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 Stop and Smell the Roses … in Your Own Backyard How to Create a Year-Round Fragrance Garden at Home There’s nothing like the smell of a flower to get your olfactory cells firing like canons and your mind drifting to delightful memories from the past. It could be the aroma of southern magnolias that takes you back to your grandmother’s spacious yard, where you spent endless summer afternoons frolicking in the rays of the warm sun. Maybe it’s the fragrance of blooming daffodils that transports you to that perfect spring day you whiled away with your high school crush. Or it could be the scent you wait for each year that lets you know the seasons are about to change, like when the aura of jasmine signals the end of the dog days of summer and heralds in cooler fall ones. Did you know that there’s actually a way to harness all of these lovely scents — and memories — so you can relish them year-round? It’s called a fragrance garden. Of course, you’re going to say that every garden is fragrant in its own way, and you would be right. But a fragrance garden is different because it is designed specifically with the sense of smell in mind. Typically, this type of garden is located in one particular area of a large yard, or even created using small containers on a deck or balcony — making it perfect for either suburban or urban landscapes. The various plants and flowers that are chosen to reside there are selected based on their bouquets (or aromas) and situated in a way that will allow the homeowners or visitors to fully revel in their scents. What’s more, a true fragrance garden can be enjoyed throughout all four seasons because the assortment of plants used in its design will bloom and be at their peaks during different times of the year, filling the air with sweet smells from January to December. “When the fragrance garden is doing what it’s supposed to do, then it makes your garden go 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” explained Eric King, a registered landscape architect with Scapes in Marietta. “It doesn’t stop — it’s year-round. What a great value increasement that is [for your landscape and your home].” And creating and maintaining an authentic fragrance garden on your own property isn’t as mystifying or as challenging as it may initially seem. According to Luca Gianturco, owner of Scottsdale Farms Landscape Co. & Nursery in Alpharetta, “It doesn’t need to be intimidating. It can be very simple and fun, and it can bring you a lot of pleasure.” The key is to begin at the beginning. From the Ground Up
While you may want to rush out and start buying up the best smelling perennials and annuals you can find at the local garden center, there are certain steps you need to take to prepare for your new fragrance garden. It’s important to start from the ground up, and that means choosing “It all boils down to doing site analysis,” King pointed out. “Look at the conditions you have — is it sunny, shady, wet, dry? Are there unattractive views that you’ll want to screen or attractive views you’ll want to open up? That’s what’s going to drive the particular plants that you choose that are fragrant.” After you identify the location — but before you make your final plant selections — there’s another critical stage in the development of your fragrance garden. For Scott Chatham, owner of Chatham Landscape Services in Marietta, that step involves grading the land and ensuring proper drainage so your fragrance garden can get established quickly and seamlessly. “That’s the first thing we look at,” he observed. “If you don’t have the grading and drainage corrected or done right, no matter what you plant, it will never perform.” He also urged homeowners to amend the soil by tilling it and adding the best possible organic matter to produce a solid foundation for the garden. He continued, “The more organic matter you add and the more you can break up the soil, the quicker the roots of the plants will scatter out, create more space and [be able to] access the water that is available in the ground.” Gianturco concurred, stating, “All plants would benefit from amending the soil. We have some pretty hard clay [in metro Atlanta], so you should bring in a soil conditioner. Amend the soil as much as you can because there is more water retained with a good amended soil than with clay soil. And if you have a plant in the right environment and it’s happy, it’s going to bloom properly for you.” Go Flower Picking When the preparations have been completed, then the fun really begins — you get to choose the plants for and map out the arrangement of your fragrance garden. It’s at this time that you need to know which plants bloom during which seasons, as well as decide which smells you would like to incorporate in the design. As you begin the selection process, you should remember that flowering plants — like perennials and annuals — aren’t your only options; fragrant shrubs, trees, vines and herbs can add a great deal of depth to your fragrance garden. In fact, as Chatham revealed, “With a fragrance garden, smell is not the only sense [to consider]. When you’re dealing with fragrance gardens, you’re dealing with touch as well because a lot of plants have a wonderful fragrance once you touch them.” This opens the door to a wide array of possibilities. For the spring, bloomers like daffodils, hyacinth, lily of the valley and hostas are excellent fragrant options, according to King. Chatham added to that seasonal list with the paperwhite narcissus and wisteria and jasmine vines. Summertime, Gianturco said, is ideal for Gardenias, the Adonis Blue butterfly bush and the paper flower (also known as bougainvillea), among other varieties. These plants will lead you into fall perfectly, when the “September Beauty” Clethra, tea olive, camellias, rosemary and lavender will provide a nice accent to the crisp air and falling leaves. The latter two also will take you into winter, and although most of the landscape is brown during the coldest months of year, you can still get great scent from certain plants. “Daphne, edgeworthia and wintersweet will knock you over in the winter here,” said Geri Laufer, public relations manager for the Atlanta Botanical Garden. In fact, our city’s botanical garden features its own personal fragrance garden and is a great place to explore scents before