Fragrant Gardens

Breeathhee deep. A simple, centuries-old remedy for reducing stress/anxiety, calming the nerves, and restoring energy. Olfactory gardens, also called scented, fragrant, or aromatherapy gardens, enhance this simple calming technique. They are designed with your nose in mind.

(To be consistent, in this article I’ll stay with the term fragrant garden since olfactory sounds, well, stuffy.)

A Brief Note on Smelling

A 2014 study from Rockefeller University threw out the long-held belief that our sense of smell isn’t worth mentioning. Scientists found that we’re actually capable of distinguishing over 1 TRILLION odors.

Beyond telling when something is nice or foul, safe or dangerous, our sense of smell can affect emotion, memory, and learning. Loss of smell (anosmia) is associated with diminished quality of life.

Smell Anatomy 101

The brain can be directly accessed from the nasal cavities by way of scent nerves. Olfactory bulbs, located on the front underside of the brain directly over the nasal cavities, is the landing site for scents traveling up through the nose or mouth.

The olfactory bulb receives tiny molecules that form the basis of a scent and sends them along to other parts of the brain which then ‘label’ the collection of molecules as a particular scent.

The Nose-to-Brain Connection

Since the late 1980s, researchers have been exploring the potential of more effectively treating diseases of the brain by delivering drugs directly into the brain through the nose. This can mean great things for people contending with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, and other brain disorders. Nose-to-brain drug delivery can more effectively get medication into the brain.

Breathe-In Therapy

Neuroscientists can now explain how scents affect us. Research on this subject is usually carried out by those who study the brain or the mind.

Aromatherapy is used around the world to, among other things, ease nausea in cancer patients, reduce anxiety, promote sleep and reduce fatigue in dialysis patients.

But, you’ve probably experienced for yourself the effect of an aroma. You got hungry, nostalgic, relaxed, or energized by what your nose encountered. You may’ve even sought out a scent on purpose because of the way you wanted to feel.

Unlike aromatherapy, a fragrant garden doesn’t require distillation equipment, droppers, or tiny little bottles. All you have to do is stroll walk through or sit for a while. And breathe in deeply.

By planting according to bloom time, you can have your own live aromatherapy walk or spot all year round. Fragrance in Bloom: The Scented Garden Throughout the Year by Ann Lovejoy, details how to cultivate over 300 plants so you’ll always have something fragrant in bloom, even at night.

There is actually such a thing as an aromatherapy garden. By definition, aromatherapy is the application or inhalation of fragrant essential oils for therapeutic purposes.

If you want to learn how to create your garden for a specific therapy, check out Kathy Kevill’s book, The Aromatherapy Garden: Growing Fragrant Plants for Happiness and Well-Being. She shows how to group flowers and plants to create a therapeutic garden. Then you can go the traditional route of creating essential oils, sachets, and teas.

Tour a Fragrant Garden

If you’d like to experience a fragrant garden before deciding if one is right for your homespace – or just because – why not plan a visit to one or more of these Mid-Atlantic gardens that contain fragrant gardens:

Colonial Park Arboretum and Gardens
Colonial Park
156 Mettlers Road, Franklin Township
East Millstone, NJ 08873
(732) 873-2495

Rose & Fragrance Garden
The Arboretum at Penn State
The Pennsylvania State University
336 Forest Resources Building
University Park PA 16802-3604
(814)-865-9118

Brookside Gardens
1800 Glenallan Ave.
Wheaton, MD 20902
(301) 962-1400

Agecroft Hall & Gardens
4305 Sulgrave Rd.
Richmond, VA 23221 804-353-4241

Sense Appeal

Fragrant gardens are often created for the benefit of the visually impaired, providing a delightful sensory experience of smell, touch and sometimes even sound and taste.

If you have lots of room, a rock or walled garden can feature a variety of fragrant trees, shrubs, and plants. Scent in Your Garden by Stephen Lacey shows how this is done.

Are you ready to create your own fragrant garden?

DIY Fragrant Garden

Let’s build one. Better Homes and Gardens offers a few fragrant garden plans. Some feature roses, others are designed to accentuate a particular space, and others encourage touch since some plants need a little pressure to release their scent.

Location and Layout

Indoors or out, you’ll want to position the plants according to their height, keeping them within easy reach of your nose. For low-growing plants, consider:

• hanging baskets
• raised garden beds
• tabletop planters

Or install a bench or chair to come down closer to the flowers and to have a more immersive experience.

Choose a path where you can stroll along, an arch over a walkway to linger under, or a quiet spot to sit and take a breath from the day’s overload.

For the truly ambitious, what about ac-scenting (sorry, couldn’t resist) your living space? Especially for the dark days of winter.

Since most plants that smell nice are also pleasing to the eye, include in your decor little islands of scent and color to delight your senses as you go from one room to another.

Creative souls at Brain Factory developed the Olfactory Scent of a Garden Apartment Project which combines modern decor with strategically placed scent-sational plantware. Perhaps the project will inspire you, even if you’re not keen on the ultra modern look.

Avoiding Sensory Overload

Too much of anything can be a bad thing; this can be painfully true of fragrances. You don’t want your garden to cause you to find it hard to catch your breath.

How many flowers of one type should be planted, with how many of another… Unless you’re a nose-worthy (nope, not gonna stop with the puns) expert on fragrance blending and balance, you may want to start with one of the many fragrant garden guides to start out.

Scent Givers – What to Grow

Flowers and leaves come on stalks that rise directly from the soil, vines that wind around trellises, and shrubs or trees which can grow quite tall.

Including hosta in the list wasn’t a mistake. Mostly we focus on the beautiful leaves and overlook the flowers. According to Planet Delights, there are 56 varieties of fragrant hostas.

Citrus is on the indoor list but, as discussed in a previous article, it can be grown outdoors in the Mid-Atlantic in a container during warm months. The same goes for ginger lily.

Other possibilities:

• Phlox [4 – 8]
• Butterfly Bush [4 – 5]
• Flowering Crabapple (tree) [4 – 8]
• Peony [3 – 8]
• Viburnum (Korean Spice) [4 – 7]

You might incorporate chamomile or thyme mats to step on along your path; barefoot, if you’re not allergic. And speaking of herbs, consider a culinary fragrant garden featuring:

• rosemary
• sage
• lemongrass
• thyme
• basil
• mint

Enjoying Your Fragrant Garden

The list of flowers here is by no means exhaustive. The more you read about fragrant gardens, the more options you’ll find. I wonder if anyone has come up with a tiny fragrant garden that would fit in a small office…

What will your garden grow? An energizing uplift, a soulful mellowing, clarity for a muddled mind, or a tool to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)? There’s likely a plan out there. Gardening centers and books are two useful resources for guidance and shopping assistance.

So, I ask again, are you ready to grow your fragrant garden?

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