Here in California, where our mild climate permits it, our outdoor living season is not restricted to the few months of summer but may in some years extend from the middle of April to the middle of October. Our patio, as all outdoor living rooms are firmly called in California whether they are truly patios in the Spanish sense of the word or not, is equipped with barbecue, dining table and comfortable chairs for relaxing.
Perfume Garden
But since I am primarily a gardener interested in plants and their uses, it is not the furnishings or equipment but the plant materials chosen especially for the patio which are my chief delight. These are carefully selected to delight not the sight, which is the sense to which primary appeal is usually made in the plan of a garden, but the smell. About two years ago I decided to collect a “perfume garden” about the patio so that while dining or relaxing we might enjoy the fragrance of plant materials.
In one corner of the patio is planted a Lady Penzance sweetbrier which, particularly when the foliage is damp, scents the air with a fragrance very like that of apples ripening on the tree. One single plant of white nicotiana perfumes the entire garden after sunset, from its place in half shade and mingles with the sweet, sharp scent of marvel-of-Peru not far away.
Mint is tucked into damp shady corners where it contributes a cool, lush bit of green as well as its pleasant scent. In one particularly shady corner I have planted lily-of-the-valley this year. A few evening-scented stocks are placed among other plants in the flower border nearby where they remain inconspicuous by day but reveal themselves by their perfume at night.
Rose, lemon, and apricot-scented geraniums as well as young lavender and rosemary plants are grown in pots and scattered here and there in the sunnier parts of the patio. I also grow a few of the more heavily-scented chrysanthemums in pots for the sake of their foliage rather than primarily for their flowers. I like the pungent scent of the leaves on a warm afternoon, although some people find it unpleasant.
This year dianthus which are being grown from seed in our tiny lath -house are to be added, and the possibilities for further addition seem to be limited only by the size of one’s garden and one’s budget.
by V Byrne – 64342
