“Heaven Scent”

I think that our sense of smell can be one of the most powerful senses and one that can stimulate our emotional senses too. The smell of baking bread, the smell of fresh cut grass, the smell of flowers and the emotional effects of aromatherapy can evoke memories deep within us all.

One of the biggest pleasures of a garden around this time of year is the scent of fragrant summer flowers. Scented plants will add another dimension to your garden and will help to create an uplifting mood.

When planing and choosing plants for your garden, take time to not only choose different plants that will give you all year-round interest but also to include scented plants. To enjoy the perfume of such plants, they are often best planted near your seating area, patio or pathway where you can enjoy them.

Consider a pergola archway, draped in Wisteria with its cascading fragrant lilac flowing flowers that bloom in May with its heavenly scent and for mid-summer fragrance and interest, add one of the many scented climbing roses. Such a combination is a delight to stroll by in any garden. For the ground, you could opt for a row of lavender to line a pathway to give lovely relaxing scent.

How about creating a relaxing seating area hidden in a corner of your garden; your very own private oasis where you can relax? Fragrant planting in such an area can really heighten the pleasure of such an oasis from where you can simply enjoy being in your garden. Choose a sunny spot, as most scent producing plants prefer that aspect. If the seat has a trellis pergola over it then go for a scented climber like the Honeysuckle or the richly fragrant Jasminum officinale to grow over it. Around the base of the seating area go for scented plants such as Rosemary, Violet and Pinks. For summer evening fragrance go for the Tobacco plant.

I really love the heady scent of Lilies, and I feel that they are best grown in pots as this will help keep them away from slugs and snails that like to chew at the new shoots. Also by having these plants in pots you can move them to other areas if need be.

Various shrubs can certainly pack a punch in the fragrance department like for example the strong perfume of the Mock orange, Philadelphus. One wall shrub, which I personally love, is the Cytisus battandieri with its delightful pineapple scented bright yellow flowers.

So go on, plant some fragrant scented flowers and enjoy the sweet aromas of summer.

A Sense Of Gardening…

You might remember my post entitled  “The Sensory Garden” and it’s one of my most popular posts. So I thought I’d write another posting about how our gardens can help soothe, stimulate and perhaps even help heal our senses.

When I am designing gardens, I’m constantly thinking of the fact of making and creating the garden as an area to be a ‘stress free zone’; a place where a person can chill out and enjoy nature.

In this fast moving stressful life of today the garden can be a real sanctuary, and your own little bit of oasis to escape to.

Believe it or not the garden can actually promote healing, it is a proven fact that hospital patients recover more quickly when they have a view of a garden.

Plants can give us so much pleasure and can bring enjoyment and delight to our five senses. Fresh herbs from the garden add wonderful natural flavours to our taste buds together with the delight of enjoying fresh home-grown fruit and vegetables. The joy of colour in the garden can be uplifting and therapeutically.

Soothing sounds can be added to the garden like the refreshing sounds of running water or the gentle tinkling sound of a small wind chime. Nature’s sound of the wind blowing through the leaves of trees and shrubs can be claiming together with the gentle rustling sound of Bamboos and grasses. Creating sound within the garden can be really soothing and play a very useful part in distracting us from the outside noises of city life.

There are plants which are a joy to touch, various textures can surprise and delight us, like woolly soft leaves of the Stachys byzantina also known as Bunnies’ Ears or Lamb’s Tongue never fails to stop me to touch it. Also joy of rubbing the foliage of certain plants so as they release their aromatic scent and my favourite is the Phlomis fruticosa that has soft downy fruity scented leaves.

Scent plays important part in a garden as it can stimulate memory and enhance our moods. There are so many wonderfully perfumed flowers like the richly fragrant Jasminum officinale or the Lonicera japonica, Honeysuckle, plant these next to a patio or seating area so you can enjoy the wafts of scents.

So chill out and enjoy awakening your five senses to the garden.

“Making Scents…”

It may surprise you to know that there are plenty of scented flowers available for the drab winter months. Yes that’s right, even in the cold depths of winter there are some flowering gems that brave the inclement weather and there’s nothing like winter scent to entice you into the garden to lift your sprits.

Viburnums are always good value for the garden and there are several varieties to chose from, but remember that some Viburnums will grow into large shrubs. Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ is studded with clusters of strong honey-fragrant pink flowers that bloom on bare leafless stems from autumn through to spring. This shrub can reach a height of up to ten feet. The Viburnum tinus is an evergreen shrub with heads of reddish buds that open into many white flowers that have a subtle fragrance from autumn onwards.

The Chimonanthus praecox ‘Grandiflorus’, Wintersweet gives off a fabulous scent from its waxy looking small yellow cup-shaped flowers. The flowers are on bare shoots throughout winter and this shrub can grow to a height of eight feet.

The Sarcococca hookeriana, also known as the Christmas Box or Sweet Box, is a four foot evergreen shrub which has sweetly scented small white flowers in winter that has the bonus of being followed by spherical blue-black berries.

There is a Winter Honeysuckle, Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ with fragrant small white flowers that bloom from winter to early spring and has a spreading habit of up to six feet.

For excellent winter interest, choose the Witch Hazel, Hamamelis. It has wonderful clusters of spidery- shaped orange fragrant flowers on bare twigs. This particular shrub has a tree-like shape and can grow up to twelve feet.

A super treat in the winter is the rich scent of the Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’. This shrub is best grown in a sheltered position and for this it will reward you with sugar pink clusters of richly fragrant flowers that bloom over a long period.

I’m a big fan of the Mahonia x media ‘Charity’, it’s big and bold with architectural evergreen foliage and has several long cylindrical spikes of tiny yellow flowers. The lovely scent is similar to that of the ‘Lilly of the Valley’.

So, the next time you see a winter flowering plant, check it out to see if it has as fragrance to lift your spirit in a winter garden.