How to Make Floral Hydrosols From Your own Garden
Learn how to distill essential oils and floral hydrosols from your own garden. Hydrosols are herbal essences and distilled water. Add this skill to your repertoire, you won’t regret it!
Floral hydrosols are a by-product of making essential oils.ย Essential oils are distilled from plant material using essential oils still.ย The essential oils come off the top of floral water or hydrosol.ย This hydrosol contains many of the water-soluble components of the flowers or leaves and can provide therapeutic and aromatic benefits.
What are essential oils?
Essential oils are the concentrated oils found in leaves and flowers that are responsible for their fragrance. They are highly volatile and evaporate into the air easily. They degrade in bright light.ย This is why they are sold in dark glass bottles with tightly capped lids. They are usually used by the drop rather than by the spoonful.
Essential oils are separated from the plant material through steam distillation and carefully handled to assure maximum yields. Steam distillation of flowers and leaves gives two products โ the essential oil plus a floral hydrosol.
Different plants have different yields of essential oil per lb. of plant material and this is reflected in the price of the essential oil. Rose essential oil or attar of roses is one of the most expensive essential oils with ยผ oz of the oil โ a mere 5 ml valued at over $100. And Rose hydrosol valued at $10 per 8oz.ย ย Obviously, it takes a great many rose petals to make that ยผ oz of essential oil โ 45 lbs of roses or about 15,000 roses to be exact. Rose hydrosol is also called โrose water.” It is used in cosmetics, and Turkish baking, lending a delicious rose flavour to confections like โTurkish delight.โ (See my rose marshmallow recipe and my rose pizzelle recipe to get an idea of how to use Rose Hydrosol in the kitchen.)
Less expensive essential oils, like peppermint essential oil, need less plant material to distill for essential oil โ 5 lbs of peppermint leaves will yield 1 oz of peppermint essential oil. The rest of the distillation is peppermint hydrosol, useful as an air freshener, insect repellent, and in an aromatherapy diffuser.
You can distill essential oils at home from your own garden plants โ but be warned that the yield of essential oil is quite small compared to the yield of floral hydrosol.ย With some plants, like roses, you need such a large volume of plant material for a very small amount of essential oil that special equipment is necessary to handle the volume.ย Don’t be shy to try this anyway, because the floral hydrosol is exquisite on its own, and your house will smell amazing.
So why would you want to distill your own essential oils?
- Because it makes a fun science experiment for homeschoolers.
- Because the house will smell amazing as the essential oil is distilled โ some of that oil ends up in the room.
- Because it turns some of that prolific peppermint into a product that will have a longer shelf life than just leaves for tea.
- Because you want a few bottles of hydrosol for air freshener.
- Because itโs a cool self-reliance thing to learn how to do it.
- Because you donโt want pesticides in your essential oils.
- Because getting good quality essential oils where you live is difficult so you must make your own
- Because you can.
Which plants are good candidates for home essential oil distillation?
Easy yielders:
- Peppermint
- Oregano
- Eucalyptus
- Rosemary
- Fir or pine
- Lavender
Expensive so worth the effort for the small amount that you get:
- Rose
- Chamomile
- Lemon Balm
- Yarrow
- Jasmine
How to distill essential oils and floral hydrosols from your own garden
For a large amount of essential oil, you’ll need a fully equipped copper essential oil still or alembic distiller.ย The directions given here will let you create a floral hydrosol with a small number of essential oils in it.ย You will use improvised equipment from your kitchen, so no specialized equipment is necessary.
Youโll need:
- A large pot with a domed lid
- A brick
- A 1 cup glass measuring cup
- Ice cubes or block ice
- Source of heat
- 3+ litres/quarts of freshly picked leaves or flowers
- Water
- Pipette to lift the essential oil from the top of the hydrosol
- A mason jar with a tight lid to hold your floral hydrosol/essential oil
ย 
Step by step instructions
- Put the brick in the center of the pot.
