The fragrance is a blessing after the long winter months. But, then, even the smell of the good earth is ionic to the real dirt gardener.
However, the sweet scent of the early spring flowers is the harbinger of exciting pleasures to come, the enjoyment only a gardener with an educated nose can fully appreciate.
Rose Parade In June
June ushers in the first flowers of summer — the rose parade. Surely, something is missing in a rose without fragrance, so I like to grow many of the older climbing roses for my trellises and fences.
The dependable American Beauty, Silver Saloon, the wedding rose, lovely coral Jacotte with its holly-like foliage, Dr. Van Fleet, and, by all means, the gorgeous Spanish Beauty, Mme. Gregoire Staechelin — these have never lost their fragrance along the way.
Herbs Planted with Roses
There is a wealth of roses for your choosing amongst the newer ones with the added charm of successive blooming —New Dawn, Dream Girl, and Inspiration. All have a pleasant, spicy perfume, especially when brought indoors and used in bouquets.
In this respect, floribunda roses, too, are deservedly popular and, with the hybrid teas, give a lush richness to summer borders.
Cut quantities of buds before the rose bugs destroy them; this will serve as part of the early pruning, which includes removing the old cluster heads and cutting out the dead wood to guarantee all-season bloom.
In front of my rose borders, I like to grow some aromatic herbs such as thyme, silver-gray sage, and sweet-scented mint, Mentha requieni, for they make excellent companions to the roses that have but little odor.
Fascinating Flowering Shrubs
From early spring until late fall, flowering shrubs are a fascination to both gardeners and passer-by alike.
The penetrating sweetness of the several types of lilacs, daphne, azaleas, and Viburnum carlesii is known and loved by most home-owners, but the fragrant shrubs which bloom in the summer can be as real a delight.
Clethra
My favorite is clethra, or sweet pepper bush, which blooms in August. This is one shrub that likes semi-shade, is generally disease-resistant and is shunned by the Japanese beetle.
The lovely, erect racemes of creamy flowers are so intensely sweet-scented that many friends who come to my garden invariably inquire, “Oh what is that wonderful fragrance?”
The foliage of this shrub, which some people call summer-sweet, is bright green, and both flower and foliage are splendidly mixed with other flowers in arrangements. It can be increased easily from its spreading roots.
Calycanthus
Calycanthus, or strawberry shrub, also good for shady places, is liked on account of its curious, chocolate-colored flowers, which have a fruity fragrance, and its aromatic foliage.
The buddleias, or butterfly bushes, with white, pink, lavender, and wine blooms, and vitex, the chaste tree, with long spikes of lavender-blue flowers, should be drastically pruned in early Spring for they bloom on the new growth.
They should then be pinched several times as we do our chrysanthemums to make compact shrubs with more bloom. The butterflies and hummingbirds often come to these dainty, scented flowers.
Sweet Scented Vines
Vines having sweet-scented flowers are best planted near the house or on arbors or trellises where their perfume can be most easily enjoyed.
Among the most reliable are the honeysuckle, Clematis paniculata, Silver lace vine, Polygonum aubertii, akebia. And for late summer and fall, the moonflower, is an annual with an overpowering fragrance.
We plant the moonflowers to grow on trellis and string supports on the South of the house just outside the dining room windows.
There the delicious scent which comes through the windows lets us know when the blossoms begin to unfold and we hasten to watch the miracle of their opening.
Summer Perennials
Among the summer perennials, I always pick armfuls of half-open peony buds and enjoy them in the house, for they last longer and are so sweet to smell.
To me, there is no sadder sight than the soft, creamy pink of Sarah Bernhardt or the pure white of Festima Maxima face down in the mud.
Japanese Peonies
Some Japanese peonies in crested and single forms have slender stems and should be scenting the house instead of being beaten by the wind or eaten by the rose bugs.
Two old-fashioned flowers that used to be in many a Grandma’s garden, heliotrope and sweet rocket, are not grown as often as they should be, for they are richly scented and good companions for the more brilliant June perennials.
Scented Plants
From June until September, the hemerocallis, or daylilies, are a long delight and can be counted on for the back borders.
The old-time lemon lily is perhaps the most pleasingly scented with its faint, spicy odor. Still, some of the newer varieties, such as Hyperion, Ophir, Serenade, and many others, are equally pleasing to the nose and astonishingly free-flowering, provided you have time to pick off the faded flowers.
Phlox bloom is the real sign of Summer; white and distinctly sweet-scented Miss Lingard, grouped with the deep scarlet bee balm and maroon sweet William, is a favorite hunting ground for the hummers.
A Fragrant Plantain Lily
If you are a lily fan, you know that almost all of them, especially the regals and time madonnas, are indispensable in the summer garden and are cool and refreshing.
However, if you do not raise lilies, the sturdy plantain lilies, or hostas, will please you.
The hostas’ foliage is helpful for summer flower arrangements, and the white, airy, graceful flowers of the Hosta plantaginea, just dripping with fragrance, will last well in bouquets.
Nose Garden
In one garden corner which I call my “nose garden,” I grow sweet-smelling, silver-leaf thyme, lavender, tuberoses, lemon verbena, parsley, and scented geraniums with velvet leaves, for I use herbs as accents in the borders rather than give them garden by themselves.
I like to visit this garden in the rain to inhale the rich, aromatic fragrance that fills the air.
Oftentimes other gardeners ask me for a few leaves to take home. I know it takes them back to their gardens of other times, for some of them have only memories today.
Perennials With Quality And Fragrance
To complete the list of perennials having quality and fragrance, the cimicifugae rate is high.
Cimicifuga racemosa blooms in July and grows tall with long, lacy, cream-colored spikes of bloom, while C. simplex blooms in late fall here in Massachusetts and, if not watched carefully, will freeze with the first frosts. I value this highly for flower arranging because of its lovely curves.
Therefore, I always pick the fall blooms in the bud and bring them indoors, where they open up into large flowers. Both varieties are fragrant, immune to insects, and should be divided every three years.
To end the season in a blaze of glory, consider the many colors and varieties of chrysanthemums — the flower which refuses to die and often gives bloom as late as Thanksgiving.
If we were without the annuals to fill in those bare spots in the borders, we would be unfortunate indeed.
Why not have quantities of them, including some that are not so common, for the joys of a garden, are the surprises it may hold for us.
Blue Star Flower And Bells of Ireland
I am very enthusiastic about the two I grew last summer, the Southern star or blue star flower (Oxypcialura coeruleum) and the curious and beautiful Bells of Ireland (Molucella laevis). Both are fascinating annuals, easy to germinate and transplant to the borders.
The southern star has a small, blue flower on a sprawling stem that looks like lovely porcelain and lasts well. It is especially attractive in small bouquets.
The Bells of Ireland have long, curving stems of a definite chartreuse green from which the bells grow in spirals giving the effect of the spiral eucalyptus found in the florists’ shops.
Inside each green bell is a rather inconspicuous white flower, the center of which holds one seed.
The odd but very pungent fragrance comes from the bells and scents the house with a cleansing odor. If kept in water in a cool place, it can be useful in arrangements until long after the other flowers have gone.
I grew both annuals in a special bed with Orange Blossom nicotiana, which happily stays open during the daytime. They were very good companions requiring full sun.
Old friends of most gardeners are sweet peas, carnations, sweet alyssum, and petunias. Still, the dean smell of calendulas in the fall planted in the borders with upland cress and Oak-leaf lettuce seems to complete my garden picture with a special kind of flavorsome fragrance.
44659 by Mrs. Charles F. Berry