Answer:  Fragrant flowers and foliage add much to our enjoyment of plants.  Most avid gardeners can recall visiting a public garden, a friend’s garden or a plant nursery for the first time and being captivated by a fragrance even before seeing its source.

            Probably the most important consideration for getting the full benefit from fragrant plants is in choosing their location, meaning both location for the plant’s benefit as well as location for your enjoyment of the plant.

First of all, the closer any plant is situated to its preferred growing conditions, the more likely it is to look and smell its best.  Place your plants where they get the sun or shade they prefer, and give them a well-drained organically rich soil.

            Courtyards or other areas of your landscape that are sheltered from prevailing winds and erratic gusts make excellent locations for fragrant plants.  Such areas allow odors to linger before getting too diluted to enjoy.

            Locate fragrant plants in areas you frequently use, such as along sidewalks or near where you park your car.  Many plant aromas arise from leaves rather than flowers, and most of these are enhanced by touch.

A raised bed of spearmint, bounded by landscape timbers and just outside my back door, is a favorite place to sit while putting on my shoes. A large rosemary shrub tempts me to reach out and touch it as I pass by on my way to the mailbox.

            Flower aroma comes mostly from petals, although stamens, pistils and nectar are also significant sources.  Look for fragrant varieties of plants such as daffodils or peonies that produce double flowers to maximize the power of petals.

            Grow a cutting garden in an out of the way space and bring fragrant flowers indoors.  Sheltered from breezes, you will often notice fragrance from an indoor bouquet that you might miss from the same flowers outdoors.

Daffodils are easy to grow in mass and an indoor bouquet is a great way to enjoy the release of winter’s grip.  Forcing blooms of fragrant plants such as winter Daphne or winter honeysuckle by bringing them indoors before they completely open extends the time you can enjoy them. 

            Other easily grown aromatic plants include thyme and lavender (use along pathways), Osmanthus and mock orange (great fragrant shrubs), hyacinth and dianthus, and lots of different varieties of mint.

 

Answer:  No, it is not beach sand specially painted for St. Patrick’s Day.  Also called glauconite, greensand is a naturally occurring slightly acidic rock product that is rich in potassium and iron.

            Greensand was formed from marine deposits laid down some 100 to 200 million years ago.  Like many marine deposits, greensand is rich in magnesium, lime, iron and up to 30 other trace minerals.

            Greensand has the unique ability to absorb ten times more moisture than ordinary sand.  It also can effectively bind sandy soils, loosen clay soils and retard soil compaction.

            Deposits of greensand are common in Europe but the only active greensand mine in the United States is in New Jersey.

            Greensand is often used by strictly organic gardeners as a natural source of potassium (5-7%) that is released slowly over a four to five year period.  It is said to help prolong the bloom times of roses and other flowers.