Summer Fragrance

ragrance is so agreeable on a summer evening that the combination of Lavandula vera and deep velvety purple petunias produce an effect I can't be without. The varieties of petunias change so often - the 'Blue Sails' cultivar was a wonderful one-just look for dark purple-blue singles. Add in some 'Coventry' annual baby's breath and variegated lemon thyme. The fragrance wafting towards you is blissful.

Heliotrope (again a deep purple) among the Mary Rose edged with a white-eyed rose color petunia is lovely. Forget-me-nots, Mugho pine, Francis hosta, and clematis montana grow here as well. Mignonette (reseda odorata) mixed in anywhere just for its smell-the small pale green blooms don't really clash with anything.

White daisies (Shastas, or marguerites, or whatever grows well for you) with 'Ensign' convolvulous and golden yellow dyssodia (dahlberg daisies) spiked with 'Victoria Blue' salvias. No fragrance, but the blue/white/yellow colors are so cheerful in full sunshine. Spice it up with red geraniums and you have a primary palette.

Sweet woodruff sends out a smell of new-mown hay, put it under roses, around lilac bushes, in woodsy plantings. Under a Mariesii viburnum, interplanted with scilla hispanica and botanical tulips makes a beautiful spring picture.

The Fragrant Garden

One of my favorite uses of annuals is to fill the garden with fragrance. Many are beautiful for show , in additiion to fragrance. I found a nursery where they sell packs of heliotropes (ok, they're tender perennials). True purple heads of tiny flowers waft the sweet calming scent; it just makes you want to stop and take a deep breath. Purple flowers sometimes have the most delicious scents: purple petunias, dames rocket, lavenders....

I always look for mignonette, Reseda Odorata, to spread in spaces I'll walk by throughout the summer. It's fragrance makes up for the unexciting appearance. Although I think the pale orangy-greeny flowers would look pretty with Lady's Mantle if enough sun were present. (It does like the sun.) Nicotiana has darling trumpet flowers and an accomodating temperment.

I had a reseeding stand in my city plot, but here, my country plots require newly purchased plants each year. Which is a shame, because I would like lots of it.

If you read this early enough in the spring, consider sweet peas, a climber, for fragrance and delicate beauty. They should be sown in March in my area, and like a rich, friable soil. I soaked the seeds before planting and they were most successful on the leeward side of the house-out of drying winds.