Making scents

Elisabeth — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:11:00 GMT

Soon the long months of January and February will be upon us, and it will be time to hunker down and dream of next season's gardens. One garden dimension that often get short shrift is fragrance. The following is a handy list of five fragrant plants that no garden should be without:

Lilac: Spring would not be spring without lovely, sweet-smelling lilacs. You can choose from a host of cultivars that have purple, white, blue, near-yellow or bi-colored blooms. There are even relatively small varieties like dwarf Korean lilac (Syringa meyeri 'Palibin') that work in smaller spaces. Lilacs need sun and good air circulation, plus occasional pruning. If they are happy, they will live for generations.
Old-Fashioned Pinks (Dianthus): These low-growers generally smell like cloves. They are great for pots or the front of beds or borders and like sunny to partially sunny conditions
Mock Orange (Philadelphus): While Philadelphus does not really provide more than one season of interest, the white flowers are among the sweetest-scented blossoms around. Many people liken the scent to that of orange blossoms, hence the common name. A sun lover, mock orange is available in single, double-flowered and compact forms.
Roses: Not all roses have a pronounced scent. Read labels and merchandisers' copy to make sure that you invest in those that do.
Lavender: Given well-drained soil and a sunny exposure, lavender will produce lots of sweet scented purple, pink or even white blossoms. Gardeners in northern climates should be sure to select hardy varieties. Remember that the leaves and stems of the plants are almost as fragrant as the flowers and can also be used in fragrant potpourri, sachets and arrangements.

Dianthus--In the Pinks

Elisabeth — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:17:00 GMT

All winter long I buy florists' carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus) for indoor bouquets. They come in an array of colors, last almost forever and smell wonderful. Probably because of this, I tend to think of them and their relations as winter flowers instead of garden flowers.

Last year I finally got over dianthus aversion and bought some D. caryophyllus relatives--old-fashioned pinks--for my garden. Now that they are blooming and sending forth their wonderful clove-like scent, I wonder why I took so long to get them into my garden.

A friend of mine has edged one of the large irregular beds in her cottage-style garden with little Dianthus deltoides, which only grows six inches tall and bears pink, ragged-edged flowers in late spring.

I am very partial to the dramatic splotched and spotted varieties like the red and white 'Horatio' or pink and white 'Spotty' and 'Double Spotty'. These are hybrids that come in at about twelve inches tall and succeed nicely as cut flowers.

Many people love 'Bath's Pink', an old-fashioned favorite with heavily fringed petals. It forms nice, eight-inch tall mounds with magenta-marked pink flowers. 'Bath's Pink', planted en masse would work well in borders or pots, as long as the soil was not too wet. Most dianthus sulk in heavy, wet soil.

Dianthus tend to have blue-green foliage, and often that foliage is evergreen. The grass-like leaves are handsome, even when the flowers are long gone.

So don't restrict your options like I did. There are so many species and varieties of garden pinks that you can certainly find space for a few of them in your beds, borders and pots.

Growing Wise : dianthus

Making scents

Dianthus--In the Pinks