OF all the senses, the perception of smell is probably the most powerful. Anatomically, the sense of smell is linked to the same part of the brain that also processes our emotions and memories. Small wonder then, that a particular smell can immediately transport us back to a particular occasion, a memory of someone, or spark some long forgotten childhood experience. Perfume in the Garden was the subject Susan Russell came to talk about at the Malvern Horticultural Society’s October meeting. Susan and her husband ran a nursery in Suffolk specialising in old fashion roses and pinks before moving to the Midlands – quite different types of plants of course, but probably both the most associated with fragrance. Of all the questions she used to be asked about plants, the most frequent one was “does it smell nice?”

It was here that Susan gave a word of warning. Like beauty, smell is in the sense of the beholder and what to one person is evocative, to another it could be dismal – or worse. So lesson number one – sniff it yourself before you buy it.

Susan went on to explain how and why plants produce their smells. For some, it is to attract pollinators, for others it is a survival mechanism to withstand heat. We have harnessed these properties for a variety of purposes, ranging from perfume to make us smell nice, to keeping insects out of clothes and away from us while we sit outside on warm evenings.

To produce a smell takes far more resources from a plant than it does to produce a flower. Plants cannot afford to waste this energy and have developed a variety of mechanisms to ensure that they only produce it when required. In the case of attracting pollinators, one such mechanism is to time the production of the scent to coincide when the plant is ready to be pollinated. There would be no point in attracting the pollinator if there was no pollen available!

Susan showed a number of excellent photographs to accompany the scented plants she described to us. She described each one with a professional’s insight into some aspects of the plants that would not be widely known, ranging from clues about the plant’s common name, for example heliotrope = cherry pie because that is what it can smell like. Lesson number two was to be wary about purchasing a double form of a particular plant, if the scent is produced by the stamens. The double form has often been produced at the expense of pollen, so the double form will be not produce the same concentration of scent.

It is possible to have perfume in the garden throughout the year, no matter what the conditions in your garden. The summer scents are well known – lavenders, roses, pinks, honeysuckle and so on. Fragrance in late summer and autumn can come from flowers such as tobacco plants, and the woodlander Nicotiana sylvestris is probably the best, and the leaves of the katsura tree -Cercidiphyllum japonica - whose leaves not only smell of deliciously of burnt sugar and candy floss, but are also used to flavour foodstuffs for precisely that reason. In winter scent comes into its own. The scents are more powerful than the summer ones simply because they need to force themselves through the colder, heavier air to advertise nectar to hungry and a bit sleepy insects venturing out in the dark months. It is difficult to beat the fragrance of viburnums or witch hazels, or even in shady corners, daphnes or sarcococcas. In spring time of course, the cycle starts over again with sweetly scented narcissus, wisteria, and some clematis.

The plants covered by Susan were only a few of those that you could choose for your garden. The evening was completed by a series of questions about some of the plants she had mentioned and members offering ideas of their own personal favourites. As always, a factor in deciding on specific plants is right plant, right place and Susan is finding that plants that did not grow well for her in the dry Suffolk climate thrive here. It is often worth a try though, because some plants which ought not to do well, in fact surpass expectations. And if they succeed, you can go out and drink in the fragrance.

The evening’s competitions were three apples and a vase of autumn foliage. The apple entries were very tempting, and the autumn foliage was timely with the first frost of the year forecast for the night.

The Malvern Horticultural Society meets every fourth Wednesday in the month at 7.30pm at the Sixth Form Block, The Chase Technology College, Malvern. The next meeting is Wednesday, November 23 when it is the Society’s AGM – a social occasion which is always accompanied by a good spread of nibbles, cheese, soft drinks and wine – and a talk by Paul Hervey-Brooks entitled A Plantsman’s Plants. Visitors and new members are always welcome.

ADRIAN HOLMES.