Scent of a garden By MARY BETH BRECKENRIDGE Knight Ridder Newspapers Last Updated: May 10, 2001 It's a paradox of our factory-processed world. Our shampoo smells like herbs, our air freshener smells like wildflowers, our mouthwash smells like mint and our gardens smell like, in many cases, nothing much at all. Time to wake up and smell the scented geraniums. More and more gardeners are rediscovering the role that fragrance can play in a garden. It beckons our attention, wafts through our windows to freshen our homes, perfumes our summer evenings and evokes pleasant memories. Scent is found in all sorts of plants - annuals, perennials, trees, bulbs, herbs, shrubs and even wildflowers - and can be found in their flowers, leaves, stems or roots. Yet scent is often neglected in garden design, an oversight that Jan Urban thinks is a pity. "No garden is complete without some fragrant plants," says Urban, a Canton, Ohio, gardener who presents programs on topics including scented gardening and works as a horticulturist. "It's just so soothing." The scents found in plants are many - almond, vanilla, baby powder, pineapple, licorice, lime, chocolate and bubble gum, to name just a few. Not all are pleasant, as you know if you've ever caught a whiff of skunk cabbage. Nature uses scent as a way to attract the bugs and birds that do its pollinating work, says Glenn Varner, owner of Flower Scent Gardens, a mail-order nursery business. Some plants release their fragrance at night, because that's the active time for pollinators such as moths, he says. Humans have largely lost their regard for plant scents as their own scents have improved. Back when hygiene habits were less than scrupulous, the fragrance of herbs and flowers provided welcome relief from the human condition. In the Middle Ages, people stuffed the leaves of fragrant plants into clothes before they learned the importance of bathing, Urban says. Monasteries also kept gardens of aromatic plants during that time for medicinal and culinary purposes and for creating ceremonial incense, according to the Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center. Scented plants were studied for their possible alchemical properties during the Renaissance, revered by royals in the 1700s and featured in the showplace gardens of the industrialists in the 1800s. In the last century or so, plant fragrances became largely ignored in a cloud of manufactured scents. Fragrance has even been bred out of many flowers by hybridizers hungry for showier, longer-lasting blooms. That trend is reversing, Varner says. His business specializes in fragrant and mostly rare flowers, herbs and shrubs, and Varner says he's seeing an increase in interest in those kinds of plants. Some customers are attracted by his specimens' unusual nature; some just want to try something new, he says. Others are drawn by pleasant memories associated with certain plants, such as the lavender or lemon day lilies their grandmothers grew. The relationship between scent and memory is a close one, because olfactory nerves transmit smell to the part of the brain's limbic system where memory and emotion are located. The scent of an Easter lily always takes Varner back to a high school trip to Washington, D.C., where he remembers masses of the white lilies decorating the atrium in the National Gallery of Art. That association with memory causes people to perceive scents in different ways, says Cathy Manus-Gray, a herb educator from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, who calls her home-based business Herban Gardens. The smell of eucalyptus is a good example, she says. Many people associate it with Vicks VapoRub, and that can evoke either an unpleasant association with illness or the happy memory of getting lots of loving attention from Mom and Dad. Manus-Gray says it's the essential oils in herbs that contain their smell, and those oils also have beneficial chemical properties. Some are uplifting (rosemary, sage, eucalyptus and the various types of mint, while others are relaxing (lavender, chamomile, hops and even catnip, which has opposite effects on cats and humans). How best to use fragrant plants in the garden depends on the plant. A few, such as roses, gardenia, hyacinths and lilacs are so highly fragrant that Urban believes it's best to avoid planting too many types in one area. Most are more subtly scented, so mixing plants isn't a problem. "If you like it, plant it," Varner says. He recommends positioning scented plants near where you spend your time, next to a patio or deck perhaps or just outside a window. If you're outdoors in the evening, he suggests choosing a plant that's most fragrant then, such as honeysuckle, moonflower or evening primrose. Varner often urges his customers to grow their plants, especially annuals, in containers so they can be moved around easily. Planting in containers is also a good way to raise scented plants closer to nose level and to keep mints from taking over the garden, Manus-Gray says. Because scent is carried by the breeze, Manus-Gray recommends enclosing a scented garden with a wall or hedge to contain the fragrance. She also likes to plant in narrow beds with lots of paths to put visitors in close contact with plants that release their fragrance when they're brushed against or touched. Those contact-activated plants, such as lavender, scented geraniums and mints, also are ideal for positioning along a path, she says. Low-growers such as chamomile and thyme can be planted right in the walkway between stones so they'll release their fragrance when they're stepped on. You have to wonder just what's in that fragrance, though. Varner finds that once people start adding fragrant plants to their gardens, they just seem to want to keep on. "I guess it becomes addictive over time," he says. At least, it's a natural kind of high. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` Plants to fill the senses Here are a few scented plants that gardeners Jan Urban, Glenn Varner and Cathy Manus-Gray count among their favorites: a.. Flowering tobacco, particularly Nicotiana sylvestris. Unlike most of the flowering tobaccos available at nurseries, this tall variety is quite fragrant, Urban says. It is most fragrant in the evening. b.. Pineapple mint. Most mints are highly invasive, but this type, with its pale green variegated leaves, is not. c.. Dianthus, commonly called the carnation. Varner is especially partial to the rare "Duchess of Westminster" variety, which has a powerful clove scent. d.. Stock, a bushy, night-scented flower. Urban recommends Matthiola icana or Matthiola bicornis. e.. Lily of the valley, one of the few shade-loving plants that is also fragrant. f.. Fragrant hostas, such as "Aphrodite," "Fragrant Blue" and "Fragrant Bouquet." More shade-lovers. g.. Heliotrope. Some varieties have blue or purple flowers, which Varner says is rare among fragrant plants. h.. Sweet pea, a climbing annual with a strong, sweet perfume. i.. Scented geraniums. These plants are different from common bedding geraniums and are mainly grown for their leaf fragrances. More than 275 varieties exist, with scents as diverse as cinnamon, balsam, ginger ale, lime, peanut butter and peppermint. j.. Honeysuckle, a highly fragrant vine. Varner particularly likes the fragrance of "Hall's French Supreme" (Lonicera periclymenum variegata), although he calls it "the Northern equivalent of kudzu." Contain it on a trellis if you don't want it to take over the neighborhood. k.. Lavender, the herb that everyone seems to associate with Grandma. Grow it where people will brush against it to release its scent. Photo/Akron Beacon Journal The color of purple heliotrope is relatively rare in scented plants.