Try saying that fast!
Anyone else grow things just for their good-smelling foliage? For the first time this year I grew a rose-scented greanium and loved it. Want to get the chocolate one. I also love the mints but am terrified of getting too many b/c of their thuggishness. I grew something from seed that looked like a type of mint and it smelled of lemon. I don't remember the name- maybe lemon balm? Anyway I loved it and everytime I passed by I would rub the leaves and get intoxicated! I almost killed the poor thing- the leaves started dying- maybe b/c of the oil on my hands?
Don't everyone laugh all at once but I ADORE the smell of marigold foliage! I always have and I rub all over them like a cat on catnip- LOL!
I also love cleome but most people think it stinks. DH said it smelled faintly of skunk!
I had a huge clump of Powis Castle artemesia that I could not get enough of. It got too big for the spot it was in so the next year we moved it, but it died. I am determined to get more.
I guess I'm just weird huh?
Favorite Fragrant Foliage
Well, I like lavender smell. I was just the other day trimming around a lavender bush and came away with such a good smell.
I also have a choc. mint but it has been sent to his pot. No more ground for him. LOL
He was taking over the area and he was only a few months old. So is totally pot bound now, hehe.
I have a few bee balms but I do not care for their smells too much.
I had (it totally has gone brown due the weather and am not sure if it will come back or not) a orange scented geranium which I loved too. Anyone know if they go dormant in the winter here? Do I just cut it down to the ground and will it come back?
I would love to have one of those rose scented geraniums.
This may sound crazy but I love the smell of cut grass!
Carol
I love grass too!
Is your geranium too big to pot up and move indoors?I know regular geraniums do well indoors. I let the frost kill my rose one before I brought it in. Because it wasnt a 'blooming' plant I totally overlooked it- how dumb is that? You can get them at flowerscentgardens.com for $3.50 unless his prices have changed. Too bad I didn't get cuttings or we could do a trade.
I have a bee balm but don't care for it either. I also have a lemon balm, choc mint and a rosemary. In the summer I always grow several varieties of basil, thyme, oregano, spearmint, and several other herbs I can't think of right now. I've wanted some scented geranians ever since I've joined DG but haven't gotten around to them yet. I do so love Lavender but have managed to kill both my Munsted and English. Don't know if it doesn't tolerate our GA heat or what ... but haven't had luck with it. *sigh*
... Elaine
Elaine,
You're right- it's the heat! According to my SL book, L. dentata[French Lavender] and L. intermedia[Hedge lavender] do well here. They supposedly smell as good as the English do.
'Munsted' lavender is very hardy for me, the only one I've grown with great success, and I like its fragrance the best. Loved the big flowers on 'Fat Spike' but that croaked too and I haven't found it again.
Basil 'Dark Opal' is heavenly for me. Don't let anyone try to sell you just any purple basil ~ and it's not ruffled. Just give a leaf a good rub and you'll know you have the right one.
Well Moby, you being in zone 5 and all, you can grow Munsted- LOL! Most Lavender literally melts here.
Just the other day I saw somewhere that the most potent and the most used lavender in making oils, etc... was a variety that does very well in heat. I'll try to find the name and post it. Oh I found it in my SL book it was L. intermedia 'Grosso'. I believe this is Moby's 'Fat Spike', as it gives that as another name for it.
This message was edited Jan 10, 2006 1:11 AM
I did find these 2 mentioned in Select Seeds catalog: L. stoechas pendunculata 'Fragrant Butterflies', and 'Purple Bee'. Both do well in the south, it says. They're also gorgeous and don't look like typical lavender.
When you plant your lavender, mix some pea gravel in with the soil, or some limestone gravel. They need lime and excellent drainage.
I like lavender and other herbs and scented geraniums, but they don't like me, lol. I can't breathe when I get around them! Monardas and lemon balm don't bother me and I like the scent of those.
Has anyone ever smelled Creeping Charlie(not swedish ivy)? When I worked at a greenhouse years ago, it grew in the fern house. I first noticed the scent when I went to take cuttings. It smelled good. I was like Berrygirl and the artemesia, I kept going back in the greenhouse and would crush the plant just to smell it!
Creeping Charlie does smell nice, but doesn't makes me very happy when it's all over in your grass. :(
I agree with the herbs and I'll add Sweet Marjoram, Fennel, Dill, and any Basil. New to my garden this year is Brazillion bachelor buttons (Centratherum) from Flower Scent Garden. It should smell of fruit punch when handled.
Well, I forgot to watch this thread! *sigh* Thanks so much for the info on the Lavender ... berrygirl. I'm going to check into those for this year as I really love the fragrance. I'll be sure to add some lime and take those extra precautions you mentioned, Calalily,
also. Oh yeah, thanks, also, for the basil info. where do y'all get your herbs? I usually just pick mine up from WM or HD but am thinking about ordering them to see if there's a big difference. Am also going to try a few from seed which I've never done before.
... Elaine
Basil, Oregano, and Sweet Marjoram are very easy from seed. I would keep both Oregano and Sweet Marjoram in a pot as they tend to spread.
I get all my herb seeds from Burpee either from the catalog or in the store.
That lavender I have is that 'Grosso' one. Now I know what it smells so good. Didn't know that it was the king of smell.
Oh, the Oregano and sw. marjoram spreads? I have them in a pot but they need to be moved so will put them in pots again then. Thanks for the tip.
Creeping Charlie is horrible. It can take over like crazy. Don't plant it in the ground or you will be very very sorry as Moby says!!! Pot only!
As for the scented geraniums. I didn't know they were sensitive to cold. Now I know. That orange one is in the ground totally exposed to the wind and cold in its spot. So I am assuming it is dead. Oh well, just another place for a new plant I guess.
