It is entirely appropriate that the scented plants and the herb garden should be considered together. Some plants, for instance lavender, have aromatic leaves and scented flowers. It is, however, more usual to find the two qualities separatecistus and southernwood have strongly aromatic leaves, but the flowers are not endowed with fragrance.

Generally speaking, the aromatic qualities are more subtle than those of fragrance. In some plants the air around is impregnated with the aroma, as with sweetbriars and pine trees; but usually this quality is not brought out particularly strongly apart from handling except after rain, which would bruise the scent- glands in the foliage; or under a warm sun or a hot day, which helps to volatilize the essential oil content and bring it out on the air. Then rosemary, santolina and lemon verbena, marjoram and pelargonium are noticed.

Herbal BeautyThe fragrance of flowers varies, too; and obviously, one plant will not have the widely-permeating influence of a large bed. Amongst those whose fragrance seems to float widely are the musk hybrid roses, honeysuckle, making a whole lane exquisite in season; lime trees, having the advantage of height and quantity of flowers; and privet, exhaling its odd aroma—a little irreverently, like the emanation from a milk-chocolate-biscuit factory, but possessing for me the pleasing associations of summer holiday lanes and gardens by the sea.

Then there is philadelphus, the mock-orange, overpowering to some, but rather lovely in the garden; and the wistfulness of meadowsweet. The dianthus Rainbow Loveliness has as heart-breaking a scent as any—it stabs and heals at the same time.

For me, wallflowers have a wonderfully friendly and homely scent; and stocks also, perhaps with an unconscious domestic hint of cloves and so of apple pies and their associations.

Violets and primroses have an intimacy of clean goodness; while lilac and lilyof-the-valley have an elusive perfection, the seductive trail of the unattainable till we reach eternity.

The traditional spiciness of clove gilliflowers or carnations accords well with the herb garden; and the old-fashioned sweet peas, purple-violet and crimson, have the finest perfume. If one collects seed of the waved kinds and sows it, then collects again another year, some variants of the old-fashioned type usually occur.

There are now charming dwarf single sweet peas growing some 12 inches high.

Some are most drawn by the mystery of white jasmine; others by nicotiana (now produced in colours and with flowers that stay open during the day) or night-scented stock. The widely exhaled fragrance of lilies has a spiritual quality, charged with meaning that is repeated in the varied depths or purity of the flower.

There is all the renewed hope of spring in the first bunch-flowered narcissus bought at Christmas, holding a promise we can trust; and in the sweetness of hyacinths grown indoors to cheer the late winter days.

Have you thought of the contribution made by trees and hedges? Pines give out a healing type of scent, perhaps specially valuable as it suggests, with the tang of bracken, the freedom of heather-covered hills. Amongst firs, the Pseudotsuga douglasi, the Douglas fir, has a scent redolent of pineapples. Cypress and particularly thuj a hedges impart a fruity tang to the air; and there is the indefinable freshness of box hedges. The far-flung fragrance of apple-blossom is delectable.

Whatever the design of the herb garden, these shrubs and plants can be brought into the scheme. Honeysuckle, wistaria, with a musky aroma, Clematis montana with starry flowers and a vanilla scent, white jasmine and climbing roses can be trained on the house, the shed or unsightly building, made to ramble over a pergola or arbour, or trailed on a trellis of suitable design. Sheltering hedges could include some of the aromatic subjects, such as thuja. For dwarf hedges, lavender and those others mentioned later can be employed.

The aromatic scented shrubs may also in some cases be trained on walls or fences; or grown as specimens. They can be particularly useful to provide shelter from prevailing winds, or to fill borders on the fringe of the scheme, interplanted with suitable perennial or annual herbs or scented plants—lungwort, hellebores, Anchusa sempervirens, for interest, or annuals such as night-scented stock. Some low aromatic shrubs also provide ground-cover, such as wintergreen and Sarcococca humilis, with scented flowers in spring.

Carnations, pinks, and viola (with a subtle, friendly scent all their own), are suitable for filling-in the groundwork of knot-gardens, and for clumps at the front of the border. During the summer, large groups of the various scented pelargoniums, pineapple sage and heliotrope can be planted-out, remembering that the average height will be 2 feet or so. Humea elegans is delightful, too.

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