“I have a notion that smell, not sight, is the most mystical sense. The garden has persuaded me of this.”
—VIGEN GUROIAN, THE FRAGRANCE OF GOD
Imagine sitting among your favorite shrubs and flowers, inhaling beautiful scents, hearing the birds sing, and feeling the warm air. The aroma wafts around you and tickles your nose. Time, for a second, stands still and your blood pressure drops and you relax. Why does breathing in flowers’ fragrance affect us so markedly? The secret is that fragrance travels into our brain immediately.
Volatile compounds, the small organic molecules that make up strong fragrances, enter our bloodstream through the nose. They can cross the blood-brain barrier and have a direct effect in the brain by acting on receptor sites. This immediacy produces wonderful results. For example, the scent of lavender (Lavandula spp.) flowers has been found to help people increase alertness and accuracy when taking math tests. Similarly, the “cherry pie” fragrance of purple heliotrope flowers can envelope you in well-being, while citrus scents literally make us happy. Once we know this, it is hard not to plant a Fragrance Garden.
Many flowers produce a scent, the most famous being the rose and jasmine. But why not try other wonderful perennial and annual flowers that emit sweet smells? These include the easy-care, yellow Hyperion daylily (Hemerocallis × Hyperion), the shade-tolerant woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), and the long-blooming bee balm (Monarda didyma), among others. Beware of genetically modified hybrid flowers—sometimes the scent is bred out of them in favor of size.
Fragrant gardens do best when the air is warm, because the scents carry better. Plant several fragrant flowers in a sunny, sheltered corner or against a wall. Partially enclosed spaces concentrate the plants’ scents within the space. Plant tall, fragrant, flowering shrubs like lilac as a backdrop to your fragrant garden. And locate low-growing, sweet-scented perennials, annuals, and herbs along the front borders of your Fragrance Garden. If you plan well, you can have fragrance growing there from spring to fall.
Fragrance is memory’s powerful keeper. A whiff of gardenia or heliotrope or other flowers can take us back to an earlier time in our life. Surround yourself with lavender, lemon verbena, and chamomile. Add a small table and chair for afternoon tea in the garden. How enchanting!
All lilies are aromatic, but the Stargazer lily (Lilium Stargazer), a hybrid variety of the Oriental group, is the most fragrant of all. Its bowl-shaped blooms explode in pink to crimson, with white edges and dark spots. Its luscious petals stretch outward. But it is the slightly spicy scent that is so striking. When Stargazer lilies cast their aroma across the garden you can smell it throughout. I planted it here with dwarf black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivanti ‘Goldsturm’) and Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). It blooms in mid- to late summer. Zones 4–9. Photo by Laura Hendrix McKillop.
The large, fragrant, double white blossoms of ‘Aphrodite’ hosta (Hosta plantaginea ‘Aphrodite’) appear above glossy foliage from late July to September. A cultivar of the aptly named August Lily, ‘Aphrodite’ is one of the most fragrant hostas available. Attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds. Zones 5–8.
I like the honey-scented fragrance of the low-growing, mounding annual flower, sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima). It is a perfect edging plant. The hybrid ‘Snow Princess’ alyssum is tolerant of hot summer temperatures and is covered with clusters of sweetly fragrant, tiny white flowers from spring to frost. It grows 2 to 3 feet across and 1 to 2 feet high.
A tiny fairy garden sits above a concrete retaining wall in a narrow space next to a parking lot. The driftwood hut is set within a slope that’s held in place by grassy sea thrift (Armeria maritima). It has purplish-pink, ball-shaped flowers arising from tight mounds of evergreen foliage. These tough little perennial wonders grow 6 to 12 inches high and bloom from mid-spring through early summer. Zones 4–8. The red feathery flowers of the annual plumed cockscomb (Celosia argentea var. plumosa) make a colorful backdrop, and white alyssum adds a sweet touch.
A small standing Buddha is part of a tiny shady garden. Moss covers the earth and a stone anchors the scene. White flowering annual vinca (Catharanthus roseus) look like small shrubby plants next to the diminutive figure. This is atop an outdoor retaining wall in a partially sunny corner.
A small door, about 14 inches high, at the base of a tree is a whimsical addition to any fairy garden. This is at the Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando, Florida.