Your eyes can’t help but be drawn to The Colorblends Spring Garden —the scene is so lush, it literally pulls visitors from the street. If you plug in your sense of smell while visiting, you are going to be thrilled. Want to capture a similar olfactory odyssey at home? Here’s a quick overview from a scent-sational perspective.
Follow your Nose to the Grape Hyacinths
Grape Hyacinth
Right now, the grape hyacinths are stealing the show, and the backyard of The Garden is flooded in blue. It’s soothing to your eyes, for sure. But to really get the full experience, you’ll want to get down on your knees and breathe in. Grape Hyacinth flowers are held on their stem in grape-like clusters, but grape also captures the aroma floating from those tiny flowers that linger long and create lasting memories.
Heady Hyacinths
Hyacinths
When it comes to pouring out perfume, hyacinths lead the rush. At The Garden, hyacinths are scattered in strategic places to send little scent signals into the air mixed together with color pops that are the epitome of spring. And the good news is that hyacinths hit you early—they are one of the first flowers to open their foxtail-like plumes.
Daffodil Delights
Kedron
If you never figured in fragrance as one of the perks when planting narcissus, you need to take a nose-guided tour of The Garden. First stop should be Kedron because its uniquely colored apricot yellow and burnished orange flowers send out an unforgettably spicy jonquil aroma that is a crowd pleaser.
Barrett Browning
Also pay a visit to Barrett Browning. This orange-cupped naturalizer is ultra-prolific and the fragrance is absolutely delectable. Delibes is another large-cupped super-performer with a fruity scent worth sampling.
Delibes
And frilly-trumpeted yellow and white Ice Follies are super strong growers that add a light perfume to the toolkit.
Ice Follies
Representing the other end of the size spectrum, little Minnow sends out a big aroma over a long performance time. Try this at home and plant daffs for their tang, because part of the pleasure is sampling daffodils at all times of day. What you’ll notice is that daffodil scents can become stronger as the day warms. Heady moments like these are just another reason to explore spring to the fullest. Enjoy!
Minnow
About the Author
Author, garden writer, lecturer, blogger, and photographer Tovah Martin has spent decades working with and writing about bulbs. An honorary member of the Garden Club of America, her most recent book, The Garden in Every Sense and Season, was awarded the Gold Medal from GardenComm. A fanatical hands-on organic gardener outdoors and inside, she digs into Furthermore, her own 7-acre Connecticut farmstead.