Year-round gardening: Enhance growing season with gardening for the senses
“Smell, fragrance, aroma, scent,
Goes with flowers, and Nature spent.”
— L.G. Mace
A well-designed garden brings delight to all of our senses.
In addition to color, texture and repetition, using fragrant plants adds another level of complexity beyond the visual appeal of a garden. There are many annual, perennial, herbaceous and woody plants that can contribute fragrance through their flowers or foliage. Although less important than color, scent plays an important role in plant reproduction by attracting pollinating insects.
As weather warms, essential oils produced by plants evaporate into the air, resulting in a fragrance. While scent is most commonly associated with flowers, foliage is also aromatic.
Some plants release their odor when touched, while others release theirs into the breeze. For example, boxwoods emit a musky smell on a warm, sunny day, and herbs such as rosemary and thyme produce a wonderful fragrance when the leaves are crushed. Scented geraniums are a group of plants that have fragrant oils in the leaves.
Honeysuckles have very fragrant flowers in the spring, the most fragrant of which is winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima). Its powerful fragrance can perfume an entire garden in spring.
Lilacs are popular fragrant additions to a garden and they come in many types, including common lilac (Syringa vulgaris), dwarf lilacs (S. meyeri and patula) and even tree lilacs (S. reticulata).
One of the more fragrant shrubs is the Korean spice Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii). Its spicy-sweet fragrance differs from the flowery smells of honeysuckle and lilac. Other shrubs with strongly fragrant flowers include other viburnums and roses.
In addition to woody plants, there are many flowers and ground covers with fragrant flowers or foliage. Some examples include dianthus, hosta, iris, lavender, mint and violet. And no fragrant garden is complete without peony (Paeonia hybrids). These shrub-shaped perennial plants have an intense, sweet scent. Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), a groundcover with fragrant flowers, grows best in a shady site.
Careful selection of plants with fragrant flowers and aromatic foliage can both heighten our enjoyment of a garden while serving as a method of biological pest control. The oils in fragrant flowers such as sweet pea (Lathyrus) attract insect pollinators.
Alternatively, plants with foliage considered fragrant might actually repel insects. The “minty” fragrance from members of the genus Mentha is a fairly effective deterrent for several harmful insects. The same can be said for a number of the herbs commonly grown in gardens.
A list of aromatic plants can be found in “Your garden can be a scentsational,landscape expert says” by Purdue News.
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Peonies provide a favorite scent for the spring garden.