Kitty Litter Drying Results

What were the results of my recent attempts at drying flowers for potpourri?

Here is my recent post on my attempts to dry lilacs blooming in my yard using an internet hack I found- cat litter.

Well, guess what happened.  It didn't work.  Here are the lilacs after drying- and they have almost no scent.

I don't know what I did wrong but next year, it will be back to the drawing board, so to speak.

Then there was an experiment with lily of the valley which grows underneath one of my hedges.  My mother in law loved that scent.

Here was the lily of the valley in the cat litter.

And the result.  It dried beautifully, but has almost no scent.

I'm not sure what I can do now.  I'll have to do research.  I am hoping still to be able to use these blooms, and I will find a way.

Yoda said (or will say, in a future we are trying to build now) "Do or do not.  There is no try".

Even when it comes to potpourri.

As they said in the old days, "stay tuned".

If You Won't Do It During a Pandemic

I've read a saying that, in this time when much of the world was on lockdown, and we had to stay (for the most part) at home, we would have time to do whatever we wanted indoors.

Week after week passed.

We forgot what day it was.

Some of us baked.  Some of us read.  Some of us remodeled our apartments or homes, or drank (maybe too much) or rediscovered crafts, or learned to make sourdough bread from scratch.  We learned what Dalgona Coffee was, even if we didn't make it. (I didn't).

We all eventually came to one realization:

If you won't do it in a pandemic, you will never do it.

Yup.  My stack of unread books - still unread.  My bedroom - still messy. (My spouse did work on other parts of the house, while I worked from home).  My mind was still in winter mode, half asleep.

But, after our last snow in May (yes, May), things suddenly warmed up.  After three freeze warnings in a row, frosts were suddenly (we hoped) out of the picture.

It was time to rush and garden.

So, spouse and I went to the nurseries.  As much as we had tried to flatten the curve (especially with his brother having survived a COVID-19 hospitalization) flowers and veggies were calling and these businesses, considered essential in New York State, were open for business.

I remembered when, last year, I wanted to make potpourri, something I did years and years (and years) ago, and decided that potpourri material would be on the shopping list.

This year, masks were required, and we all did a dance of dodging other customers with (most of us) trying to keep social distance.

My finds:  Three scented geraniums - nutmeg, orange and pinewood (the pinewood was a repeat of last year) in this photo.  Scented geraniums are not hardy here and I have not had luck in overwintering them.

In another planter, lemon (citronella) geranium.

I am trying patchouli for the first time.  This is not its ideal clime, and I know it will die with the frost.  But I am willing to try it.

I planted sweet woodruff years ago in the most shady part of my yard.  It's perhaps too shady. It has never thrived.  It hung on, though, and, this year, I decided to do something about it.

My back has gotten pretty cranky in the last couple of weeks, and massage is not available in New York due to the pandemic.  So the harvest was a bit painful - this grows low - fortunately I had a gardening bench to help me.  

I blogged last week about my experiment in drying lilacs in cat litter.  So yesterday, I decided to dry some sweet woodruff.  It's now at the end of its blooming season so it was time to harvest.  I looked up microwave instructions and it said "place on paper towel, cover with another paper towel, then dry at 100% for 30 seconds, then in 15 second increments until fully dry.

Here the sweet woodruff is before I started to dry.  Green, it doesn't have a fragrance but once dried, it has a vanilla like scent.

It took, perhaps, two minutes, and I had to do it in several batches even for the small amount I harvested.  This is what it looked like by the time it was dry.  I put it in a small container and am keeping it for when my lilacs are dry. (I hope to report on that tomorrow).

There's more to potpourri than lilacs and sweet woodruff, though, and I have to work through that.

Gardening has become so popular, though, that our biggest area nursery is closing tomorrow, a month early.  They ran out of plants.

So...what have you done these past few months?  Do you have "When I Get Around to It" items you know now that you will never get around to?

Adventures in Kitty Litter and Potpourri

Last year, I wrote this post on potpourri and rediscovering oneself.

What happened to my 2019 dreams?  Nothing.  Did I "return to my roots" and take up the hobby of potpourri making again?  Nope.  Time got away from me.  Part of it was a busy job that suddenly went into overdrive.  But that overdrive part is over now.

Fast forward a year, to a continuing pandemic, a semi-retirement (more on that one of these days) and a time when it seems everyone has discovered or rediscovered crafts and gardening.

The lilacs are blooming where I live in upstate New York.  I have three varieties on my property,  First, there is an old bush (deep purple) planted by my late neighbor who knows how many years ago along our boundary line. Another (lighter purple)  was planted by us years ago next to his.  Finally, there is a heavenly fragrant white one our other neighbor has on his boundary line. Over the years some of the bush lies on our side so we can cut from our side.

The lilacs were calling to me - Pick me! Use me! (I'll have pictures of the lilacs tomorrow).

Years ago, when I first moved here, I tried to dry lilac flowers, but found that air drying resulted in browned flowers.   This was before the Internet so I didn't have a ready research source.  Now, the Internet (and You Tube) were going to be my friend.

My research in drying flowers brought me to silica gel.  Using silica gel would preserve the color, and the drying would only take a week.  Only one problem - the pandemic.  Many stores here, except if they sell essentials such as food or gardening items, had been closed since mid March.

But as of May 15, the stores selling non essentials could be open, but only for curbside pickup.

We've not had the best of luck with non essential curbside pickup.  We realize stores are working with limited staffing and perhaps limited stock, too.  We never know what a person serving us has been through.  This is not a time for complaints. Having said that, I decided not to order from a chain crafts store (we have two of them in our community).

Substitution time.

The internet told me that I could use kitty litter.  So yesterday, I went to the supermarket.  There was a store brand of cat litter that was made from unscented silica gel, and nothing more.

It is not the fine silica gel sold in crafts stores.  "Gel" might not be the best description of this; it's more like ground rock with little blue beads in it.  (I know I'll get some comments on my description but please keep in mind this is my first experience with either silica gel or silica gel cat litter.)  So I took a plastic container and poured in a layer of the silica gel.

I took the flower cluster and snipped off the flowers.  I laid the flowers on top of the gel, then poured the gel (carefully, so it wouldn't crush the flowers) around the perimeter of the container using a small cup, then gently laid the gel on top of the flowers.

In a week, I'll see the results.

While I am at it, thank you, supermarket employees, delivery people and others, who made this project possible for me.
Have you ever made potpourri?