Rosa
Félicité Parmentier
A Contrary Gardener - 'Escential' plants - part 2
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Another eclectic ragbag of scented plants [but by no means all];
Trees and shrubs
Acacia
London - grey drab winters on the cusp of spring, crackling cellophane
encased bunches of chick yellow pom-poms. The South of France one early
spring, sunshine, a good lunch, sitting admiring the hills clothed in
golden yellow mimosa. People picking cream freesias at the side of the
road, fat purple orchid spikes and Anemome coronaria in still leafless
woodland. The scent for me links winter to spring. In favoured gardens
in S E suburbs and South West a sudden and unexpected brush of yellow
announces Acacia dealbata in spring. How do you describe the scent?
Like old fashioned face powder and almonds? But beware not all are very
scented, I find A. baileyana disappointing, A. retinodes
is scented and has a longer flowering period.
For more about Acacias.
Azara
A whiff of chocolate in April heralds the opening up of the little yellow
flower tufts on Azara microphylla. This is an airy smallish tree
with sprays of small oval leaves either deep green or variegated. The
flower tufts run along under the branches like little caterpillar eggs
before they open. Bath Botanic Garden has a good mature all-green specimen
which gives some idea of eventual height and spread. Azara dentata
is altogether larger, with glossy mid green toothed evergreen leaves and
larger more conspicuous yellow flower tufts in summer.
Picture of Azara microphylla 'Variegata'
Cercidiphyllum
japonicum
The Katsura tree seems to be a bit of a grumpy grower [prone to frost
and doesn't like drought much] although the full grown specimen in the
Bath Botanic Garden is a strapping giant. Elegant in leafage the reason
I single it out is for the candyfloss smell that emanates from the leaves
as they turn pale pink and yellow in the autumn.
Clerodendrum
trichotomum
A bit of a sprawly growing small deciduous tree. Mine which was grown
from seed [now about 12 feet high] has been nipped to form a single trunk
topped by a mop of large rough heart shaped leaves. As I write in mid
August the large white jasmine scented starry flowers are opening to be
followed by blue berries.
Cupressus
I am not 'up' on the good and bad here, but I just love the scent on a
warm summer day. The sweet piney smell is deliciously Mediterranean and
evokes indolent summers past and school holidays.
Olearia
solandri
A rather lovely shrub with very small hard leaves, the twigs and undersides
having a golden tinge. Rather stiff and upright in growth it takes clipping
quite well. In winter the scent of honey wafts from it's warming foliage.
In August tiny white fluffy daisy flower puffs again exude the vanilla
honey scent. Genders notes that quite a number of other Olearia are also
scented ranging from honey to strongly musky e.g. O. macrodonta.
Populus
balsamifera [Tacamahac]
A US native and another tree that announces its presence from a distance.
In spring when the sticky buds unfurl and in autumn as the leaves fall
[and in between too]. Not a tree for a small garden, get someone else
to plant it and enjoy the scent and the clatter of leaves in a gentle
breeze. Rich sweet and cedary.
Rhododendron
It tends to be the more tender Rhodo's that carry a scent. However R.fortunei
flowered for me for the first time this May; a pleasant scent from loose
open off-white flowers. But what a revelation at Knightshayes recently
[August] two huge Rhodos were in flower and what a scent - sweetly medicinal,
was common to both with a subtle difference between the two. They were
R. auriculatum and its hybrid 'Polar Bear', both bearing huge white
flowers and having magnificent maroon buds [particularly 'Polar Bear'].
Roses
Very subjective. Of the roses I grow currently the most deeply scented
are a David Austin rose, 'Sharifa Asma' and an old rose, Félicité
Parmentier, both are pale pink through white. A fellow allotmenteer who
used to be next to me grew a bush of 'Arthur Bell' whose yellow flowers
gave off a generous pleasing scent for quite a distance. As I walk past
people's front gardens venerable gnarley Hybrid T's bring back memories
of car journey's home from my grandmother's; an eclectic collection of
blowsy blooms wrapped in wet newspaper on the back parcel shelf filled
the car with their scent. Rosa eglantaria and crosses such as Lady
and Lord Penzance have strongly apple scented leaves when brushed or aroused
by rain.
More about Félicité
Parmentier
Climbers
Ipomea alba
[bona nox]
A spindly twining plant with glossy pale green heart shaped leaves; throws
out huge white trumpets like a wet umbrella at the end of a long thin
tube; what a long tongued moth! Unfurling towards evening [hence another
name for it is Moonflower] the scent is 'lily' like. Apparently a native
of Greece and a perennial in warmer climes, but a half-hardy annual for
us outside in the UK. Really punches through the compost as it emerges
from seed which is very satisfying. Can be prone to spidermite.
