Sculpture in the Fragrance Garden in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Nov. 2006

The Fragrance Garden was designed in 1955 by Alice Recknagel Ireys, a renowned landscape architect who was also a member of the BBG Auxiliary. Its construction was funded by donations from the Auxiliary and from many friends of the Garden.

The small, oval-shaped space measures about 60 feet by 100 feet and was designed to bring visitors into close contact with plants. The small fountain and pool provide not only a calming sound but also a place to rinse strong aromas off the fingers.

The west entrance is framed by gates with a dianthus motif that were a gift of the Abraham Cayton family in 1955. Surrounding a flagstone walk and central lawn are four large, elevated beds contained by 28-inch-high stone walls, designed so that people in wheelchairs can comfortably reach the plants. Visitors can run their hands along the continuous metal railing along the top of the wall. Braille plaques describing the plants are mounted on the rail. In 1995, the Fragrance Garden was renovated according to a plan by the original architect, Alice Recknagel Ireys. Again, the work was funded by the Auxiliary and the many friends of BBG.

In the summer of 2001, the Fragrance Garden was dedicated in memory of Alice Recknagel Ireys (1911-2000).

The four main beds in the Fragrance Garden include the following groups of plants:

Plants for Touch
Here, visitors are invited to explore the differences in textured leaves. Some are silky, such as lamb's ears, while others are sharp and spiny, such as agave. The textured-leaf bed also includes such plants as alumroot, cinnamon fern, curly mint, heartleaf bergenia, horehound, and tunic flower.

Plants With Scented Leaves
To release the aroma of these plants, visitors can gently rub the leaves and then smell their fingers. This bed includes such plants as apple geranium, Corsican mint, fumitory, Indian patchouli, lantana, lavender, lemon verbena, peppermint geranium, rose geranium, sage, and southernwood. Be careful with the southernwood—it's poisonous!

Fragrant Flowers
Aromatic flowers bloom here in midsummer. Under diverse weather conditions and at different times of the day, fragrances vary in intensity. Some of the plants found here are candytuft, garden verbena, heliotrope, re-blooming iris, marigold, Mexican evening primrose, nasturtium, ornamental flowering tobacco, petunia, red valerian, snow-in-summer, sweet alyssum, and wallflower.

Kitchen Herbs
Here, visitors can experience such culinary plants as basil, bay laurel, bee balm, chives, chocolate peppermint, clary sage, dill, bronze fennel, garden sage, large-flowered calamint, Mexican hyssop, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, spearmint, sweet marjoram, thyme, and winter savory.

Text from: www.bbg.org/exp/stroll/fragrance.html