tablespoons dried lemon verbena leaves, and six tablespoons dried rose geranium leaves. She adds these spices to the petals and sprinkles 12 drops essential rose oil and eight drops essential jasmine oil over the top. She places the mixture in a tightly sealed container, shakes it thoroughly and places it in a cool, dry place away from strong light. She continues to shake it daily for a month, after which it is ready for use. Potpourri ingredients are usually available through catalogs, at crafts stores or where herbs are sold. Margie cautions that the orris root, cinnamon, and allspice should not be in powdered form as this gives an unattractive color. The orris root serves as a fixative to hold the fragrance. Looking for affordable pest controlQ:I retired several years ago and set up a small truck farm operation on about 20 acres of land. It has gone well, although there isnt any cash coming in yet and Im looking for ways to economize. My question is: can I mix Sevin powder with water to make an insecticide that I can spray ? Liquid Sevin is very expensive and Im wondering if the much cheaper powder can be mixed instead.A:Denyse Cummins with the Lafayette Parish Cooperative Extension Service says that what you need is wettable Sevin, which is 50 percent cheaper than the liquid form. She cautions against mixing the powdered form with water as it will not go into suspension sufficiently to give even coverage to the plants, and will cause big time clogging problems with your sprayer.Wettable Sevin is available locally at farm and garden supply stores. Memories of growing up with passion flowerFrom reader Anne Comeaux:I enjoyed the recent column regarding the passion flower. You mentioned that the fruit contains seeds which are considered edible by some. When I was a kid, we waited until the fruit was yellow ripe, opened it and sucked the food material around the seeds. When ripe it was sweet. We spit out the seeds. If we just couldnt wait and tried a green one, the acidity twisted up ones mouth. You reminded me of those days. The plants grew wild around our family property. Thought youd like to hear from someone whod been there. |