A little planning will help ensure a fragrant outdoor area all year long.
By Lorraine Kiefer
Can't see it, can't hear it, can't feel it, but it is everywhere. It can stir emotions, evoke memories, set a mood... Written and sung about, fought over and given in love... Fragrance!
I love natural fragrance from plants! Not all plants are fragrant, but many are and they come in many sizes, shapes and colors. They are like the popular kids at the playground -- everyone likes to be near them.
Some plants give off their fragrance when the leaves or stems are brushed (mint, lemon verbena, rosemary, marjoram and Cleveland and fruit sage), but others, like lemon trees and lavender, have both fragrant blooms and foliage. Some plants, like peony, tuberose, freesia, glossy abelia, lilac and magnolia, have very fragrant blooms, but little fragrance at all in the foliage.
Everyone is watching and longing for spring, so when a plant such as winter sweet, Chimonanthus praecox is in bloom there is quite an air of spring in the garden. Ours often blooms from early January till late spring. Sometimes I worry that the cold temperatures will damage the blooms, but it seems even when they seem to freeze others come in their place to bloom and perfume the air. Our plant is old and has been blooming for years. The small ones we have in nursery took a long while until they showed a few blooms.This light yellow plant is quite a show stopper in any winter garden.
Winter sweet, Chimonanthus praecox often blooms from early January through late spring. Folks can also enjoy potted fragrance. Containers of sweet olive (Osmanthus fragrans), gardenia, jasmine, passion flower, scented geranium or lemon verbena can all be grown outdoors in winter and on a deck or patio in summer. Although some tropicals, like lemon and orange trees, night-blooming jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) or stephanotis vine will grow outdoors year-round in some climates, most people have to bring them in to sunny window in a cool room before frost.
Spring Fragrance
A little planning on paper will help ensure a fragrant outdoor area all year long. Start with the previously mentioned late winter first blooming shrub to perfume the air in our southern New Jersey garden, fragrant winter sweet (Chimonanthus praecox). This plant sometimes blooms as early as January in the National Herb Garden at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. I first experienced the delightful fragrance of wintersweet at a meeting of the herb garden committee because Jim Adams, garden curator, had cut some branches to grace the lunch table.
As the season progresses, various witch hazels (Hamamelis) and winter hazels (Corylopsis) begin blooming and perfuming the air with a gentle fragrance. An evergreen that blooms in the spring is the sweet box (Sarcococca), a low-growing plant with shiny green foliage and tiny whitish, fragrant blooms. Oregon holly (Mahonia bealei) has the sweetest-smelling yellow blooms ever! Since they bloom while it is still cold, Mahonia often goes unnoticed by gardeners unwilling to brave the weather.
I was presenting a talk on fragrant plants at the Philadelphia Flower Show several years ago and was scouting the outdoors for early blooming fragrant plants. This one was so sweet in mid-March during a mild winter that bees were covering it. I kept sniffing the spring air and wondering if the dryer vent was the source of the fragrance.
Wildflowers not often found in gardens can also fill the air with wonderful scents in natural and wooded areas. Most will not grow in gardens, but some will if tucked in under trees and around shrubs. Trailing arbutus ( Epigaea repens), often called mayflower, is a fragrant beauty that I have tried to propagate from cuttings from time to time. It sometimes roots and grows for a few years, but usually misses its unique woodland environment.
Bulbs sometimes have a fragrance that can be enjoyed on warm days when they are kissed by the sun. The fragrance often is more noticeable indoors than in the garden. Even delicate snowdrops (Galanthus) have a mild fragrance and a large clump can scent the air on a sunny February afternoon. Many spring bulbs have a mild fragrance, but hyacinth, daffodil and Iris reticulata are a bit more significant in the fragrant garden scheme.
Early spring scents also fill the air where fragrant violets (Viola odorata) and yellow primrose (Primula veris) grow. Fragrant violets are not to be confused with wild, or wood violets that are scentless. Both of these like a semi-shaded area in which to grow. Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) does well in and around violets. The flowers of sweet woodruff are fragrant, but only when they are wilted and soaked in May wine or when they dry later in the season.
My favorite scent by the time May arrives is the combined fragrances of lilac and lily of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis). The latter spreads so quickly so it is a good ground cover and will scent the air even when planted nearby under trees and shrubs or anywhere a ground cover is needed. Lily of-the-valley thrives in most soils and all types of light. The plants in sun bloom earliest, while those in deep shade are last to bloom. I have one patch in a cool, very shaded spot under trees and shrubs that we pick for wedding bouquets long past the bloom season; however, both the lilacs and the lily-of-the-valley can be refrigerated to keep them for special dates that are just past their bloom time.
There are many kinds of lilacs, but the sweetest perfume is from the old-fashioned, or common lilac (Syringa vulgaris). Lilacs grow best in full sun or a little dappled shade, and prefer sweet to neutral soils. They are undemanding and such a joy to experience. Pruning just when the flowers fade encourages bushy new growth, as does cutting out old canes to the ground.
Trees and shrubs to link the seasonal scents
Fragrant trees spotted around in the landscape help provide charming scented air in a garden in their season. Pay careful attention to bloom time in order to spread the luxury of fragrance throughout the growing season. When the lilacs finish, the fragrances of sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia. virginiana) and then Southern magnolia (M. grandiflora) fill the air. They take us from spring into summer when the American fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) delights all on a summer day with its sweet-scented white flowers. Another summer bloomer is the Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia), with a very delicate sweet odor that comes from its two-inch wide white blooms. In early summer, the linden tree (Tilia)produces unusual, cream-colored, fragrant blooms that are used for a medicinal tea in many parts of the world.
There are many shrubs that bloom throughout the seasons and perfume the air. Carolina sweet shrub (Calycanthus floridus) blooms with the lilacs and lily of-the-valley in May, joined by a fragrant viburnum (Viburnum carlesii), one that sometimes reminds me of arbutus. Some roses butterfly bushes and clethra all scent the garden too.
These few should be a start when you plan and plant your fragrant garden. Join me at our first spring garden walk and talk and smell the wintersweet on March 20 at 1 p.m. This event is free and includes a cup of homemade soup at end of walk.
I will be teaching a six-week Wednesday night class through Gloucester County College, beginning March 16 and one or more sessions will deal with fragrant plants. Email me at lorrainekiefer@gmail.com for more information on this class.
Lorraine Kiefer is the owner and operator of Triple Oaks Nursery in Franklinville. She can also be reached by e-mail at Lorraine@tripleoaks.