There is more to a good garden than an abundance of pretty flowers. Plants with showy flowers naturally attract the most attention, but the scent is more subtle than color.
A mere whiff of a pleasing fragrance from a bruised aromatic leaf can conjure up half a lifetime of memories and give refreshing enjoyment.
Meanwhile, herbs that produce the fragrant volatile oils that please us so much are, among others, lemon verbena, lavenders, rose geranium, rosemary, and pineapple sage.
Their most appreciated characteristics are attractive foliage, usefulness in the garden, pleasing fragrance, and sentimental charm.
Lavender
Lavendula officinalis or L. vera
All species of lavender make attractive plants anywhere in the garden because of their vigorous, neat, compact shrubby habit of growth, beautiful gray-green foliage, and the perfume given off by the entire plant.
This herb-garden lavender grows about two feet tall with slender, flowering terminal spikes on tall, squarish stems. The dried, labiate flowers are used in sachets for perfuming linens and potpourri.
Cut the stems just as flowering begins; spread them to dry in a shady, airy place; strip the dried flowers from the stems and store them in airtight containers until used.
The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans gathered lavender leaves and flowers to make perfume. Today commercial lavender oil is of great importance in the manufacture of smell, especially in England.
Culture—A well-drained, wind-sheltered sunny place in dry, alkaline soil on the poor will produce better-scented plants than moist, rich soil. The dwarf forms usually require some protection and make attractive, small hedge-like plants.
Few pests or diseases disturb lavender, but it prefers dryness to dampness. It can start plants from the cuttings.
Lemon Verbena
Lippia citriodora
In Chile, where this woody plant is native, it grows to ten feet. It is not hardy with us. The abundant, lanceolate, crisp-looking, light green leaves two or three inches in length may be dried and used to make fragrant herb pillows or add a clean freshness to the sweet scents of potpourri.
None of the lemon-scented herbs keeps its fragrance when dried, so dry plenty of foliage for potpourri use. The tiny white flowers are borne in pyramidal panicles of fairy-like elegance. Fresh leaves add a distinctive taste to iced tea and other drinks.
Culture—Young plants may be bought early in spring, set outside in a sunny location in ordinary garden soil for the summer, and further enjoyed as house plants during the winter, in pots. The plant increases readily from cuttings of new growth taken about the end of July.
Rose Geranium
Pelargonium graveolens
This is the old-fashioned rose geranium used so much in potpourri, sachets, scented pillows, and perfume. The scented geraniums, which botanically are species of Pelargonium, are so-called because of their fragrant foliage and not because of fragrant flowers.
They were introduced from South Africa into England early in the seventeenth century. When touched, the branched, rounded, hairy stems bear divided opposite, five-lobed, and slightly woolly leaves that give off a delightful rose-like fragrance.
Rose geranium and lemon verbena, favorites in the nineties, prized for their fragrant foliage, still retain their appeal. Dry plenty for potpourri. A leaf flavors jellies, custards, cakes.
Culture—Pelargoniums are tender plants that may be kept in pots or tubs the year around or set in the flower border for summer. Like lemon verbena, small plants may be purchased in spring and placed outdoors in full sunshine to make lusty growth until frost. Cuttings for the smaller plants may be rooted in sand in July.
Pineapple Sage
Salvia rutilans
This branching, bushy Mexican native is a form of perennial salvia grown for its rich fruit-like fragrance. The pungent, yellow-green pointed ovate leaves may be used for flavoring desserts, herb teas or tisanes, garnishing fruit drinks, and adding to sachets and potpourri.
Pineapple sage blooms in fall, being a short-day plant like the chrysanthemum, so the tubular, firecracker red, narrow flower spikes are only occasionally seen in the garden.
Culture—It grows like a tropical plant in ordinary garden soil, enjoying warm, humid weather. You may start Winter-blooming plants from cuttings taken at any time—these make ideal house plants.
Rosemary
Rosmarinus officinalis
Rosemary, for remembrance, is a gracious plant with a long history. It is a slow-growing, fragrant, shrubby herb with a woody trunk, shredded bark, and narrow, obtuse, aromatic, glossy, stemless evergreen leaves curled along the margins to show a grayish under-surface.
Tiny, pale, lavender-blue flowers in axillary racemes, from buds formed on the previous season’s growth, will show on the older branching woody stems anytime from midwinter to spring. The whole plant is fragrant with its characteristic smell.
The flowers are liked by bees and impart their flavor to honey gathered where it grows plentifully. Rosemary oil distilled from the leafy flowering tips is used as one of the ingredients in preparing eau-de-cologne. The dried leaves may be used for seasoning lamb, veal, pork, or chicken dishes in cooking.
Culture—Buy small plants in spring and set them in the summer garden in alkaline, light, well-drained soil in a sunny sheltered spot. At the first hint of white frost pot up the best plant and enjoy it as Shakespeare a fragrant winter house plant. Heel cuttings root easily in sand.