Fragrant Foliage and Flowers— By John Williams, ,ss 



MAKE AN INVENTORY NOW OF ALL THE FRAGRANT PLANTS IN YOUR 

 GARDEN AND 'DECIDE WHAT TO ADD NOW, THIS FALL AND NEXT SPRING 





I" USED to think that the subtlest charm any 

 -■■ garden could have was the sound of run- 

 ning water, but now I know it is fragrance. 

 Moreover, the sense of smell is more potent 

 than touch, taste, sight or hearing, to bring 

 back precious memories. Does your garden 

 stir the heart? Does it set every one to 

 dreaming? If it does not, it probably lacks 

 fragrance. 



Ordinarily I write for men, because they 

 pay the bills for gardens and are the worst 

 garden sinners. They don't want to pay 

 enough, and my "mission," if I have one, is 

 to make them ashamed of unworthy gardens 

 and wish for the best there is. For a garden 

 is essential to the finest home life, and heaven 

 knows that the men in America ought to do 

 more to make home life all it should be. 

 I don't mean to say that men are indifferent 

 to the natural odors of the garden. Indeed 

 they are often moved to tenderness by the 

 memories thus aroused, and I even think 



that rough boys might become gentle if 

 brought up in a fragrant and beautiful 

 garden. But, however appreciative men 

 may be, you can't imagine them deliberately 

 planning for fragrance and then carrying 

 out the details. It needs a woman's taste 

 and intuition to select the plants and a 

 woman's loving care to arrange them. 



So I thought the best service I could do 

 for the ladies who read The Garden Maga- 

 zine would be to collect for them a list of all 

 the best fragrant plants and flowers and 

 arrange them in the most helpful way, instead 

 of putting them in a mere alphabetical list, 

 which gives no hint as to their value or 

 culture. I found several ways of grouping 

 them, a chemical classification, a psycho- 

 logical one, the order of their commercial 

 importance, their drug names, their nursery 

 names and their common names, but none 

 that seemed to me really helpful to the 

 gardener. So I have done the best I could 



with the limited space and here is my sugges- 

 tion. Make an inventory of the fragrant 

 plants in your garden and check off on 

 this list what you wish to add now, this fall 

 and next spring. It is well to make a list 

 of the months too and the fragrant plants 

 you have for each period, so that your garden 

 will be ever fragrant. If I can be of any 

 further help write me, enclosing a stajnped, 

 self-addressed envelope. 



EVER-FRAGRANT FOLIAGE 



Flowers are fragrant only when they 

 bloom, but foliage is fragrant whenever it is 

 bruised or brushed against. The following 

 are all evergreen, except the last four, which 

 have fragrant bark, buds or branches: 



Arborvitae 



Balsam fir 



Box 



Cedar of Lebanon 



Frazer's balsam 



Red cedar 



White cedar 



Wintergreen 



Sassafras 



Sweet birch 



Bayberry 



Sweet brier 



Thuya occidental is 

 Abies balsamea 

 Buxus sempervirens 

 Cedrus Libani 

 Abies Frascri 

 J uniperus \ ' irginia na 

 Chamcecyparis thuyoides 

 Gaultheria procumbcns 

 Sassafras officinale 

 Betula lenta 

 Myrica cerifera 

 Rosa ritbiginosa 





The following bushes and vines are fra- 

 grant throughout the growing season, or 

 from April to October: 



Ground ivy 

 Sweet fern 

 Fragrant sumach 



Nepeta Glechoma 

 Comptonia asplenifoli 

 Rhus aromatica 



The best herbs for edging paths and for 

 practical use, as well as fragrance, are the 

 following — all perennial: 



Balm of Gilead 



Lavender 



Lavender cotton 



Lemon balm 



Lemon thyme 



Lavage 



Mother of thyme 



Rosemary 



Sage 



Spearmint 



Thyme 



Woodruff 



Cedronella triphylla 

 Lavendula vera 

 Santolina Chamcecyparissus 

 Melissa officinalis 

 Thymus citriodorus 

 Levisticum officinale 

 Thymus Serpyllum 

 Rosmarina officinalis 

 Salvia officinalis 

 Mentha piperita 

 Thymus vidgaris 

 Asperula odorata 



For the wild garden, sweet cicely (Myrrhis 

 odorata) is good, either in meadows or woods. 



For the waterside the following are 

 appropriate: 



Bee balm 

 Musk 

 Sweet flag 



Monarda didyma 

 Mimulus moschatus 

 Acorus Calamus 



TREES WITH FRAGRANT FLOWERS . 



Those marked * should be planted only 

 in spring; the others either spring or fall. 



Nicoliana 



with pendent white flowers which do not close in the morning or on cloudy days, as 

 do those of N. alata (or affinis). 



332 



Empress tree (Pawlownia imperialis) . 

 ♦Chinese magnolia {Magnolia Yulan) . 

 ♦Flowering almond {Primus Japonica) . 

 English hawthorn {Crataegus Oxyacantha) 

 Siberian crab {Pyrus baccata) .... 

 Yellowwood {Cladrastis tinctoria) . . 

 Honey locust {Cleditschia triacanthos) 

 Linden (Tilia) 



April 

 April 

 April 

 May 

 May 

 June 

 June 



July 



