DIY Perfume Garden

This article was originally published in Immortal Perfume's first edition Scent Strip, a quarterly publication dedicated to the artistry, history and intrigue of perfume. You can order a digital or print copy here.

“I wish you could smell this.” That’s always what I’m thinking while taking photos of my garden.  I wish you could smell this rose that is sweet and spicy with notes of honey. I wish you could smell the sweet peas with their soft, powdery floral scent with a hint of citrus. Or the flowering lemon tree, or the cheery chamomile …well, you get the picture.

So if you’re inspired to create your own perfume garden, read on, but first a little garden business:

1. Know your zone.  If you live in the USA and you don’t know your USDA Hardiness Zone, search online for “your town here growing zone”. This will help you find plants suited to your specific climate. 

2. Observe the sun. Find a spot for your perfume garden that receives 6+ hours of sun. The more sun, the better the fruit and flowers.

3. In the ground or in a pot? While many of us would love to tend the sprawling Versailles Perfumer’s Garden with over 300 perfume plants (just me?), realistically we may just have a sunny balcony or tiny backyard. Choose your growing method and if it's pots, buy the biggest pots you can afford.

4. When designing a perfume garden, you want the smells to be close to where you are, so think lavender for pathways, jasmine outside your bedroom window, etc. 

Now the fun part, come along for the scent tour:

The first stop in a Perfume Garden is roses. There is little worse than a rose that doesn’t smell, so make sure your chosen variety has a strong scent, which is usually listed on the plant tag.

If you are an organic gardener, and why wouldn’t you be, you can use those rose petals in simple syrups, teas, scrubs or any other herb skin potions you want to concoct. For the advanced gardener, you can save the winter rose hips and make your own skin oil just like 90’s It Girl Pamela Anderson. 

Next on the perfume stop is citrus. If you live in zone 8-10 you can easily grow your favorite. For zone 7 or below, you can make like French King Louis XIII and bring them inside for the winter. (L’Orangerie in Versailles

houses over 1,000 potted trees every winter… but they move them inside by tractor now.) Trust me, the scent of those delicate citrus flowers in springtime is so worth it. 

Just past the citrus, continuing on in Mediterranean heaven, you’ll find rosemary and lavender! Hardy to zone 7, rosemary will give you herbaceous and woody notes, while lavender also leans herbaceous but has a note of bergamot and is a little floral. Both bloom in the spring and can be used in all your skin care and edible potions.

Alas, the path continues, but my word count does not. So I’ll leave you with five other fantastic smelling plants that I think you’ll love to grow:

Mints - cinnamon, lemon, chocolate, apple - you name it, mint has it 

Geraniums - like mint, there are hundreds of varieties of scented geraniums. Fun fact - the scent comes from the leaf!

Sweet peas - a showstopper in my garden for color as well as spring scent. Short blooming period, but worth it.

Jasmine - hardy to zone 7, if you want to feel rich, plant jasmine!

Lilac - For zone 3-8, lilac is a beautiful way to enjoy those sweet floral, creamy notes in springtime.

Any plant or garden questions? Write me at WildJoyGardens@gmail.com or find me online 🙂 Happy Gardening!