Smelly flowers & plants

Perhaps smelly was the wrong choice of word, but some interesting smells and plants to check out.

We have two long strips of mud which we use currently for the herbs and veg but I fancy planting some other plants like flowers in amongst them just to add a bit more colour and smell to break things up a bit instead of it all being so uniform like most plots tend to be. Thats not to say the chives we have here dont add some nice colour in the spring, but I dont see why we should have to have flowers consigned to flower beds, and vegetables to vegetable plots, some I'm going to try a bit of a mash up.

I dont know how it will turn out, but until one tries these things, nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.

 

@FlymoDM that planting scheme was the only one used for many, many years in gardens all over the UK - worked well for them so im sure you will make a super job of reviving your own Cottage Veg plot garden - and im sure many myself included are still gardening that way. So many veggies are very pretty to look at as well as to eat
I have a beeutiful winter chard of the richest red growing alongside orange, red and yellow Nasturtiums and Calendula its soooo attractive almost too pretty to eat

And I love this quote how true is that

 

One of the plants on @BeeHappy's scented list links is Actea Simplex. It has tall white spikes that I like. It doesn't take up to much floor space. It likes partial shade. Would it work at the back of my flower bed against the north facing fence? It would potentially have star of Tuscany Jasmine growing on the fence and the other plants I bought in front and around it. I see it likes moisture. I guess that could be a negative.

G.

 

Gary, acteas do need space. They need moist soil, dappled shade, and room to grow. Here they make purple/black sculpted mounds a couple of metres across and, yes, have scented white or pink flowers at this time of year. Lovely foliage plants and a great foil to most everything else.....i have hackonechloa All Gold in front of one of mine. Elsewhere Rudbeckia Goldsturn has been flowering in front of it since early July.
If you cannot give it good moist soil and reasonable space (dont cram it in) then best to avoid this one
The scent is not overly strong but nice when sniffed up close....not a plant to grow mainly for this

 

It wasn't the scent that interested me. It was the shape and colour of the plant. I'll keep looking. I would like something tall and thin to stand at the back to give some height.

G.

 

Tall and thin....Delphinium? Hollyhock? Gladiolus?

 

The only smells that seem to waft across my garden are those of the cows or the sheep. I did try planting scented stuff a couple of years back but I think the garden is too exposed for fragrance to linger. I would love a scented garden. Recently I had an overnight stay in a city and then an 8 hour car journey back home. Upon arrival I opened the car door and a fresh, gentle, salt laden breeze enveloped me . Can't have everything I would like but I sure appreciate what I do have

 

Lovely though lucius.....sea breeze
"Tall and thin" aint acteas Gary.
More info though......temporary or permanent tall and thin?
For permanent tall and thin the yews are excellent and not as slow as supposed. Standishii is my favourite.
Tall and thin herbaceous? Verbena Bonariensis, veronicastrum, grasses like miscanthus Morning Light or calamagrostis Karl foerster? Even purple fennel? Shrubs like Berberis helmond pillar?
Sanguisorbas also give height here, as do heleniums, cannas, agastaches and the taller salvias.
Be aware though about some taller perennials.....they need to withstand wind turbulence from fences and walls or they will quickly snap back to nothing

 

@luciusmaximus That smell is known as the countryside.

I'll come back to the tall and thin thing another day.

On a different note I like the thought of Rosemary or similar. There are a couple of places by a gateway. When the time comes I will be looking for an evergreen shrub approx 4/5 ft high and approx 3 ft across.

G.

 

I'm sorry if i've missed it but.... where are the Dianthus

 

For evening. Nicotiana.

 

Rosemary is a perfect evergreen for side of a gateway or bench. As I said elsewhere, go for a named good blue variety though. Most upright rosemarys seen have pale unattractive flowers. You might as well get a bright blue aesthetically pleasing variety but rarely offered in GC's.
Dianthus for scent definitely. Sweet peas too of course. Clematis M. grandiflora has a delicious scent in spring.......oh! The list would be endless

 

@BeeHappy It seems more productive, for example I have two lines of sweetcorn with peas using the sweatcorn as bean poles, I also stick root veg in at the same time so below ground veg and above ground veg grows very closely together, its seem more productive use of space compared to the modern farming techniques with big tractors et al. Mono crops is just an invite for pests so I've even been looking into veg that repels other stuff but not found much in that area but touch wood no major pests to deal with except a load of caterpillars that feasted on the horseradish leaves this year as this was a monster of a plant. Need to learn how to make some decent home grown sauce for that one.

@luciusmaximus Cant beat farm smells personally but I guess its whats you are used to and perhaps where you grew up. Re fresh, gentle, salt laden breeze, I have that when I lift the hot tub lid off, I dont use the normal chems namely chlorine I just empty a 25Kg bag of dead sea salt into it and fall asleep rapidly when sat in it, especially at the temps they need to be kept at, its like a tropical beach not that I have ever been to a tropical beach but a hot sunny day surfing on a beach in North Devon is the nearest thing. Anglesey can be a bit exposed though if you are on the coast around there. Everything suffers due to the salt.

We've got some Rosemary, one planted in the herb bed at the moment currently displaying its blue flowers again and another one in a tub which I've put in the conservatory over winter one year to absorb the drips from the roof, not only did it keep flowering as it was warmer it also added a nice aroma to the conservatory, very subtle much like a decent smelly Xmas tree, ie you notice it when you come down stairs into the room first thing in the morning.

@ CanadianLori, Yes a few other people here have said about tobacco plants, dont know if can smoke them or not, might be a handy little cash crop, but I know HMRC will want their slice of the pie if I manage to!

I think I might have to make a suggestion to the RHS to include a description of the scents/smells of plants and how strong they are on in the website search facility because its one area that I think is seriously lacking in gardening when people try to search for these sorts of things, so many names to investigate. <--Done in via their contact us webpage.

 

@FlymoDM Hope this might be of some use to you re companion planting
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i've a few more i've posted so will try to post them to you also
.Happy Gardening

 

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Cool, thanks!