sooo….y’all know where this is going, right? It’s Spring and a old woman’s fancy turns to digging things up and moving them around – I mean, really? I didn’t look at where the sun hits when I planted a big blue hosta? Really? I’ve only been gardening for 50+ years, ever since I was old enough to be trusted with a trowel. But that’s half the fun of gardening, I think, spending Quality Time ruminating about what needs to be moved, what’s just perfect where it is….what smells great…and what stinks to high heaven.
Yep! We’re going to talk about Garden Smells today. More specifically, what should stay in the garden, what can be successfully replicated in perfume…and what should consign itself to Pluto at its earliest convenience.
heavenly!
My friend K’s garden (shown here) is an olfactory & visual Paradise! A gorgeous, giant linden that The Hedonist just drooled over. Antique peonies, taken from her ancestral home, line the walkways and borders, bronze fennel is just emerging, chives underplant spicy irises. To the left of that walkway is a mass of antique peonies – working in her border last week, on a warm, damp day, the scent of those peonies wafted across the lawn…and sent me back to May 1963; the outside world wouldn’t intrude on my mother’s garden for another few months and that May/June was the sound of swings and the knife and scissors man squee-squawing his way down the street…and the smell of hundreds of peonies in bloom.
I have yet to find a perfume to replicate the smell of a classic garden peony – and I am not sure it’s really possible. Roses smell like roses (and things ‘other’ combined with rose) and while it’s difficult to do well, there are enough beautifully done rose scents to prove that it has been gorgeously replicated on many occasions – even the terrifying Tea Rose
photo stolen: fragrantica
(omg. I remember DRENCHING myself in this. ow) – it says Rose. Peony, on the other hand, seems a bit more elusive. Catching whiff’s of those heirloom peonies, I realized that for me peony owes more to the stems and dirt than it does the flower. Or maybe it’s that, given that the flowers smell so much of …green? ….that I equate it more with the stems and dirt….whatever the case, I’m perfectly happy leaving the peony to the garden.
Stuff that can stay out of the garden. Out of my hemisphere. And certainly out of perfume. Rotten ‘trash elm’ trees (El O calls them ‘trash elms’ – I dunno what their genus is). We had a 35footer in our back yard and it was coming apart and falling on the house and garage (a limb plunged through the garage roof)…El O and his pal took it down to about 15′ feet and that was bad enough – I remember having to close the windows, it stunk up the joint so bad. But that? That was NOTHING! compared to the stench of getting the stump ground out.
eewwww!
Fish heads, ill-kept barnyard, used cow parts and ditchwater. For a split second I thought ‘oh, this is reminiscent of Dzing!’ but I lied. Dzing! is a playful nod to a circus/barnyard. That stump was the smell of where old barnyards (and their used cow parts) go to die. Two hours after the grind (and cleanup) we got a cold, soaking rain that lasted through the night. I’ve never been so grateful for a cold rain in all my nose’s days!
Is there anything in the garden (or Nature in general) that you think should stay in the garden? Whatever it is, I sure hope it’s not a trash elm!
There’s this stuff that looks like mildewed dandelion leaves. For about a year. The next year it has a teenage growth spurt, is all of a sudden several feet high and still looks mildewed. Then it gets primrose yellow buds. And then, when you’re sitting outside in the “blue hour”, or rather the pretty dark blue hour, sipping your drink and looking vaguely in the direction of Auntie Mildew, one of the buds almost audibly pops. And you can literally watch one bud after the other unfold, petal by petal. The flowers bloom all night and till about noon the next day, but there are lots of them, so the plants are in flower for weeks. Also, they smell. In the dark. Of vanilla, spices and snot (the smell you get, when you have this really, really bad head cold, with all your sinuses clogged? That mildly vomity smell). Somewhere between repulsive and absolutely fascinating. So nowadays, when I see mildewed dandelion, it stays. Next year’s evening visual thrills are guaranteed! Beats Criminal Minds any evening…..
OMG, I want one!! It probably wouldn’t like our growing conditions here, but I would so love to have it in my Addams Family garden!
Send me your address to convallia-at-yahoo-dot-com, and I’ll let you have some seeds come autumn…..
Daisies. The big white antique variety. My husband calls them feces and won’t let me plant any but my Mom’s garden is pretty full of them and boy do they stink, especially when they are getting old. I also have several of Stapeliads that use flies as pollinators (their blooms emit eau de rotting meat) and some Hoyas that get a bit stinky when they bloom. I love the smell of zinnia blossoms and fig leaves but I have had a couple of complaints over the years, again from my husband, who does not admire the delicate aroma.
Interesting! I have never smelled a foul-odored daisy! K’s garden is full of oxeyes, as you can see in the photo – will have to sniff!
xoxoxoxoA
Shastas. I should have been specific. Oxeyes smell fine.
Funny, Shastas don’t bother me at all. THey don’t seem to have much smell to me. Ditto zinnias.
Marigolds, though, I looooove the smell of marigolds. Bitter and invigorating.
My garden is built around perfume/good smelling plants. Roses (David Austin Molineux), thyme, sage, curry plants, rock rose, rosemary and lavender. I’ve always loved peonies but a friend recently told us about a plant nursery that sells tree peonies. I think I may have found my ultimate garden plant! (Who cares that they take about three years to settle in and flower). Has anyone planted a tree peony?
