Organic Gardening

As if you needed an excuse to keep that rose geranium next to your desk: Scent doesn’t just trigger memory; it enhances it. In 2007, researchers in Germany exposed test subjects to the scent of roses while the subjects played a memory game and again as they slept. When put through the memory exercise once more, the subjects who were exposed to the rose scent during deep sleep scored 97 percent, while the control group scored 86 percent.

The When of Fragrance

The chemical makeup of volatile compounds—what we call scent—is delicate and complex. Volatile compounds quickly evaporate, but the rate and time of day at which they evaporate varies.

To ensure your garden always has some fragrance, think about the times of day when you want scent to be present, and then choose plants that bloom at those times. For instance, you can smell the perfumes of shade-lovers like lily of the valley and sweet woodruff early in the day, as their volatile compounds evaporate at lower temperatures. The scents of roses, lavender, and other sun worshipers rise until mida ernoon, because their volatiles evaporate at fairly high temperatures.

In addition, intersperse plants that have fragrant blooms with those that have aromatic foliage. The perfume of flowers lingers in the air or carries on the breeze—think sweet hyacinths and lilacs. Scented foliage, such as agastache or rosemary, o en goes unnoticed until the leaves are brushed against or bruised.

Get Started

You can choose from fragrant plants for every climate and every season of the year. (See “Fragrance for the Seasons” on page 51.) Before you choose, remember that “there’s no substitute for getting your hands—and your nose—on the plants,” says Helen Weber, head gardener at Ethel L. Dupar’s Fragrant Garden in Seattle. Designed for the blind and the deaf-blind, this garden invites visitors to sniff and touch.

Think in terms of fragrance “families.” If you love lemon, grow lemon balm and lemon verbena for foliage and four-o’clocks and sweet bay magnolia for their floral bouquets. If you prefer licorice, try fennel and anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). “The agastaches are some of the most useful scented plants,” Weber adds. “A lot are native, and almost all have aromatic foliage and flowers that hummingbirds love.”

Here’s the buzz: Fragrant plants such as lavender draw pollinators to your garden.

In Search of Scent

Plants are not always as fragrant as they are purported to be—plus your experience of a fragrance is different from someone else’s. Whenever possible, seek out and sniff flowering plants in bloom before buying; you may notice variations in scent between plants of the same variety.

For surefire scent, look for old-fashioned varieties, because many hybrids, bred to be showy, lost something along the way.

For example, “old-fashioned wallflowers only come in a couple of colors, but smell wonderful—like Dr. Pepper, to my nose,”

Weber says. “Modern hybrid wallflowers come in bright colors and bloom forever, but they’re not nearly as sweet.” Not all hybrids lack fragrance. English roses are selected for disease-resistance and scent. Two of the most fragrant are ‘Jude the Obscure’ and ‘Abraham Darby’.

But even the most carefully planned fragrance gardens aren’t always fragrant. On cool or overcast days, you may notice that the garden lacks the oomph it has in hotter, sunnier weather. And once flowers are pollinated, scent weakens, because it’s no longer needed to attract pollinators.

NEWBIE HINT When exploring nurseries for fragrant foliage plants, rub the leaves to release the scent. Use unscented baby wipes on your hands between plants so the smells don’t mix with each other.