Fragrant Flowers for Your Garden

By Lindsay Bond Totten
Scripps Howard News Service

You can't see it or touch it. But it's so integral a part of the garden experience that it penetrates the very soul.

It's fragrance. And none of our other four senses has the power to trigger emotions as strong or memories as sweet as scent does.

It would take an organic chemist to explain the true nature of scent, and someone of equal discipline to understand it. I'm neither of those. And anyway, reducing fragrance to a complex set of molecules would just spoil it for me. So I'm not going there.

Suffice it to say that scent is the result of essential oils, manufactured by specialized plant cells and stored in plant tissues. In some flowers it's the petals that smell sweet; in others it's the stamens or another flower part. Many plants have aromatic stems and foliage.

Whatever its essence, a plant's scent is highly specific. In roses alone, more than 80 distinct compounds have been identified. Imagine the possible combinations--each one different from every other!

Fragrance is an important component of many garden designs. I value fragrance a great deal and will go to some lengths to choose fragrant plants over those that have no scent, even if it means compromising a bit on a plant's habit or color. Other gardeners rate visual impact more highly; to them fragrance is a "bonus."

Scents really do have distinct characteristics. Knowledgeable gardeners can harmonize or contrast them, just as they do with color. A keen sense of smell can also be cultivated. By sniffing flowers and foliage regularly and memorizing the nuances, the olfactory sense can be trained to distinguish the differences.

Lilacs are my all-time favorite scented blooms for the simple reason that they remind me of my grandmother. When I bury my nose in a bouquet of lilacs and lily-of-the-valley, she's with me, almost as surely as if she's standing right there.

To prolong those pleasant memories of her, I grow Syringa microphylla 'Superba', a dwarf lilac that blooms beautify in May, then intermittently all summer.

Though delicious, even lilacs can be cloying. It's true of many flowers. Sniff long enough and deeply enough and you'll know what I mean.

Experts call them "top notes"-- the initial delicate sweet fragrance--and "base notes"--the thick scent, verging on unpleasant, that follows if you don't pull your nose away. In addition to lilacs, paperwhite narcissus, gardenias, passion vine and lilies all have strong base notes.

Make the most of scent by matching fragrant plants to the places in the garden they'll be most appreciated. "Pockets" of fragrance, dotted along a garden path, greet and delight visitors as they move through the space. Enclosures, such as courtyards, trap and intensify fragrance.

If a plant must be rubbed to release its potent oils, as many herbs do, put those right next to the path or at the front of the bed so they can be touched easily. Roses should also be close, so noses can be buried in the blossoms.

Other scents, such as that of honeysuckle at dusk, are so pervasive the vines can be planted several feet away--the smell simply surrounds you.

Seating areas and places for relaxation are enhanced by the floral overtones of wisteria, roses, jasmine, and mock orange. Gardenia, tuberose, lily-of-the-valley, passion vine, Oregon holly-grape, and many varieties of jonquils, lilies, and daylilies are also highly perfumed with flowery scents.

If you enjoy the garden by moonlight, be sure to include evening primrose, flowering tobacco, moonflower vine, angel's trumpet (Datura), night-scented stock, four-o'clocks and August lily (Hosta plantaginea). All are more fragrant in the evening than during daylight. Also, watering the garden just before sunset intensifies the fragrance of many night-scented blooms.

"Invigorating" is the best way to describe the spicy-fruity scents of daphne, carnation, honeysuckle, primrose, clove currant and phlox. Plant these in areas of the garden where activities occur.

Make it a point to stroll by scented geraniums, pineapple mint, Koreanspice viburnum, magnolias and freesias when they're in bloom. Enjoy the vanilla-almond overtones of cherry blossoms, heliotrope and clematis. Sweet box and sweet alyssum join butterfly bush under the category of "honey-scented" flowers.

Fragrance is highly personal. The pungent, earthy smell of boxwood is pleasing to some, almost repugnant to others. Arborvitae, spicebush, sage, chamomile and Carolina allspice have earthy scents as well, though almost everyone finds these appealing.

Fragrance adds a fourth dimension to the cultivated environment. Take advantage of scented plants to practice your own individual form of "aromatherapy" in the garden.

(Lindsay Bond Totten, a horticulturist, writes about gardening for Scripps Howard News Service.)