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Award Winning Aromatic Plants
By
James Kilkelly
I recently was involved in the
exhibition of a show garden at the 2006 “Garden Heaven” exhibition. I worked
along with Terra Garden Ireland on the bronze medal winning Malaysian themed garden “Neo Nusantara”.
The garden combined wood, stone, earth and planting with two unique water
features. The design aimed to appease and rejuvenate the five senses. Sight,
touch, sound, smell and taste. Beautiful dark woods and running water used in
the construction were a delight to the senses of sight, touch and sound. I used
carefully selected planting to arouse the sense of smell. Here are two of the
plants I used to add scent to the garden. Use them to add scent to your garden
as well.
Sage, for scent and flower
 Salvia x sylvestris “Mainacht” commonly known as May night sage is a hardy
perennial native to Western Asia and Europe. This sage is a colourful plant with
indigo-blue flower spikes throughout June and July. In order to achieve this
prolonged flowering you must remove the flower spikes as soon they start to
fade. The striking flowers are held above the plants wrinkled and aromatic
grey-green leaves. As well as exciting the gardener’s sense of smell, this plant
will also excite and attract plenty of butterflies and bees. These visitors will
add an extra and welcome visual element to your garden. You need not worry that
Salvia x sylvestris “Mainacht” is going to engulf or overpower you planting
areas. It only grows at a moderate pace to height of 60cm (2ft), with a similar
spread. Position this reliable perennial in the front or middle of a
well-drained border. It does really well in sun or dappled shade where the
bright blue flowers will add a colour boost to green leaved plants.
English lavender for scent and butterflies
 The second scented plant is Lavandula angustifolia “Hidcote” commonly known
as English lavender. This small evergreen shrub (some people say herb)
originated in Europe and Asia and grows to a height of 0.6 metres (2ft); with a
similar spread. Growing in many gardens throughout the country, its long stalked
deep purple flower spikes wave gently above narrow grey-green aromatic leaves.
These blooms will last for many weeks to come whilst on the plant, when cut for
indoor display these flowers will last up to 10 days. I suggest you cut back the
flower stalks after flowering to maintain the plant's compact shape. Care must
be taken not to cut into old wood as this can cause large areas of the plant to
die back. The oil of lavender extracted from this frost hardy shrub is used to
this day in the production of soaps, scented candles, perfumes and making
potpourri. Lavender copes well with free draining or sandy soils and is an ideal
container plant in full sun due to its drought resistance. I would recommend
this scented plant for edging walkways or simply if you want to attract some
butterflies into your garden space. Another great lavender for this purpose is
Lavandula angustifolia “Munstead”
James Kilkelly runs a professional garden design service in Galway, Ireland.
He has a regular gardening column in an Irish regional newspaper. Visit his
website at
http://www.gardenplansireland.com/ He also regularly posts his expert advice
to a gardening community at
http://www.gardenstew.com/.
Article's original location:
How to Keep Your Plants in Bloom with Dead-heading
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Kilkelly
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