- Put the leaves or flowers in a pot, up to the side of the brick, and cover with water.
- Put a measuring cup on top of the brick, inside the pot.
- Place the lid on the pot upside down, so that the handle nub in the center is pointing toward the measuring cup.
- Bring the water to a rolling boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer.
- Simmer the water to steam the leaves or flowers. The water will condense and evaporate, and the condensation will slide toward the handle and into the measuring cup.
- Put about 12 ice cubes on top of the upside-down pot lid to hasten the steam condensation.
- After 20 minutes, remove the cup of liquid and empty it into a glass 8 cup measure. Return the empty measuring cup to the โstillโ and continue the process.
- Add more plant material, as the original plant material loses its colour and bulk.
- Repeat the process until you have about 6 cups of liquid, emptying the contents of the measuring cup every 20 minutes or so.
- Turn off the heat.
- Using a fork, stir up the contents of the 6 cups of distilled liquid. Allow contents to settle. If you had enough plant material, you will have a thin amount of oil on top of the distilled hydrosol. which will be on the bottom.
- Use a pipette to remove the essential oil and place it in a coloured glass bottle with a reducer-dropper cap. The remaining liquid is fragrant hydrosol which can be used in the same way that you use essential oils diluted in a carrier.
For the best chance at success to make your own floral hydrosols
- If you don’t have much plant material, you may only get hydrosol and not any noticeable essential oil.
- Set up your still before you pick your plant material and get it working right away.ย If you pick one day and try this experiment the next, you will lose valuable oils from the plants.ย Essential oils evaporate in the air.
- Pick your plant material after the morning dew has evaporated off the plants but before it gets hot.
- With roses pick the petals while the dew is still on them, in the early morning, and steam immediately.
How to use floral hydrosols
Hydrosols are herbal essences and distilled water. They will keep indefinitely if stored in sterilized bottles and protected from light and heat. You can use them as air fresheners, skin fresheners, hair rinses, cooking, cosmetics, and homemade cleaning products.ย You can use floral hydrosol directly in your electric ultrasonic essential oil diffuser, without adding any additional essential oil or water.
Don’t have enough plant material this year?
I buy my organic steam distilled essential oils and hydrosols from two places:
Plant Therapy Essential oils and Rocky Mountain Oils
Hi. I know this is quite an old post but hope you can still help. If I wanted to use roses do the blooms have to be in full bloom? Or can I use slightly older ones that are on their way out? Any ideas when they are at their most potent? Just thinking about our local rose garden. They chop the blooms as soon as they start to wilt a bit. Cheers
Of course fresh blooms are best but if you have access to older blooms provided they have some fragrance left they will just have a lower yield. However, do be cautious if the local rose garden sprays their roses. You only want to use organically grown roses for this project.
I’m interested in investing in blue chamomile and making it myself to sell. What will I need for equipment, how many lbs of flowers to produce how much, as well as if there’s a way to make money making it. Thanks so much for any comments : ) I have money to put toward it and am obsessed with Blue Chamomile.
Hello, I have been a diyselfer for years, making my own bath products and soaps. I love essential oils, and hydrosols. A few weeks ago I decided to make a hydrosol with the last fresh cuttings of the season of my rosemary bushes and lemon thyme. The combination produced a marvelous scent and the hydrosol came out beautifully! I have also made a hydrosol from mmy dried chamomile (a mix of roman and german), it came out fabulous! My basil was the first herb I harvested this year. I grew cinnamon, opal, and sweet basil this year. The cinnamon basil produced the most beautiful scented flowers, and I had many. I dried half aand froze the other half. Unfortunately the dried batch had mold. I want to make a hydrosol with the frozen basil flowers. Has anyone tried making a hydrosol with frozen flowers or herbs? Any advice or information on making a hydrosol with frozen plants is welcome……thanks!
