Aromatic plants come from a variety of plant families, and it is important to know the difference between shrubs, herbs, roses, climbers and ground cover and also their fragrant parts.   Some plants are known for their scented foliage while others rely on their flowers. Plants such as lavender have both.
For this article I will cover fragrant flowers.  

Shrubs with scented flowers
Many aromatic shrubs are Mediterranean, growing best in full sun and being able to tolerate drought conditions.  When the oils in the foliage are released in hot weather, the leaves give off scent.  You may brush past one of these shrubs for the scent to be released, or you may notice the scent when handling the leaves.  An example of this is the lavender plant.  Mediterranean plants need soil that is well drained and light. 

Climbing plants with scented flowers
You will be fortunate if you can remember a wall of sweet peas growing in your childhood garden.  The scented flowers on mass give off an intoxicating fragrance that is forever etched in your memory.  I challenge you to invoke that fragrance right now!  And then there is honeysuckle and sweet jasmine…
The beauty of growing climbers with scented flowers is that you invoke these memories for yourself and others by the sheer power of mass aromatic wonder.

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Ground cover plants with scented flowers
Aromatic ground cover plants can give off an aromatic scent when their leaves are brushed against or lightly crushed underfoot at the edge of a border, or they can offer scented flowers in garden beds and borders. Ground cover plants spread over bare soil, shading out weeds and providing a visual link between plants or different areas of the garden..

​If you would like to know more I would love you to join my six-week course to learn Healing Gardening and why not... decide to 'Become a Certified Healing Gardener'.

More info on the course 

It was New Years Day, the Great Hall doorway bedecked in the red and green of Ivy, holly and red berry shadow the portent felt to come.
​The wind slithers its chill beneath the oaken door floating tiny snow flakes that sparkle before wetting the herb strewn floor turning to shining water droplets by the warmth of the blazing fire, the great Yule log. For fifteen days the feast of Christmas had been in play. The air is heavy and tainted by the smell of candle and reed light burning bright light to cheer and banish cold dark night away. The air smells of roast meats and foods, garlic and onion, of warm breads of dank clothing, sweat and dogs, mulled wine and spilled ale, crushed strewing herbs all souped to the feeling of conviviality and warmth. The harping is silenced by the sound of Horse and Rider coming closer. Conversation dampens and ceases with an uneasy sense of expectation as eyes turn toward the doors. 
The thud of heavy horse hooves sounds outside, loud and worrying. Jingle bell notes of steel accoutrements sound in rhythm to the thudding hooves. Chill fears creep to heart and stomach preluding the unexpected, the unknown. The knights reach for sword and dagger whilst the damsels and ladies cluster. Only Arthur the King remains undisturbed.
The great doors swung open as though by a hidden force and in rides a great knight in full armour emblazoned green and his destrier painted green and the knight himself of green pallor. The stranger held a large and menacing axe in one hand but wore no breastplate, neck-guard or helmet or other battlement protections, and in his other hand he held a sprig of holly. Around his broad shoulder hangs a garland of ivy and holly with pines and evergreens woven fast. His presence distils a sharp note of freshness a cleansing feeling that pushes aside the redolent warmth and yet there is the smell of earth and fern of scented power without powder, so smelled Purdue the court perfumer laying back at table scenting the air like the war hounds by Arthurs great chair. 

Now was this scented giant from the Fougère or Woody family? Purdue began to sniff but surely Aromatic?
Surely a hint of hay from the now pawing steed, oakmoss and musk are strong yet the first notes were floral like but no lavender or clary sage like the great Fougère Royal he foresaw to come. Whilst some elements were there it was the Woody facet that shone through with pine absolute and cypress and fir balsam the epitome, when skilfully blended, of exhilarating winter.  Ah he felt the touch of vine and cypress that tall dark harbinger of shade and shadows to another place and the woods of the forest sharp and dark. Could that be the intense cologne of that London persona Jo Malone simply called Cypress and Grapevine. Then he had it! Something yet beyond cypress, it was simply a top aromatic note overlaying the woods and greens, fresh and spicy an element there for sure of Christmas citrus, more sharp than orange. All held in the embrace of musk and warming spices and the leaves which doth wilt in the warmth of the great hall. What else could it be, he mused, but the great Chanel Allure in  its Extreme Sports perception, yet at that time still to come. 