Perennials, annuals and such like
Dianthus
Who can resist the sweet clovey scent of 'pinks'? Another one of those
'treats' is when the flower stalls start selling bunches of pinks, paeonies
and sweetpeas in early summer, not terribly long lasting but a pleasure.
To mention just a few, Mrs Sinkins, very doubled fringed white; Bridal
Veil, very doubled fringed white with red splotch at the base of the petals;
William Brownhill, Dad's Favourite and Paisley Gem, old laced pinks; Fenbow's
Nutmeg Clove, deep red double which goes back to at least the 17th Century
if not earlier.
Wallflower
[Erysimum]
Another member of the cabbage family that smells so sweet. I favour the
richer deeper russet reds and bronzes with their sumptuous velvet finish.
A hint of floor polish and sweetness and the promise of the advancing
season for early butterflies and bees. Grown as a biennial which means
it is sown in one year to flower in the next. Some older cultivars have
been kept going through the years from cuttings; 'Old Bloody Warrior'
has double russet and deep red flowers, 'Harpur Crewe' a more sprightly
grower has small neat heads of doubled yellow flowers.
Fern
Old Victorian greenhouses come to mind when I bruise the fronds of Polypodium
vulgare as I weed. There is something almost instantly cooling about
the scent, evocative of moist woodland glades in retreat from summer sun
and shades of autumn. We have a gently moist climate here in the West
Country and ferns abound in woods and banks mingling with woodruff, gladwyn
iris, bluebells and wild garlic. Ferns unfold in varied ways, the blades
along the fronds of the Blechnum chilense are all individually
curled into the central spine; others emerge as imperfect shepherds crooks
unhunching and some of the softer one's unroll from tightly curled knots.
Nicotiana
sylvestris
Spurred-on by a recent 'Gardener's World' [no doubt like thousands of
others], I have re-aquainted myself with these tall-growing tobacco plants.
Apparently a native of Argentina known colloquially as 'Woodland Tobacco',
which gives some clues for its growing preferences [real tobacco is Nicotiana
tabacum]. The heavily scented long downward facing white trumpets
glow as the light fades and the scent starts pumping, gathering the long
tongued moths to gorge. The large leaves are strongly aromatic and sticky,
distinct but not quite so pleasant. N. sylvestris is easily grown
from seed sown in spring, but watch carefully as they can fall victim
to slugs and snails.
Primula
florindae
All the way from Tibet, one of those boggy loving primulas with bells
on long stalks. The flowers are normally in shades of yellow to tawny
orange. The rich scent is reminiscent of cowslips and auriculas. Sadly
rather a favourite with the slithering fiends. I have grown from fresh
seed, it may need to be sown in autumn and overwintered outside for best
results.
Squash
- Chioggia
A complete revelation whilst weeding the other day, strong and sweet almost
verging on unpleasant after prolonged exposure [a bit like Lupinus
arborea]. I am not sure if it is just the male golden yellow flowers
hopefully upturned to the sun that are so strongly scented or whether
the shyer female flowers do too.
Reference:
Scented
Flora of the World [1977 & 1994] Roy Genders, an excellent reference
work on scented trees, shrubs, bulbs, climbers, annuals and perennials.
The Evening Garden [Timber Press, 1993] Peter Loewer
Trees in Britain [1978] Roger Phillips
Pan Global Plants
Like a moth [moth obsessed this month] to a flame, I have visited Nick
Macer's nursery a couple of times this year in its new home at Frampton-on-Severn.
Situated in a walled garden it will be fantastic when planted up, [get
on with the garden!].
Don't go if you have any room at all for unusual trees and shrubs, you
will be too tempted and may find yourself coming away with a small exotic
glade. He stocks the Azara and Acacia mentioned above.
I finally succumbed to Bergenia ciliatum [I have eyed it up at
Pan Global for a few years now] it has hairy paddled leaves rather than
the more usual glossy cabbagey ones. I smelled Kniphofia brachystachya
for the first time - chocolate! I have tried to establish this plant
a number of times and failed, sadly Mr Macer's were not for sale this
year.
A wander through the polytunnels will tempt you further, but many items are not for sale, you must pass by with an admiring glance and put a small acquisitive tick on the mental must-have list.
I am looking forward to the flowers of Spiranthes 'Chadd's Ford' a form of terrestrial orchid called 'Autumn Lady's Tresses'. And I have enjoyed a couple of Epimedium's I bought from him this year and a few year's ago E. wushanense 'Caramel' and E x omeiense 'Akame'. Another revelation Centaurea kotschyana, odd glossy maroon/black tuffets contained by the usual brown overlapping centaurea casing but has a strong sweet scent.
For Wallflower,
Ipomea and Nicotiana seeds try Chiltern
Seeds
For Dianthus and older Wallflower plants try Bernwode
Plants
[All work on this site appears in draft]
@Kari's garden 2003