Fun Friday: Scented Flower Petal Potions

We’ve been spending a lot of time looking at flowers lately – from our recent outing to South Coast Botanic Garden to a neighborhood walk in search of all things purple.

Then I saw not one, but two posts on flower petal potions this week (Make Potions from ActiveKidsClub.com and Rose Petal Fairy Perfume from The Imagination Tree). I knew the timing was right to try creating our own scented flower petal potions.

We started by choosing three different types of flowers from our yard that we thought might smell nice (and by “we,” I mean The Explorers) – roses, jasmine and bougainvillea.

With bucket in hand, The Explorers picked off several petals from each of the chosen flowers, making sure to check that no bees were busy inside before picking.

Petals were then placed inside jars before adding some water. The next step – the mixing – was the most fun.

I reminded them that the more they mixed and squished, the stronger the scent would be.

We added lids to our jars and set each of our potions aside. Meanwhile, The Little Explorer continued to play on his own, mixing petals, water and rocks with chopsticks. He loved making fairy potions last summer, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

The next day, we removed the petals from the potions, then conducted a sniff test to see which potion smelled best. Jasmine won hands down.

This was a simple, fun way to do more than simply look at flowers. It gave the kids a chance to touch, squish, smell and play with them, too. (And bonus points if you use the potions to water your garden!)

Take-Home Tips

• Savor the picking. How often do we actually pick flowers apart piece by piece? The Little Explorer loved counting his off (he is 3!); The Big Explorer was more curious about how each petal felt.

• Add other natural elements, too. The Little Explorer wanted to know how rocks would affect the mix, while The Big Explorer was curious how the leaves of the flowers might smell.