The Fragrant Garden: A Book About Sweet Scented Flowers and Leaves

by Louise Beebe Wilder

Octavo, 1974, pp.407, A book about sweet scented flowers and leaves

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference, Green, Horticulture

Paperback

First published July 1, 1974

Reviews

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book. It has been a major inspiration to me in trying to make my own fragrance gardens. This is the book I've given copies of to others as a gift most often. Keep in mind that it was originally written in 1932, so there are a few phrases that are politically incorrect now. Otherwise, the writing is beautiful, and so much of the information is still very useful. The 1996 version, titled The Fragrant Path like the original edition, has updated horticultural nomenclature and deletes those phrases offensive to modern sensibilities. I didn't care for some of the more heavy-handed editing concerning the plants, though. I reviewed that as well.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the editing very awkward after first reading the facsimile edition titled The Fragrant Garden. They added in many new hybrid peonies to a list, but with no description of the scent of the peonies, just catalogue-like write-ups of their appearances. I approved of the deletion of a few lines that were no longer politically correct (the book was originally written in 1932), but they changed sentences that must have seemed to them like politically incorrect mentions of scentless roses and so on. [Edited to add: I don't think the 'Frau Karl Druschki' rose will have its feelings hurt by being described as "a chill and soulless beauty." Also, that's hilarious.] It's one thing to update the botanical names, which I appreciated, but no need to change the descriptions of the cultivars available in Mrs. Wilder's day.

1/30/23 additional thoughts: The 1996 edition added in a number of typos that did not exist in the two previous editions I've read. After umpteen readthroughs of this edition, the 1974 replica edition of the 1932 edition, and the edition between 1974 and 1996 that was edited by Allen Lacy, I've noticed a lot more about the changes. The editors of the 1996 edition don't change the descriptions in Mrs. Wilder's listing of certain genera of fragrant flowers. They take out most or all of her list, including her descriptions if they are included in the list.

Removed: Most of the list of fragrant roses available in 1932, roses that were modern in 1996 added instead. Most of the list of irises, new-in-1996 cultivars substituted. Like the peony list that includes descriptions, there's nothing about the scent of the more modern cultivars, just catalogue-like descriptions of their appearance. I found that I had a couple of the more recently introduced irises, and would have appreciated a description of their fragrances much more so than the appearance of the flowers, which I can see in color pictures nowadays. Mrs. Wilder's list of fragrant lilacs has been removed, and several of them are still available commercially.

The most egregious of these changes is the total removal of the descriptions and listings of fragrant tulips that was in "The Sweets of May" chapter. How is a reader/gardener supposed to find out about the gorgeous scent of 'Prince of Austria' and its lighter-colored sport 'Generaal de Wet'? (Lighter-colored here being golden orange rather than red-orange.) I haven't been able to get 'Mrs. Keightly,' but in addition to 'Prince of Austria' and 'Generaal de Wet,' I've enjoyed the pleasant scents of 'Philippe de Commines' and 'Dom Pedro' and the lovely fragrance of 'Orange King.'

As an aside, I also recommend 'Couleur Cardinal' and 'Apricot Beauty.' The latter is generally available. The former has a parrot tulip sport, 'Rococo,' that's pretty widely available, and the color sport 'Princes Irene' that I've seen in several garden catalogues. (The color sport is a change from red with a "plum blush" on the outside of the petals to peachy-orange with the plum blush having more of a bronze tone added in, and having more of a flame-shaped look.)

The drawings are a nice addition to the book. I'd love to see a new edition for this century that restores the material about flowers that was removed, and sensitively adds more modern cultivars to the lists, with descriptions of their scents and not the catalogue descriptions of their appearances, which I can see in the catalogues myself. The scientific names can be updated yet again, because a number of them have changed again. I'd keep the drawings of the plants.

[Melissa Embry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gardening books about flower color abound. Those about flower scents are few and far between. Undoubtedly the most comprehensive guide to plant scents (including the really bad) is Louise Beebe Wilder's "The Fragrant Path," originally published in 1932. The updated 1996 paperback version brings Wilder's incredible plant knowledge to a new generation of gardeners, further helped by updated names of the plants she loved (and sometimes detested).

The contents include scented plants by their season of flowering, from early spring through autumn, scented shrubs hardy enough to survive in Wilder's New York state garden (and another chapter of scented shrubs and trees for southern gardens) and, of course, an entire chapter of rose scents from "the tea scent, the odours of spice and musk and of honey, even that of violets" to "the pungent odour of ripe strawberries" to remind gardeners and even casual readers of the myriad variations of fragrance.

After reading Wilder's comments, I found myself stopping on walks to smell the flowers along the way. I already knew buddleja blossoms smell like honey but not that the blooms of Vitex agnus-castus, the chaste tree naturalized in my neighborhood are fragrant. And I was pleased to see Wilder realized that annual lupins such as the Texas state flower, bluebonnets, are beautifully scented when growing in masses. (To her nose, it's "a honeylike scent," although she mentions Gertrude Jekyll's opinion of "a very good and delicate pepper." Texas readers will want to smell for themselves during the spring season of bloom.)

Wilder also includes a chapter entitled, "Plants of Evil Odour," with a list of horrors to shudder happily through. Still another deals with the scents of nonflowering plants (or near plants) -- ferns and mushrooms.

For readers used to the impeccable prose of such gardener/writers as gardeners as Gertrude Jekyll or Elizabeth Lawrence, the self-conscious artiness of Wilder's writing can sometimes be trying. But her acute nose, wide range of plant knowledge and sheer love of flowers will give "The Fragrant Path" a permanent place on my gardening bookshelf.

[Karen Floyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful reference. Largely an encyclopedic listing of scented plants, trees, etc. Short on Wilder's distinctive voice.

[Maryo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful read.

[Carol Collins]

1932