Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Herbal Essence
About this time of year I start to crave green/resinous/herbal fragrances. In the drawing-in season of autumn, I like the warm spicy scents of pumpkin pie, cinnamon rolls and molasses cookies, but now I'm ready for a wake-up call. Especially today, when all the outdoors looks like a black and white photograph, I want to be surrounded by rosemary, lavender, mint, citrus, juniper... Does this sound like the old original 1970s Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo to you? The remembrance of that scent has been driving me crazy all day. If they brought it back, I'd buy a lifetime supply.
Parallel to this, and thinking about spring plant shopping, I've been reading that strongly aromatic plants may be an effective deer deterrence strategy. I thought I had come up with this idea on my own, but now I've read it in at least two different places (1,2). This is good news, because I happen to admire most herbs anyway and would be very happy to have an excuse to plant more.
Cruising the Internet for new ideas, I found a page on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's web site about fragrant plants - it mentions one of my favorites (Corsican Mint), and gave me some ideas for new things to try (Costmary, Patchouli). I didn't know Patchouli could be grown as an annual. Reminds me of 1970s incense (there's the 70s again).
Anne Raver visited the New York Botanical Garden last fall and her article about it described an Agastache (Black Adder) with a very minty fragrance:
The blossoms were pleasant enough, but the crystal-clear menthol that filled my nose and throat was astounding.
I was suddenly wide awake. I noticed the shape of clouds, the fuzziness of my sweater. I made a note: must have this plant.
It’s legal. It’s also drought-tolerant and deer-resistant.
Now, if only I could find a recipe for that Clairol Herbal Essence fragrance. I seem to remember the commercials saying something about balsam and melissa?
P.S. You'd be surprised at how many people recall the scents of the 70s. I hadn't thought about some of these in a long time.
Labels: critters, fragrant plants, seasons
2 Comments:
Entangled, I chould have sent you Patty Simon's list - still have it from our last Austin house. I met Patty one of the plant sales at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Some of the advice, like surrounding the less resistent plants with stronger herbier smelling plants like Rosemary did help. We can grow Rosemary outside however, and I don't think it makes it by you, does it?
Although I haven't tried agastache, one of the Divas of the Dirt grows it... seems to me it had a need for extremely good drainage; wet feet are worse than cold for this plant.
You used Herbal Essence Shampoo! That was one of my favorites, too. Emeraude was mentioned in your blog link, and I still wear it all the time! I don't think of it as a seventies scent, because it's an old perfume - my grandmother's favorite in the 1940's. Charlie seems more seventies to me.
L'Occitaine carries an herby-woodsy line of bath products called Ambre - maybe you'd like this one?
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Annie, I'm happy to hear that I might have some chance of success with this technique. I've had rosemary here for many years, but I did lose one in a particularly cold winter. I think good drainage helps with those too. I have a couple of Agastaches that I grew from seed last year, but they're in kind of a soggy spot - don't know if they'll be back in the spring or not.
I think Emeraude and Shalimar are very similar? I've always liked Shalimar. Thanks for giving me a reason to to stop by the L'Occitane store. ;-) Like tomorrow, if I can. Aromatherapy, retail therapy.......
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