Carol
I must add Tarragon another fav.
Apart from herbs - all fragrances of which I absolutely ADORE - I'd have to say the leaves of the Sassafras tree. They're native here in Virginia & I have quite a few on the property.
Find it absolutely impossible to pass one without removing a leaf & crushing it to reveal that bright fresh scent.
I didn't know we could grow tarragon in the South. I love to add tarragon to the artichoke water. Great combination?
Also, a few years ago I saw the sweetest planting at our Botanical Gardens. They used the small mounded basil, alternated red and green, and formed a ribbon with them in the shape of an 8. It looked so cool!
Breezy,
I have never to my knowledge seen a sassafras tree growing around here. Have only seen pics. What does it smell like?
Hmmm. . . . like Sassafras? LOL!!! Only kidding. It's difficult to describe. The roots were/are sometimes used to make a sort of root beer, but the leaves don't smell like that at all. Perhaps someone else here who has them is better at descriptions? We had tons of them on our property back on Long Island, NY, as well. They're very fragrant when crushed.
If it were spring/summer I'd try to send you some leaves to smell.
You know, you might actually have them in GA & just don't know it. They're a relatively slender tree with mitten-shaped leaves, & in the fall the females sometimes sport bunches of blackish berries that the birds relish.
Breezy, we have tons of sassafras trees here. BG, you just need to have them identified for you - they're everywhere in the woods. You'll see lots of babies, anywhere from a few inches to a couple of feet tall. Spindly little things, but the one identifying trait is that it is one of the only trees that I know of that actually have 4 different kinds of leaves on them. For real!
http://www.assateague.com/sass.html
We'll have to go on a rescue together and you'll see them. :-)
When I said "Creeping Charlie" I didn't mean the perennial weed, I will have to find the real name. It had crinkley fuzzy leaves about an inch long and is definitely not hardy to any kind of frost.
Hey, I did a google. Check this out. LOL
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/448/
daisyruffles ~ thanks for mentioning the 'Grosso' lavender. That was the one I was referring to when I said 'fat spike', which is an informal name for it.
Creeping Charlie-Pilea nummularifolia. I couldn't think of it's botanical name for anything and I forgot that what we called ground ivy is also called creeping charlie. I found a picture in my A-Z encyclopedia and then I remembered that it was a pilea!
OK everyone, I do know this tree- just didnt know it's name. I have seen some on our property. I cant wait til Spring so I can smell them!
I do have a couple of mimosa trees IO1 but they are still too young to bloom.
I love the scented geraniums and herbs too and bee balm smells great to me. But what really stops me in my tracks is the mock orange, Philadelphus coranarius.
Fragrant leaves huh, well I'll add a few, box is my all time favorite, American and English, not into the other types, many scented geraniums but prefer the rose and lemon based ones, lemon verbena,bat and rosemary and yes lemon balm, lovely if a dratted stepchild of the garden,almost any kind of thyme but esp English and Lemon. perilla and holy basil, Sassafras, spice bush, the smell of mouldering leaves in the spring when you are right down in it tending to the bushes the bitter scent of fern, bayberry, black cherry
I'll add dahlberg daisy, geranium macrorrhizum, bluemist shrub, juniper, pine, and russian sage
This message was edited Mar 18, 2006 8:57 PM
I like herby scented foilage when I brush up against it while weeding. I also like the scented foilage plants because they have a tendency to repel rabbits from eating my precious plants.
Holy basil (Thai basil), creeping thyme, lemon balm & lemon verbena, and another vote for sassafras: clean, tea-like smell, a little sweet but more tangy. Just delightful. We would crush it in our hands as children and rub it on our skin.
I'm starting Ambrosia this year... wonder how it'll smell..
I'll have to cast my vote w/the lovers of lavender - I have both the Munstead and Province (sp?). I thought the Province was the king of fragrance...now I have to go in search of 'Grosso'. Didn't realize how much I loved Rosemary till I dug mine up years ago and gave to a friend...needless to say when I determined what was "missing" I ran out and picked up a rosemary....ahhhh, much better. I have various mints (much to the delight of the neighborhood kids) and a Blue Mist Shrub waiting to be planted. I've heard wonderful things about Daphne Odora and will be getting some of that to root here shortly.
Berrygirl
Almost everything I grow smells good. Your plant is called Lemon Balm...it is a monarda. Lemon grass is fabulous. My favorite fragrant plant is Marjoram...a mild oregano type with a sexy hint to it. Lavender and rosemary are marvelous. Chamomile smells like apples. Sweet woodruff smells like almonds. There are tons of scented geraniums. There are tons of mints but they can get invasive. There is both lemon and lime thyme. Pineapple sage grows into this lovely large plant with the most beautiful red flowers in the fall. Lovage smells like celery. Anise hyssop has beautiful purple spikes and smells like....anise! If you like the smell of marigolds (I do too!) you might really like nasturtiums! Kind of a peppery flavor with great flowers and leaves. Rub a leaf on your teeth an it cleans and polishes them! Guess I'd better quit...I could keep going for a long long time.
Hi all. Well I also love lavender and the kind I have is evergreen here in central
Alabama. Can't remember what kind it was, but I think it must be English. I'm blind and so I can't look at pictures to help me identify it. Any ideas? I bought it last year and it has grown to be about 2 foot around already and like I say never died back in the winter. Also love rosemary, bee balm, all the mints, absolutely swoon over geraniums scent, even the regular variety that is supposedly unscented. Love artamesia get this, I even love the way tomato vines smell. lol. I'm hopeless when it comes to interesting smells.
my apple scented pelargonium hands down favorite smelll.