Last summer, in a garden stroll, I gathered the following for a scented bouquet: rosemary, lavender, lemon scented geranium, southernwood, two kinds of Australian bushmint, sweet woodruff.
Each of the plants have been chosen and planted (or were here already!) for their own qualities; the rosemary for its pungent scent, blue flowers, culinary properties and – beauty; the lavender for its fragrance, flowers and – beauty; the lemon scented geranium for its distinctive aroma, teeny flowers, restful colour and – beauty; the southernwood for its haunting natural perfume, delicate soft foliage, memories of my first encounter with it in a little old lady’s garden in Ontario and my lack of success in getting it to grow in my garden back there, my success with it here and – beauty; the bushmint because it is the most dependable of scented plants for me – it tosses out its scent abundantly when in bloom, its leaves are scented, its bark is scented, the scent lasts and lasts and – beauty; sweet woodruff because it spreads readily and if you pick a leaf or two and put them in your pocket (or encourage a guest in the garden to do the same) and come upon the leaves later you will find they have become even more fragrant and – beauty.
Gathered into a bouquet they make a most worthwhile gift for self or someone else: they need no water; you want them to dry. Over the years I have taken small bouquets to people in hospital and they have been welcomed – meant to be touched and sniffed, they bring the outdoors inside, and a person in a hospital setting benefits from this.
Now, this bouquet, dry and crisp, will be crushed into pieces and added to the year’s collection of pot pourri and used for sachets or dream pillows or sprinkling in drawers or floating on water around a fresh flower.