A good plan is essential to the outcome of your fragrant flower garden. While it may be easy to choose the flowers you must have, configuring them in a pleasing manner to the eye is also important. Recently a local garden editor wrote a keen editorial on the various types of gardeners. One type she wrote was the "green thumb" sort that could grow anything to its peek yet always grew it in a (victory) vegetable garden manner. Neat little rows of flowers, as you would see for a culinary garden. Instead of one or two lavender plants for interest, there will be a double row of it along with a double row of purple cornflower and next to that a double row of baby's breath, etc. Some may counter that since this is a cutting garden, it is important to grow rows of healthy plants. In reality plants can grow just as healthy in a mixed manner. As author Anne Halpin describes in her Simon & Schuster (Roundtree Press) book Cutting Gardens. Note the "s". Halpin does a great job at laying out a number of gardens for you to try and replicate or at least gain inspiration from. Even a rose garden is included, all be it configured in an ethically unpleasant manner. Anne Halpin did however go at lengths to pick particularly fragrant roses including:
- Fragrant Cloud
- Mister Lincoln
- Double Delight
- Chrysler Imperial
- Tiffany
Esthetically pleasing gardens she puts forth include a "Monet Garden" which offers plants found in his famous Giverny gardens (France) and paintings. You will also find a lily garden and low maintenance garden. A complete listing of plants is included with each garden and a line drawing shows how to place the plants in their proper configuration. Not sure if a certain flower will prosper in your zone area? The third section of the book is like an encyclopedia of cutting / fragrant flowers. Most listings have photographs of each flower in question along with key information like such as hardiness zones, how to start plants and how to care for them. It also explains how to use them in an arrangement. The last page includes a large, color hardiness map for further insight about your gardens needs. It is quite disheartening to plant a flower that is a perennial, only to have it die.
This book is found in most local libraries and provides a wealth of information for those that want both a functional and beautiful fragrant garden.
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