31-May Scent & Sensibility: London’s Forgotten Perfume Garden

In woods, the delicate balsam and cinnamon notes produced by large numbers of bluebells contrasts strongly with the powerful smell of garlic produced by sheets of ransoms in places like Dulwich Woods. Woodruff is still in flower in beech woods, producing its comforting smell of hay. On chalk downs, salad burnet smells slightly of cucumber, but it is the easily missed hoary plantain that has one of the best scents. It is both sweet and comforting.

In the same habitat, the wayfaring tree is lily-scented and later the guilder rose has a more mossy scent. In more watery situations, wild irises have a sweet, honey scent. The flowers of white water lilies are both sweet and fruity and yellow water lilies are said to smell of ripe plums with a dash of brandy.

Among the trees, the scent of limes is probably the most famous. The half hidden flowers have a very light, lily scent which is captured in the tea. Gilbert White and Marcel Proust both enjoyed lime tea the latter famously holding it responsible for bringing back past memories. Holly and laburnum throw heavy, sweet odours.

The Acacia Robinia pseudoacacia also has a strong, sweet scent. John Evelyn so loved acacias he advocated planting avenues of them in London. Today they are all over the capital. More unpleasant scents this month include the sweaty smell of ox-eye daisies and the corpse-like smell of hawthorn. Astrantia and herb Paris both have fetid smells which attract flies. Hound’s tongue smells of fur and stinkweed of bad eggs. Musk can be detected in the bruised leaves of wild strawberries and the rarer musk stork’s bill. Orchids can also smell badly. The birds nest orchid is similar to hawthorn and the man orchid has hints of ammonia, but the more familiar pleasurable scent of vanilla can be found in the green-winged orchid.

The accolade for the best, or most agreeable scent of the month usually goes to lily of the valley. It is a purer, more balanced scent than most, with some spice and violets. It used to grow plentifully on Hampstead Heath in Gerard’s day, but now only small patches can be found in a handful of woods e.g. Petts Wood. The dead flowers used to be mixed with marjoram and used as a snuff to cure ‘obstinate memories’.

In our gardens, there is a much wider range of scents than in the wild. The best are usually attributed to jasmine, lilac, honeysuckle, azaleas, roses and wisteria, the latter with its hints of vanilla. Certainly, some of these are so strong they always get noticed. Garden aquilegias differ depending upon their colour. The wild blue ones have no scent, the white ones are spicy and the newer long spurred varieties are often quite highly scented.

Garden irises produce their own wide range of scents varying from honey to orange-blossom and on to elderflower. Early bog arums tend to be strong and sweet and waterside primulas are often lemon-scented.

The herb garden is now at its best for smells, as all the new leaves are full of oils. Beside the obvious mints, thyme, sage and rosemary, some people detect myrrh in sweet cicely. The leaves of alexanders are also supposed to smell of myrrh, so much so that the Romans added them to their soups as they so enjoyed the smell.

Clary is said to smell of ambergris and angelica of musk and juniper. Borage flowers, with their scent of cucumber, are traditionally added to Pimms cocktails. A lot of shrubs are also heavily scented this month, particularly azaleas, choisya, viburnum , syringa, deutzia, pittosporum , olearia, ribes and various brooms. They vary a lot from honey or fruits such as pineapple to severely acrid smells.

More unusual odours are found in Cistus and Centaurea, the former smelling of gum and the latter of musk. Some viburnums even contain the same musk chemical that is collected from civet cats that can have such a disturbing effect on some people.

Carnations are clove-scented; star of Bethlehem smells of cucumber and Solomon’s seal has been compared to tuberose. Some would say the best scent in the garden is from certain old fashioned peonies. Their scent has been unhelpfully described as refined and demure, adjectives which, once you smell them, seem suddenly quite accurate.