HOW ABOUT HERBS 



Twilight. One poet — I don't 

 know who — called it I'heure 

 bleu. The interval when birds do 

 their evening ballet in the sky, 

 then sing their chicks to sleep. 

 The white flowers in the garden 

 gleam, as others disappear into the 

 building darkness. This is why 

 Vita Sackville-West planted her 

 white garden — for enjoyment at 

 twilight. Fragrance intensifies — it's 

 time to enjoy garden aromatherapy. 



Aromatherapy has enhanced 

 homes for hundreds of years. It's 

 one of the most traditional uses 

 for aromatics. In medieval times, 

 "strewing herbs"were scattered over 

 the packed dirt floors to make the 

 house smell better and keep it free 

 from germs. In Victorian times, la- 

 dies would provide a different pot- 

 pourri for each room of the house. 

 All sorts of essential oils have been 

 vaporized to get rid of unpleasant 

 odors, prepare a room for medita- 

 tion, or create an intimate mood. 

 Now, let's take it a step further — 

 into our gardens at twilight. 



Plants other than herbs come to 

 mind. The "lemon daylily" {He- 

 merocallis flava) has pale yellow 

 petals that glisten and a lemon- 

 honeysuckle scent that is delight- 

 ful. Daylilies are enjoying great 

 popularity right now, with new 

 cultivars turning up every day. 

 They're just about the easiest of 

 the cultivars to grow and a mass 

 of them is most impressive. But 

 for fragrance, be sure it's the old- 

 fashioned H. flava and not H. 

 fulva (the common orange daylily) 

 that you are choosing. 



If you want to be certain to 

 have twilight fragrance, plant Nic- 

 otiana. Considered an annual, it 

 reseeds readily, so once you plant 

 it, you'll always have it. The fra- 

 grance holds off all day, waiting 

 for the softer light. Celia Thaxter, 

 famous for her gardens on the 

 Isles of Shoals, mentions nictotiana 

 and its perfume in her writings. 

 The tubular flowers open and re- 



lease their sweetness as dusk ap- 

 proaches. Focus on the white vari- 

 eties so you can see them as well 

 as smell them, but all nicotianas 

 are deliciously fragrant and hum- 

 mingbirds love the red ones. 



At Cypress gardens in Florida, I 

 saw my first brugmansia. It was as 

 big as a tree! We can only grow it 

 as an annual or in a pot to keep 

 inside in winter. The huge trum- 

 pets hung all over it and the 

 evening fragrance was overpower- 

 ing. Some people say it smells like 

 bath soap or cheap perfume. Oth- 

 ers think it smells like lilies. There 

 are several colors — peach, yellow, 

 pale pink, but the whites 

 {Brugmansia x Candida and B. 

 suaveolens) have the most fra- 

 grance. At the Family Patch in 

 Scarborough, Maine, owned by the 

 radio garden personality, Paul Par- 

 ent, you'll find as number of 



good-sized brugmansia and smaller 

 sizes for sale. If you REALLY want 

 perfume in your garden, consider 

 this plant and bring it inside for 

 winter. 



Old-fashioned stock (Matthiola 

 longipetala is the night-scented va- 

 riety), four-o'clocks {Mirabalis 

 jalapa and M. longiflora), and En- 

 glish wallflowers {Cheiranthus) are 

 all very fragrant. They are not of- 

 ten grown nowadays and you may 

 have to search for seed, but they 

 are worth the effort. 



I picture a screened gazebo sur- 

 rounded by a border of old-time 

 plants such as these. I'll slip away 

 to it for my twilight meditation 

 and I'heure bleu will not be blue at 

 all, but glowing with happiness. 



Tanya Jackson, a well-known area 

 herbalist, can be reached at 603- 

 431-8011. 



a 



This spring, our testing lab in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and I 

 have both noticed that many geranium growers are experiencing 

 unusual pH drop. What makes this so difficult is that geraniums 

 left on their own with neutral water and no additional fertilizer will 

 cause the pH of the media to drop. Geraniums and a few other 

 crops — celosia, begonia, dianthus, tomato — have this unique ability 

 to alter the pH on their own. 



Most growers in the Northeast have fairly pure water with pHs 

 lower than what most plants need. Because of this, growers here 

 need to monitor their media in order to insure that the pH remains 

 in the 5.8-to-6 range. Geraniums compound the problem with their 

 natural ability to lower pH. 



Geraniums grow best at a pH of 6 or slightly higher (many other 

 spring bedding crops can grow in a wider range). Iron toxicity is 

 usually the first sign that a geranium is growing in too low a pH: 

 leaf-bronzing indicates that too much iron is available. By raising 

 the pH, you will reduce the availability of iron. By using calcium- 

 based fertilizers such as calcium nitrate, 15-0-15, or 15-5-15 in your feed 

 program, you will insure that the pH stays in a satisfactory range. 



Jim Zablocki, Technical Manager of the Northern Horticultural 

 Group, the Scotts Company, can be reached at 603-224-^^8). 



