Take a whiff on your garden

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Fragrance adds another dimension to the garden – one that can trigger memories more powerful than color or texture.

Fragrances are seared in our brains, from the sweet scent of tea olive to the gentle aroma of roses.

“I think it’s all part of the romance of gardening – the visual beauty of the flowers and (the way they) smell take in two of your strongest senses,” said Rebekah Cline of Rebekah’s Garden at the South Carolina State Farmers Market. “It makes life more pleasurable and happy.”

Most plants produce their strongest scents in the morning and evening – not in the heat of the day.

Add fragrant plants near the front door or in containers on your patio, where an evening breeze will fill the air with scent. Or plant herbs along a walkway, where you can brush against them as you stroll by. For some folks, the smell is the thing, lasting in our minds long after the blooms have faded.

Why do plants smell?

Plants create fragrance by producing organic compounds on their surfaces.

Plants with fragrant flowers produce their perfume in glands on the petals known as osmophores. The reason? To lure pollinators.

Some plants have scented foliage. The smell comes from water-repellent essential oils manufactured by glandular leaf hairs known as trichomes. The reason? To repel leaf-eating predators, especially insects.

So not only are you adding delightful aromas to your home, you’re using bug-resistant species (fragrant-leafed plants) or attracting pollinators (with fragrant-flowered plants).

What’s in a smell?

Your olfactory nerve goes straight to your brain, meaning what you smell can quickly trigger memories and emotions.

Margaret Self, of the Carolina Reiki Institute in Columbia, also dabbles in aromatherapy. She says we are imprinted with certain smells – maybe chocolate chip cookies baking bring an instant memory of a grandmother.

“There are smells that are calming, that bring down stress levels. There are also smells that are invigorating,” she said.

Here are a few plants that trigger reactions:

Lavender: calming

Mint: uplifting and invigorating

Lemon: mind clearing