I wish had found your blog earlier! Last night I planned to do an extract, not knowing about hydrosol making. I followed someone else’s instructions which were similar to yours. However, there was nothing about changing out the plant material or pouring off the hydrosol periodically. I did neither. It was late when I turned off the stove and left the pot to finish. This morning, my rosemary hydrosol smelled a bit foul, like a soured laundry smell. I plan to try again with your advice, but am wondering which of my 3 mistakes ruined that lovely fragrance. Any ideas?
No, but I’d be interested in hearing about it when you figure it out. Mistakes are only good when we can learn from them.
I have learned that the Hydrosol can have a funny burned smell but if you let it sit out uncovered for a day or two that smell will naturally go away. Apparently that smell in steam distillation is normal (if that is what you are smelling).
@JOYBILEE FARM
Can you comment on this? I’m working on distilling mint and have found this odd smell as well. Also, @tiffany koper-christian can you point me to an online source that talks about this? I’d like to learn more. Thank you!
Thanks for useful information.. we are on the phase of distillation of lavender, but need to try more on separation hydro and oil….THANKS.
I spent the day making hydrosol. I was amazed to see the pure clear goodness in my cup and I did get the 6 cups promised. I used a variety of flowers to get my 3 liters: calendula, cornflower, feverfew, rosemary and lavender. Smells wonderful. Didn’t see much essential oil but that is okay with me. I am saving the extract to use in my lotions too. What is the ratio of extract to water for my recipes? Does it need to be refrigerated or preserved? Thanks for the great instructions.
I would refrigerate it or add some germisol to keep the oils from going rancid with the added water (Hydrosol). If you are making it for sale there may be other guidelines that your government regulator has. But for personal use I’d make in small batches and keep in the fridge, personally. I don’t ususally add chemical germicides myself.
I want to sell my hydrosols. What preservative do you use and what %? Thanks! Katy
I don’t use any preservatives. I use all my hydrosols myself. I don’t sell them.
Can i continually add leaves while boiling and collecting hydrosol? thanks
It’s better to do just one batch at a time. Then you just get hydrosol instead of secondary products. Remove the spent plant material and add fresh.
I just want to double check… The liquid that ends up in the measuring cup (after falling from the upside-down lid), that’s also hydrosol right? As well as the liquid left over in the pot? I found another tutorial to make hydrosol, but the author didn’t give as much information as you did. I used yellow roses (from the florist, not my own backyard), and I ended up with more than half of a mason jar full of clear(er) water that came from the pot lid, and then more than a full mason jar of yellow water that was left over in the pot after boiling the rose petals. Just want to make sure that these are both essentially the same thing. Thanks!
Also, thank you for actually explaining what everything does! ๐ very helpful.
The yellow water that has the roses steeping in it is an extract, the water that evaporates and drops from the lid is the hydrosol.
Hi….. I know this is years late but what do you do with the extract? Can that be used as a toner after filteration or is it to be discarded? I have been researching on DIY hydrosol and came across your post on pinterest… you have explained the process beautifully. Just hope you see my comment soon!!
Cheers,
Ruchi
Yes, using it as a toner is perfect.
Do you use tap water or distilled water in the pot with the plant material? Love this idea!
Filtered water. But our tap water isn’t treated. It comes right off the mountain.
I’m enjoying reading your articles, which are very interesting and well-written.
One question: in your salve and ointment recipes, when it calls for ounces, do you mean ounces of volume or ounces of weight? Especially for the beeswax.
You might be interested to hear that the balsam poplar cuttings I made last year rooted after about 3 months sitting in plain water outdoors in partial shade. Then I planted them out in a corner of our property; they survived their first winter. (At bud-picking time, I made cuttings instead of picking buds because there were so few buds within reach of the ground.) We don’t have moose or deer here to keep the young trees short, so I’ll be the moose. ;-D
By weight.
I can’t wait to try this out! I live in an apartment so I don’t grow anything in enough quantity for this but my mom has some large old fashioned rose bushes that I would love to try getting some essential oil from. And if there isn’t enough this year, well, the bushes just keep getting bigger.