Summer Temperatures entice us to spend time outdoors so we then become more aware of our surroundings and for the lucky ones our first encounter is our own garden. We see the colour and beauty but our other senses are also stimulated with fragrance, touch and sound helping us to feel relaxed and happy. Today our busy lives demand we take some time out so here are a few plants to help achieve a garden Shangri La.
Sweet Peas are a Cottage Garden Plant with a delightful perfume. The colours range from white, pink, red, blue and purple and are grown in a range of these colours for bunches indoors. If you sow a succession of a few seeds at monthly intervals from January to June you will have flowers all through summer into autumn. Spencer Mixed is a good variety to choose. They grow as climbers on cane wigwams in the borders or obelisks in tubs. There are also low growing varieties like Cupid for tubs or hanging baskets or for the front of the border. Cut the flowers regularly to ensure continuity and avoid them going to seed.
Pinks are another English Garden Plant. The wonderful clove scent is second only to the gorgeous colours from the traditional double Doris Pinks to the new compact Cocktail Varieties with their large flat single flowers which range in colour from white, pink, red to green. They are excellent front of the border plants near a path or in tubs on the patio.
Lilies have the strongest perfume of all with their exotic musky fragrance. The new Stargazers varieties grow very well in tubs that can be moved to the patio while in flower and then moved away to
feed the bulb and allow to die back ready for next year. Lilies are a fabulous cut flower.
Nemesias are colourful compact bedding plants with an amazing array of colourful perfumed flowers from late spring to autumn. Look out for varieties like Wisley Vanilla, Berries and Cream and Confetti. These plants will grow well in tubs on the patio in sun or light shade. Remove fading flowers to promote new growth and feed weekly with tomato food.
Begonia Fragrant Falls is another bedding plant recommended for its citrus scent. It is good in hanging baskets where the trailing stems covered in apricot flowers are very effective. It can be grown in sun or light shade. Feed with tomato food weekly.
Mignonette is an unassuming annual to grow in the mixed or herbaceous border directly from seed. The flowers are green and maroon but what a fragrance. The sweet honey scent fills the evening air when taking a sundowner. It grows to 30cm and is compact and bushy. Night Scented Stock, Matthiola Longipetala, is another annual to grow by sowing the seed directly into a mixed border. The flowers are decorative in shades of lavender, pink, white and maroon used as a cut flower indoors but the real feature of this little plant is the gorgeous perfume which is most intense at twilight.
Roses produce a wonderful variety of garden fragrances with the English Shrub Roses bred by David Austin Roses giving some fantastic perfumes. The variety Charles Darwin is a soft yellow with a floral lemon scent, Emily Bronte is a soft apricot pink with a tea and citrus perfume while Munstead Wood is deep velvety red with a strong old rose fruity perfume. Grow roses in a sunny place in free draining soil.
All the herbs of course give wonderful aromas when crushed so it is good to plant them next to a path where you can pinch the leaves and release the fragrance as you pass. Rosemary and Lavender are ideal for this. If you plant the low growing Thymes and Chamomiles between paving slabs the fragrance is released as you walk along the path. There are many scents to enjoy like Blackcurrant and Pineapple Sage and Orange, Peppermint and Apple Mint.
So many wonderful natural perfumes why do we use Room Scenters.
Just because its winter with a bit of planning our gardens can still be very colourful. There are many plants that will flower during the colder days of reduced daylight. Some shrubs lose their leaves revealing amazingly coloured bark. Many plants produce berries that are welcomed as winter food for our birds and wildlife while others retain colourful evergreen foliage.
National Tree Planting Week, which began in 1975, starts this year on November 21st. It is the start of the winter planting season and is a reminder of the valuable contribution trees make to our environment.
By planting a tree in our gardens or as communities we are helping to overcome the effects of climate change, improving the look of our surroundings and offering a great opportunity for wildlife to move into the area.
Red and Yellow and Pink and Green Orange and Purple and Blue these are the colours of a Rainbow which can all be found in your garden every autumn. As the days get shorter and the light levels and temperatures drop deciduous plants will stop producing chlorophyll, their source of nutrition, and shed their leaves. Chlorophyll produces the green leaves we see when plants are actively growing. In autumn the chlorophyll breaks down and the leaves loose the green pigment revealing other colours in the leaves.