beginning your garden at home. Osmanthus and witch hazel offer a great transition between late winter and early spring, bringing you full circle for the year. And, of course, there are many other plants, trees and shrubs out there that you can use to offset your favorite floral aromas. As you conceive the layout of your fragrance garden, bear in mind that the scents will mix and mingle as each type of plant reaches its peak. You may or may not have an issue with conflicting fragrances. Fortunately, you can control how strong certain scents are by managing how many of a particular variety you plant, King asserted. Then again, you will not be able to control the fragrances coming from your neighbor’s yard. Therefore, you need to have a good idea of how the landscape next door could affect the scents you select. For instance, the presence of a Bradford pear on the property line, thanks to its dominant fragrance, could overwhelm your garden. That’s why Chatham recommended that homeowners take some time — even up to a full season — to determine what outside influences you’ll be dealing with over time. You might even want to jot down some notes in a journal and use them as you move through the process of creating your fragrance garden. Sit Back and Enjoy One of the best ways to appreciate your fragrance garden is to spend time in it, taking in the smells as each season passes. To do this, you’ll probably want to include a sitting area in your design. As with the garden itself, the elements that comprise this area depend on your likes and dislikes. Comfortable chairs or a bench are a good start, but there’s so much more you can add to this section of your fragrance garden. For instance, Laufer placed an arbor with fragrant roses in her own private garden, as well as thyme, lemon Balm and pennyroyal beneath a bench so visitors’ feet will bruise the herbs and release the fragrance. King often adds a water feature to a fragrance garden because it brings sound and visual elements to the space, allowing you to inspire all of your senses. In addition, a small water feature “helps the air move a little bit, which helps the fragrance waft around,” he noted. Even if you don’t choose to incorporate a fountain, King believes that you should consider adding an element that creates a focal point, whether it’s a fireplace, decorative statue area or some other feature. Gianturco recommended the addition of a birdbath or birdfeeder to really liven up the area. Once the sitting area is established, you’ll need to maintain your fragrance garden to keep it viable throughout the year. While the different plants you choose will have specific care requirements (which should be noted on the plant when you purchase it), there are several basic measures you can take to prolong the beauty and fragrance in your garden. “Make sure you always keep a good layer of mulch on top of your beds — this helps keep moisture in and adds organic matter back into the soil,” King contended. “You can use pine straw or wood chips.” Also, Chatham stated, it’s essential to keep your plants well fed with an effective fertilizer program and prune them at the appropriate time to keep them in their natural shape and promote — not sacrifice — their fragrances. And while metro Atlanta continues to deal with a severe drought and could face one again in the future, the effort you put forth early on, such as grading properly and amending the soil, will help you protect your plants during dry periods. In addition, King stated, “We tend to over-water plants. We think that more water is better, but actually, in many cases, the constant moisture on the foliage from this repeated irrigation is detrimental to the plant. Plants are better off having waterings that are spaced far enough apart so the roots can go way down deep and chase the water as it dries up.” And if you group plants together that have similar watering requirements, you may find that you’re watering smaller areas less often, making your fragrance garden a drought-friendly addition to your landscape. “There is no end to the joy of a fragrance garden,” King said. “That’s the fun part of it. You will always be able to experiment with different fragrances, and some may combine in ways that are unexpected and delightful.” If you keep your fragrance garden blooming year after year, it can be a constantly evolving source of pleasure that will allow you to connect with nature no matter what your local meteorologist reports. So, as King concluded, “Get out there and have some fun with it.” PN The Five Scents Recommended fragrant plants for Georgia gardeners Fragrant Trees Southern Magnolia – SummerStar Magnolia – Early Spring/Spring Sweetbay Magnolia – Summer Saucer Magnolia – Early Spring/Spring Chaste Tree – Late Summer Japanese Snowball – Summer Sourwood – Summer Fragrant Shrubs Glossy Abelia – Summer Gardenia – Spring/Summer Creeping Gardenia – Spring/Summer Winter Daphne – Winter Butterfly Bush – Summer Fragrant Tea Olive – Spring/Fall Elaeagnus/Winterberry – Fall Sweetspire – Summer Mahonia – Spring/Early Spring Pieris – Spring Witch Hazel – Winter Sweetshrub – Summer Fragrant Vines Wisteria – Spring/SummerStar Jasmine – Summer Confederate Jasmine – Summer Honeysuckle – Summer Armand Clematis – Spring/Summer Lady Banks Rose – Summer Fragrant Touch Plants Mint – While Green Thyme – While Green Anise or Florida Anise – Summer Rosemary – Constant Lavender – Constant Fragrant Perennials Hyacinths – Spring/Summer Iris – Spring/Summer Daffodil – Spring Paperwhites – Spring Hosta/Plantain Lily – Spring/Summer Oriental Lily – Spring For More Information Atlanta Botanical Garden Chatham Landscape Services Scapes Scottsdale Farms Landscape Co. & Nursery
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the right area for the newest addition to your landscape. “Look at your property and think about where you would like the plants to be,” Gianturco recommended. “Think about what would make the most sense and where you would enjoy the fragrance the most.” Would you prefer to have the scents of your garden meet you as soon as you open the back door, or would you like to take a short stroll with your cup of coffee and make your way to a special seating area at the far end of your yard? The location is completely up to you, but keep in mind that the site itself will end up dictating which plants you can put there.