From The Herb Garden: Sunny Gardens
(Page 4 of 5)
June/July 1993
By Frances Bardswell
In Praise of Fragrance
RELATED CONTENT
To see photos of the Fosselius' garden from "Garden Spaces: Plant a Water-Wise Garden," as it was w...
This sunflower, calendula and nasturtium trio can brighten any garden space. These brilliant annual...
This low-maintenance herb and kitchen garden went from unruly to efficient....
Check out these herbs for your native strip garden....
Check out these herbs for your water-wise garden....
Considering how large a part the visible plays in our enjoyment of gardens, it is not a little surprising to notice how much of their charm also depends upon the invisible. Grace of movement, as the wind sways and the sun flickers, and glory of color, as the flowers come into bloom, are so associated in our minds with the delight of gardens that we forget to recognize the part that is played in them by that which we see not. But is there not something almost more wonderful and subtle about the unseen gift of fragrance than about the more striking gift of color? Scent is less explainable, less definable, and its wonders have been less explored.
There are few better places for the study of scents than the herb garden. Here, fragrance depends more on the leaves of plants than on the flowers. One secret is soon discovered. It is the value of leaf scents. Flower scents are evanescent; leaf odors are permanent. On the other hand, leaf odors, though “ready when sought”, do not force themselves upon us, as it were, like flower scents, which we must smell whether we will or no. Leaf scents have to be coaxed out by touching, bruising, or pressing; but there they are. After all, that is the great point, and long after the summer flower scents have departed, we can enjoy the perfumes of the sweet-leaved herbs.
Among the bushy herbs that are invaluable for the permanence of their leaf odors are rosemary, lavender, southernwood, and balm.
Rosemary, so long beloved by English people that some say it was here before the Norman Conquest, was valued for such a number of different reasons that in early times every wise matron and good manager took care to have it in her garden. There may have been some sense in the old saying, “Where rosemary flourishes the woman rules.” Rosemary is a plant that wants a little looking after. It came originally from the southern seaboard, and will not grow just anywhere. It likes a well-drained, somewhat sandy soil, and is never happier than when trained close to a wall or allowed to throw its long wands over sunny stone where in winter’s dearth of outdoor green the lovely color of its foliage, green lined with silver, is truly welcome.
And do we not all know lavender by heart, and love its spikes of azure bloom? It is one of the herbs we must grow generously. It is so pleasant to be able to gather as many of its sprays as we like, to keep and dry for our own use or to give away. There are several kinds of lavender. We may have the broad-leaved or the narrow-leaved; the latter is considered the hardier. All the different sorts should be grown: the Munstead Early, the Dwarf, and the charming White-flowered, which is as sweet as any and far more uncommon. Lavender water is perhaps the cleanest smelling of all refreshing scents, and it is pleasant to know that better lavender for the market cannot be had anywhere than that produced in our own breezy English lavender fields.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 | 4 |
5 |
Next >>