Gardening Using Trees and Shrubs with Scent in Mind
Author: Dianne Davies
Trees
and shrubs can have many different forms, for example many conifers are
conical, pyramidal, or powerfully vertical. Some are prostrate and
spreading.
To some degree these are scented and everyone is familiar with the scent of pine, but it is only if you rub or brush against the tree, which can be a prickly experience! Weeping trees have a very attractive romantic form and scented varieties include weeping Cercidiphyllum (Katsura Tree) Pendulum, which is quite spectacular. It has thrilling color in the fall and is scented like caramel. Also the weeping Silver Lime is an attractive choice for scented gardening. A shrub that looks like a small tree is Buddleja Alternifolia, and it has lovely flowers with the scent of honey in early summer.
Trees can affect the character of a garden and all
gardens, however small, should have at least one. They make such a strong
outline against the background and the sky. A number of conifers have
scented needles, such as juniper and cypresses. Some of them have slender
columnar forms which are used in gardening to create a formal or
contemporary feel. The more spreading, horizontal conifers like Cedar of
Lebanon, (scented of blackcurrant in summer weather), Blue Atlas Cedar or
Scots Pine, create a
less formal look for a gardening design, but still have a distinct aura of
grandeur about them.
Primarily we tend to choose trees and shrubs as gardening subjects because
they fit architecturally into a given space. Scent is often the last
criterion we would use to select a large feature such as this. Trees and
shrubs are such significant gardening features that eventual size and the
shade cast may be of more importance than scent. Shade is desirable to some
degree, but if trees and shrubs are so big and planted on the southern side
of a garden they may cast everything into gloom! Scented blossoms may be
considered a bonus in gardening terms once the other considerations have
been met.
For low, formal hedging you really can’t beat the neatness of
Box. It is not as
fast growing as
privet. If your idea of gardening is about clipped topiary,
Box is ideal for
designs such as Box Balls or Pyramids on the simpler level up to Elephant,
Peacock and Teddy Bear shapes for the more experienced topiarist. Low box
hedging can bring a formal look to your gardening, even if other areas are
less so: it can bring the garden “into line” so to speak, by creating
straight lines of dense green. Of course you can make a curved hedge from it
too. One of its less attractive features is its smell, but that is a matter
of personal taste. For me it smells too strongly of cat’s urine! I
experience this pungent odour every time I walk by it, but many people learn
to live with or even love it simply by associating it with happy summer days
pottering around gardening. If you really can’t handle the smell then
consider using
Lonicera Nitida instead. This shrubby honeysuckle has sweet, fruity
cream-colored flowers.
Trees and shrubs can of course be used to make a windbreak screen. In order
to create the still, sheltered microclimate in which other scented plants
can thrive, this may be essential, depending on the situation of your plot.
Trees and shrubs can make better windbreaks than walls, as they don’t offer
the wind a “full stop” barrier which the wind can then leap over and cause
problems due to eddying on the other side. If your region is reasonably mild
for gardening, Eucalyptus
can grow very fast to create an instant hedge or tree in a selected spot.
They have beautifully minty-scented foliage, flowers with the scent of
honey, and are fast growers. They can be hard pruned if you don’t mind a
modicum of gardening, especially if you don’t want them to grow so big and
if you want to keep the prettier, juvenile blue leaves coming back year on
year.
A number of gardening writers seem to ignore trees and shrubs when they
write about scented gardening; perhaps small and pretty annuals spring to
mind or of course roses. In fact a huge amount of scent can be generated
from gardening with trees and shrubs. Trees and shrubs can give such a
variety of powerful scents that it is a shame that most of us don’t have the
space to use more of them in our gardens. The architectural effect of trees
and shrubs is undeniable.
