sense of smell. There is nothing more delightful than the perfume that floats on the early summer evening air before pollination has been completed in your garden. It fills you with a sense of peace and relaxation, erasing troubles and replacing them with a feeling of well- being. There are few annuals that are highly
fragrant including two very common flowers: pansies and petunias. Carnations. Carnations are a kind of
dianthus and what we call “baby carna- tions” in florists’ bouquets are easy to grow. They have a lovely spicy scent, like all dianthus, and grow 18 to 24 inches tall on blue-green stems. You
22 SPRING 2013
Fragrant flower A
ll our senses are engaged in the garden, but the one most overlooked by breeders and growers in recent years is our
can plant them from seed directly into the garden when all danger of frost has passed or grow them in a container. They will reward you with scent and colour all summer long. Evening scented stock (Mattiola
longipetala) fills the evening air with a clove-like spicy scent that will knock you over. The flowers are very attrac- tive, too, although the plant is in bloom only in early summer. Four o’clocks bloom at four o’clock
in the afternoon and work hard for your attention with puffs of pretty scent. ‘The white Mirablis longiflora smells like orange blossoms and will reward you from midsummer to fall. Plant them out from seeds. Heliotrope. For a very strong and
pleasing fragrance, there is nothing like heliotrope which smells like vanilla.
A favourite in ‘Marine’ with its very dark blue clusters of flowers. It will bloom all summer long. Moonflower. A happy moonflower
vine (Ipomoea alba) will grow 12 feet in a season and bloom from late afternoon until the following morning, twining around strings and sticks and clamber- ing over trellises. The flowers are large (up to six inches across), star-shaped and hauntingly fragrant.
If you are
patient, you may be lucky enough to watch one of the short-lived blossoms open in real time. http://www.squi-
doo.com/moonf lowers-night-bloom- ing-plants Nicotiana, especially N. sylvestris, N.
elata and N. Suaveolens have a lovely scent. N. Sylvestris is a giant with huge leaves and very large white tubular flowers. It loves sunshine.
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