One Couple’s Sweet Smells of Success

Antiques dealer Sue Ann Elmore found some handwritten potpourri recipes in an old trunk and they inspired a whole new career.

That was 14 years ago, according to an article in the current issue of Victoria, and the idea for Woodbine Herb Co. of Charlottesville, Va., was born.

“I was mesmerized,” she said of finding the potpourri recipes. “It seemed as though I already knew the recipes, as if a long-lost friend had returned.”

Right from the start she knew instinctively which oils and spices worked well with various herbs and flowers.

“All of a sudden the chemistry began to click in my mind,” she said. “It was like being able to start reading music without any formal training.”

Herbs are a family enterprise for Sue Ann and Jim, her husband, who follow true 18th-century methods in making their potpourris.

Whole flowers, untreated herbs and spices are gently layered, then natural fixatives such as orrisroot, frankincense and myrrh are added to absorb the fragrance and hold it for years.

The Elmores grow some of their own ingredients, and import such exotica as myrrh beads, bundles of Batavian cinnamon and hand-woven Indonesian Baleka baskets that double as pomanders.

Although Sue Ann occasionally mashes comfrey leaves into a poultice to salve poison ivy or creates herbal blends for her pantry, it is the mixing of fragrances that gives her the greatest pleasure.

“You need a knowledge of the chemical properties of herbs as well as a good nose to create a successful blend,” she said.

For example, Woodbine bath herbs, a mix of mint and roses, are formulated to be both rejuvenating and relaxing because “bathing is a time to unwind as well as to renew the senses.”

History inspires Sue Ann’s potpourri. Sold under private labels at Monticello and Mount Vernon is a carefully measured blend called “Mr. Hamilton’s Favorite.” It also is Jim Elmore’s favorite and combines rosebuds, lavender, cornflowers and spices.

The Elmores’ potpourri business has outgrown their yard, but they remain devoted gardeners. At home, 60 to 70 different herbs are nurtured along with unusual tomatoes and other vegetables.

Since mint is a favorite, orange mint, spearmint and peppermint, wonderful for teas, and pineapple mint, for fruit salad, grow in the garden and spill over into the yard.

“Mowing mint only helps propagate it,” Sue Ann said. “And when you walk on it, it’s so fragrant.”