Hana-kisoi (Champion of Flowers) was my very first tree peony. Relatively easy to grow and STUNNING! once it gets settled in and begins to bloom. No real scent, per se, but the plant’s showiness makes up for it. Just gorgeous. Here’s a link to Hana-kisoi as well as other tree p’s! xoxoxo http://www.springvalleyroses.com/catalog/treepeony-hanakisoi.html#!/~/product/id=32580140
I love it when I brush past or water the basil. Just that waft can make me smile and give myself an inside hug. MMMMM
Portia xx
hey, dollface! You just wrote about basil a few days ago, didn’t you? That prompted me to go outside and pinch off a leaf. Alas, this year’s basil has a very diluted smell. Alas.
xoxoxoxoA
I know I’m going to step on toes with this one, but: clary sage. In fact, I vote not to grow it at all. Ran across it for the first time at Thomas Jefferson’s recreated-from-his-diaries garden at Monticello, and I jerked my head back so fast I nearly got whiplash. UGH. UGH. Horrible.
Don’t know what “trash elms” are… around here we have plenty of “trash trees” (The CEO calls them that, yes), but they’re wild cherry trees, in the main. Also black locusts and those dreadful “paradise trees” that take over if you let them. Wild cherry trees are fantastically poisonous to cattle – probably to humans as well, but then we wouldn’t attempt to eat the leaves. Every time we have a storm that knocks branches off trees, we have to go around the farm and pick up wild cherry branches before the cows decide, “ooh, yum, fresh leaves” and start munching. No lie, we have actually lost a few animals over the years, by not being able to get to all the downed leaves in time. What’s in those leaves? Cyanide. Yep. From the time that the leaves are removed from the tree and begin to die, until they are completely dead and brown (and of no interest to grazing animals), cyanide begins to build up in them. Fresh leaves are not poisonous – if a cow reaches her head up and noshes on a low-growing cherry branch, no problem. If the branch fell off the tree two hours ago, possible death.
But I too adore adore peonies. ADORE them. Mine just finished blooming for the year, sigh. MDCI Rose de Siwa smells incredibly close, to me – well, maybe that one is roses + peonies, but I can’t find a single thing to complain about with that.
Clary sage smells like the worst possible stale BO to me….. and it sticks to you if you brush up against the plant.
I am wondering if your paradise trees are what they just call shade trees around here. The most obnoxious thing in the world. The new ones sprout up in the middle of everything and take over in no time.
OMG! Killer Trees! And here I am giving Miss Australia up there a hard time (waving to Lynley 🙂 I like the smell of clary sage – don’t get the BO at all – but a little goes a long way. Overuse in aromatherapy can make you giddy as hell.
Paradise trees – hmmmmmm….wonder if that’s what we call ‘tree of heaven’?http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/indiana/journeywithnature/tree-of-heaven-1.xml
I swear, if it’s not one thing, it’s another ;-(
xoxoxoA
Yep, exactly, “tree of heaven” is the same thing as my “paradise tree.” Ailanthus. Stinky little buggers, and WAY past invasive… cut ’em down, and they SEND OUT SHOOTS. Evil. evil evil evil.
Dutchman’s Pipe vine. We had one at the house I grew up in. I love the flowers but apparently they’re meant to smell and look like rotting meat to attract insects. Yummo. There’s also a whole slew of Australian native flowers that smell like cat piss.
Between that, the sharks, the sharks with lasers, the scorpions, the giant snakes, spiders the size of wolverines….it’s a wonder you all can get to the perfume shops
! Jes’ joshin’ ya – but you know AUS is ….well here ya go! fetchmevegemite.blogspot.com
😀
xoxoxoxoA
Poor dead critters or birds – definitely don’t want that smell in the house.
ew. yeah. xoxoA
Chiggers.
Chiggers can most emphatically stay in the garden.
I have such a hideous case of them on my feet, you don’t even know.
Mizry. Complete mizry here.
Oh, noooooes! I remember dipping a cotton swab in bleach and dabbing it on the bites. Seemed to help… and Eau du Chigger….that just sounds Way Nasty! xxoxoxoxoA
Amen! I am the ultimate chigger trap. Just take me along and I sweep up all in sight. Works for fleas and, to a lesser degree, mosquitoes too. I spend every summer covered in maroon patches from the garden pests I have collected. In fact, I get bitten so often that I don’t even itch much after the first couple of weeks except for the occasional super-chigger. .
I’m allergic to chlorine, so I’m afraid to try the bleach….although at this point it might be better than sawing both feet off at the ankles, which is the next option I’m considering. I don’t react to most things at all, but chiggers and certain spiders really do a number on me.
Calamine, cortisone, Benadryl, nail polish etc. not helping. So far, the thing that’s working best is running them under scalding water; it intensifies the itching horribly for a few seconds, but once the itch is gone, it stays gone til I do something stupid to irritate it again. Soaking them in hot water doesn’t work, has to be running water.
Another thing my mom told me about for bug bites was to dab Maalox on it. I haven’t used it in a long time, but I remember it working pretty well.
Will try that, thank you!