Fragrance is a blessing after the long Winter months. Then even the smell of the good earth is a ionic to the real dirt gardener. The sweet scent of the early Spring flowers, however, is but the harbinger of exciting pleasures to come, enjoyment which only a gardener with an educated nose can fully appreciate.
June ushers in the first flowers of Summer – the rose parade. Surely, there is something missing in a rose without fragrance; that is why I like to grow many of the older climbing roses for my trellises and fences. The dependable American Beauty, Silver Moon, the wedding rose, lovely coral Jacotte with its holly-like foliage, by all means, the gorgeous Spanish Beauty, Mme. Gregoire Staechelin, – these have never lost their fragrance along the way.
Herbs Planted with Roses
There is a wealth of roses for your choosing amongst the newer ones which have the added charm of successive blooming – New Dawn, Dream Girl and Inspiration. All have a pleasant, spicy perfume, especially when brought indoors and used in bouquets. In this respect floribunda roses, too, are deservedly popular and with the hybrid teas give a lush richness to Summer borders. Cut quantities of buds before the rose bugs destroy them; this will serve as part of the early pruning, which includes removing the old cluster heads and cutting out the dead wood to guarantee all-season bloom. In front of my rose borders I like to grow some of the aromatic herbs such as thyme, silver-gray sage and sweet-scented mint, Mentha requieni, for they make excellent companions to the roses that have but little odor.
From early Spring until late in the Fall, flowering shrubs are a fascination to both gardener and passer-by alike. The penetrating sweetness of the several types of lilacs, daphne, azaleas and Viburnum carlesi are known and loved by most home-owners, but the fragrant shrubs which bloom in the Summer can be as real a delight.
My favorite is clethra, or sweet pepper bush, which blooms in August. This is one shrub which likes semi-shade, is generally disease-resistant and is shunned by the Japanese beetle. The lovely, erect racemes of creamy flowers are so intensely sweet-scented that many friends who come to my garden invariably inquire “Oh what is that wonderful fragrance?” The foliage of this shrub, which some people call summer-sweet, is bright green and both flower and foliage are splendid mixed with other flowers in arrangements. It can be increased easily from its spreading roots.
Calyeanthus,- or strawberry shrub, also good for shady places, is liked on account of its curious, chocolate-colored flowers, which have a fruity fragrance, and its aromatic foliage. The buddleias, or butterfly bushes, with white, pink, lavender and wine blooms and vitex, the chaste-tree, with long spikes of lavender-blue flowers should be drastically pruned in early Spring for they bloom on the new growth. They should then be pinched hack several times as we do our chrysanthemums to make compact shrubs with more bloom. The butterflies anti humming birds come often to these dainty, scented flowers.
Vines having sweet-scented flowers are best planted near the house or on arbors, or trellises where their perfume can be most easily enjoyed. Among the most reliable are the honeysuckle, Clematis paniculata, Silver lace vine, Polygonum auberti, akebia and, for late Summer and Fall, the moon flower, an annual with overpowering fragrance. We plant the moonflowers to grow on trellis and string supports on the South of the house just outside the dining room windows. There the delicious scent which comes through the windows lets us know when the blossoms begin to unfold and we hasten to watch the miracle of their opening.
Among the Summer perennials, I always pick armfuls of half-open peony buds and enjoy them in the house for they last longer and are so sweet to smell. To me there is no sadder sight than the soft, creamy-pink of Sarah Bernhardt, or the pure white of Festima Maxima face down in the mud.
Some of the Japanese peonies in crested and single forms have slender stems and should he scenting the house instead of being beaten by the wind or eaten by the rose bugs. Two old-fashioned flowers that used to be in many a Grandma’s garden, heliotrope and sweet rocket, are not grown as often as they should be, for they are richly scented and good companions for the more brilliant June perennials.
From June until September the hemerocallis, or day lilies, are a long delight and can be counted on for the back borders. The old time lemon lily is perhaps the most pleasingly scented with its faint, spicy odor, but some of the newer varieties are equally pleasing to the nose and astonishingly free-flowering, provided you have time to pick off the faded flowers. Phlox bloom is the real sign of Summer; white, and distinctly sweet-scented Miss Lingard grouped with the deep scarlet bee balm and maroon sweet William is a favorite hunting ground for the hummers.
A Fragrant Plantain Lily
If you are a lily fan, you know that almost all of them, especially the regals and time madonnas, are indispensable in the Summer garden and are cool and refreshing. However, if you do not raise lilies, the sturdy plantain lilies, or hostas, will please you. The foliage of all the hostas is helpful for Summer flower arrangements and the white, airy, graceful flowers of the Hosta plattiaginea, just dripping with fragrance, will last well in bouquets.
In one garden corner which I call my “nose garden” I grow sweet-smelling, silver-leaf thyme, lavender, tuberoses, lemon verbena, parsley and the scented geraniums with velvet leaves, for I use herbs as accents in the borders rather than give them a garden by themselves. I like to visit this garden in the rain to inhale the rich, aromatic fragrance that fills the air. Oftentimes other gardeners ask me for a few leaves to take home. I know it takes them back to their own gardens of other times, for some of them have only memories today.
To complete the list of perennials having quality and fragrance, the chnicifugas rate high. Cimicifuga racemosa blooms in July, grows tall with long, lacy, cream-colored spikes of bloom, while C. simplex blooms in late Fall here in Massachusetts and, if not watched carefully, will freeze with the first frosts. I value this highly for flower arranging because of its lovely curves. Therefore, I always pick the fall blooms in bud and bring them indoors where they open up into large flowers. Both varieties are very fragrant, immune to insects, and should be divided about every three years.
To end the season in a blaze of glory consider the many colors and varieties of chrysanthemums – the flower which refuses to die and often gives bloom as late as Thanksgiving.
If we were without the annuals to fill in those bare spots in the borders, we should be unfortunate indeed. Why not have quantities of them including some that are not so common, for the joys of a garden, really, are the surprises it may hold for us.
I am very enthusiastic about two that I grew last. Summer, – Southern star or blue star flower (Oxypcialura coeruleum) and the curious and beautiful Bells of Ireland (Molucella laevis). Both are fascinating annuals, easy to germinate and transplant to the borders. Southern star has a small, blue flower on a sprawling stem which looks like lovely porcelain and lasts well. It is especially attractive in small bouquets. The Bells of Ireland have long, curving stems of a definite chartreuse green from which the bells grow in spirals giving the effect of the spiral eucalyptus found in the florists’ shops. Inside each green bell is a. rather inconspicuous white flower the center of which holds one seed. The odd, but very pungent, fragrance comes from the bells and it scents the house with rather a cleansing odor. If kept in water in a cool place, it can be useful in arrangements until long after the other flowers have gone. I grew both of these annuals in a special bed with Orange Blossom nicotiana which happily stays open during the daytime. They were very good companions requiring full sun.
Old friends of most gardeners are the sweet peas, carnations, sweet alyssum and petunias, but the dean smell of calendulas in the Fall planted in the borders with upland cress and Oak-leaf lettuce seem to complete my garden picture with a special kind of flavorsome fragrance.
61426
