One reason why I prefer garden-grown flowers to supermarket ones is the potential for having lots of scented flowers and herbs. I know the reason supermarkets lead the cut flower market in Britain is because of convenience and price, and I understand why that’s so necessary for most people, but really, how often are people wowed by sweet-smelling supermarket flowers? And how often do people lift up shop-bought flowers to smell them, only to be disappointed when there’s no scent?
If you’re lucky, you can get some scented flowers in supermarkets
and regular florists. I’ve mentioned scented roses on the roses page, but,
apart from garden roses, the main scented wholesale roses that I’ve enjoyed
using are Norma Jeane (white), Grand Prix or Red Naomi (red), Ocean
Song/Boyfriend or Pacific Blue (lilac), and Miss Piggy (orange-pink).
Many peonies smell gorgeous. I generally find that the fluffy, herbaceous peonies such as Sarah Bernhardt, Shirley Temple or Sorbet are especially scented, but do look at Claire Austin’s website to search for scented varieties. During the small peony-flowering season, you can catch beautiful peony displays in gardens and see for yourself how scented they are when the plant has developed, as I did at Penshurst Place. This photo was taken at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show - I think it's Kelsey's display, but please let me know if I'm mistaken.
Spring flowers are full of fragrance. Peony and double tulips are
often scented, and if you grow your own bulbs, you can choose scented varieties
of tulips and narcissi. You don’t need a garden – you can grow them in pots
indoors. Hyacinths and Paperwhite narcissi are highly scented, but I find they
can be too heady to leave indoors if someone is prone to headaches. Muscari
have a wonderful, clean, bubblegum scent, and they make pretty posies when
mixed with other dainty spring flowers such as fritillaries. There are many great
bulb growers out there, but I would personally recommend Taylor’s and Pheasant Acre Plants – they have both displayed at Chelsea and their flowers are
beautiful. The tulips bulbs I bought from Pheasant Acre Plants, some scented,
did well – and my old South Wales attachment likes the fact that they are based
in Bridgend. The grower Johnny Walkers (from Walkers Bulbs at Taylors) has won
20 consecutive Gold awards at Chelsea for his daffodils – his stand was the
first thing I saw when I walked into the Flower Pavilion in 2012, and it was a
stunning display, as you can see here.
Apple blossom and orange blossom have a delicate scent that will
gently fill a room. But of course, if you cut the blossom from a fruit-bearing
tree, then you will have fewer fruits come the autumn.
Chocolate cosmos seems to evoke child-like wonder in all who come
across it for the first time. A pretty, dainty, rich brown, they are as
rich-looking and shiny as melted chocolate and smell just like it. One of the
sellers at New Covent Garden Market told me to smell them the first time I
stopped and looked at the pretty bunch that was left in a bucket; I think that
most people must react as I did to the yummy scent. I bought a plant the next
year and it gave me long-lasting cut flowers all summer. Other delicious-smelling flowers are stocks, Sweet Williams and pinks. Even though they are a summer flower, stocks in particular remind me of Christmas because they smell so strongly of cloves.
Sweet peas are such quintessentially English flowers. They look
like ruffled pieces of silk, and they come in all sorts of colours, from white
to mixed pink and purple to almost black. They are strongly scented – along
with jasmine, I’m not sure how to describe the scent other than ‘floral’…which
seems like a rather obvious description for flowers. Matthewman’s sweet
peas include the brilliantly-named and highly scented Welcome to Yorkshire. I took this photo at
the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2012.
Lilies and gardenias have famously heady scents, to the point that
they can be a bit love them or hate them. I only ever use Asiatic lilies, which
are unscented, unless I’m asked otherwise. But I’ve encountered many people who
tell me how much they love the scent of lilies. Gardenias are another flower
that smell gorgeous, but some people do find them too overpowering. So use them
wisely!
Herbs are lovely to use, both for their scent, their natural
beauty, and often for their wonderful symbolism. And, of course, you can eat
most of them if you don’t want to use them for flower arrangements! Mint is a
great foliage to use – apple mint is especially good for floristry because it
grows so tall, and the flowering Buddleia Mint has pretty, lilac, veronica-like (or rather, buddleia-like) flowers on
top, and the fresh scent is especially strong. Thyme can be a bit more
delicate, but it smells delightful and the flowers are pretty. There are lots
of different types, ranging from 2cm tall, pretty Bressingham Thyme (not the
best to use for floristry!) to 35cm ‘Aureus’ Golden Thyme. Sage smells luscious (although it doesn't last as well as the other herbs in a vase) and there are lots of flowering varieties, which vary in colour from White
Flowering Sage to Blackcurrant
Lavender is a Mediterranean herb that most people will have seen
in a front garden or public space. Sometimes the smell of the flowers (or
foliage in the case of French lavender) or the buzz of the bees reaches you
before you see it. When I visited the Mayfield Lavender farm, the scent hit me
before I’d even got off the bus! Both English and French lavenders are lovely to
use in flower arrangements, lending their calming blue-purple, and the French
varieties add interest with their distinctive ‘ears’. Incidentally, it’s not a cliché;
the scent of the fresh flowers really is relaxing.
If you want a one-stop shop, Sarah Raven sells many of the flowers
and herbs I’ve mentioned, as well as plenty more. She trials the plants,
checking for scent and how long they last when cut, which is invaluable
information for a gardener-florist. Hardy's Cottage Garden Plants was my favourite display at Chelsea, and you can search for 'scent', which brings up treasures including lily of the valley, pinks, almost 30 phlox, and a dozen violas. Cottage garden flowers make colourful, highly textured flower arrangements. This is Hardy's 2012 dreamy garden display at Chelsea.
The Lonely Bouquet movement proved that that you can produce beautiful,
sweet-smelling bouquets from garden plants – your own or a generous gardener
neighbour’s – that you can enjoy long after the bouquet has died. And the
plants are there already! What could be more convenient and less expensive than
that?
Be warned, though: scented flowers don’t last forever. The energy that the plant uses in keeping the flower alive and scented, means that these beauties tend to have shorter lifespans than non-scented flowers. I started off with a summery lonely bouquet of scented Cariad David Austin roses, mint and thyme, so I'll finish off with a spring jug of mixed tulips. Scented pink Angelique and white Mount Tacoma with red Rococo.
Be warned, though: scented flowers don’t last forever. The energy that the plant uses in keeping the flower alive and scented, means that these beauties tend to have shorter lifespans than non-scented flowers. I started off with a summery lonely bouquet of scented Cariad David Austin roses, mint and thyme, so I'll finish off with a spring jug of mixed tulips. Scented pink Angelique and white Mount Tacoma with red Rococo.
