Flowers are wonderful for their fragrance and it is an exquisite experience to bury one’s face in a mass of lilacs or lily of the valley or wallflower or …..
Fragrant leaves provide the extra attraction of benefiting from touch to release their scent and staining our fingers with natural perfume and not needing or wanting water to preserve them because they get better and better as they dry.
It gives me great satisfaction to collect the leaves in my garden for a bouquet such as this. There is Australian bushmint (Prostanthera rotundifolia) a stick from a dead plant and two leafy twigs (both are highly fragrant); Scented geranium (Pelargonium crispum or it may be nervosum); Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum); Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis); Lavender (Lavandula officinalis and L. latifolia); Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum).
People in hospital or otherwise restricted from going outdoors seem to particularly enjoy such a bouquet – it can be kept close to hand and touched and smelled.