The Knight roared a challenge. “I am not here for idle chatter. I have come in search of the bravest knight of the land, for this Round Table, I heard, is where one can find the most valiant of the land. By this holly berry branch of red and green you must know that I come in peace.
I challenge that knight to strike the first blow with my axe. Know only that if I survive the first blow, I may return a stroke in kind one year and a day from now." 

Gawaine the nephew of the king and Champion stood forward. With one fell stroke, Gawain's axe clove through the stranger's s neck, the head falling to the herb strewn stone paviours, to be sure, yet the body of the Green Knight remained firm, as sturdy as if the head were still there. The body strode over to claim it’s head; and holding it by the hair with one hand, the body grabbed hold of the horse's reins.
Stepping in the stirrup, the body strode aloft and the head, still dangling, turned to Gawaine, raised one eyebrow and its mouth said, "Gawaine, in one year and one day, find me at the Green Chapel. I am known as the Knight of the Green Chapel.”

This Christmas tale of course is drawn from The Arthurian cycle best exemplified by the medieval literature entitled ‘the Matter of Britain’ and the troubadour Chrétien de Troyes. In essence it is the enactment of the death of winter that comes each year.
In English tradition Holly King and Oak King fight it out at each of the solstices.

The previously mentioned cypress was, along with vetiver, my introduction to the pungent smells of aromatherapy.  I love those two smells. Cypress has a fresh, clean aroma that is herbaceous, spicy, with a slightly woody evergreen coniferous scent. The uplifting aroma has a very soothing emotional quality that provides comfort during times of grief and sadness. Cypress trees are often found planted near burial grounds. I feel it to be fresh, lingering, pine-like, resinous, slightly smoky with a sweet, balsamic undertone. The scent is very evocative of a forest setting, bestowing a soothing and refreshing ambience.
In aromatherapy according to Valerie Worwood in her book the Fragrant Mind, the personality of Cypress is characterised by wisdom, strength, and uprightness like the tree. In practice, cypress is most often associated with upper respiratory issues. A less well-known property of cypress essential oil is the ability to stem bleeding, promoting blood clotting so having haemostatic and astringent qualities. The astringent properties allow cypress oil to tighten tissues, strengthening hair follicles and making them less likely to fall out! The haemostatic properties in cypress oil reduce the flow of blood and promote clotting where needed. These two beneficial qualities work together to promote healing for wounds, cuts and open sores quickly.
As with Jo Malone’s Cypress & Grapevine this cypress note features strongly in Gucci’s’ Winter Melody Scented Water and others seeking to achieve the smell of this season. As with our folk romance hero, the green knight, it is the gloss green colour of the season that draws us to the base of the accords where ‘spikiness’ gives way to the sense of repose and renewal such as the surprising rose used by Gucci. Any therapeutic benefit must lie within the genuine essential oil or absolute and certainly that fleeting sense of coniferous reality will only come from natural materials.

It is the time when chirp of crickets and grasshoppers end and the squirrels and mice collect the winter store of nuts.
Autumn is not quite here although the Equinox has passed. In my garden the Linden tree has its first few yellow scatterings of leaves begin to turn but not yet fall. The green husked walnuts lie on the dewy grass. It is the Wych Hazel that has lost its sugars to glorious reds and yellows, browns and russets the earliest harbinger of real autumn.

These are all visual signs of what we sense within the shortening days in the Northern hemisphere but there are more subtle signs of change that we might not so easily have observed. For a while we have possibly noticed a different feel to the air these last few days. Was it cold or moistness a certain sharpness or the opposite a lingering warmth?
All these feelings can be related to our nose and its related sense of touch. Things feel different and smell different. 

Unless trained few give attention to the smell of the seasons. Oddly in contrast, many fragrance brands take the seasons as markers for their creations and subsequent advertising. So what are we smelling as the seasons change?

Most people are familiar with the fresh smell of earth or soil after rain. Certainly the dew effect will heighten our perception as it evaporates but dry earth also has its aroma. Turning soil over provides us with a gamut of odours. Clay has its own smell as does peat and surprisingly sand. The smell of the desert, apparently dry and empty except for sand and rock is known to any desert traveller whether Gobi or Sahara. Each land has its own aroma without any of the additions of cultural and vegetation smells.
The Roman philosopher and scholar Gaius Plinius Secundus, commonly known as Pliny the Elder writing in his History of Nature in the first century CE recorded what every farmer had known since the birth of agriculture, ‘odour is the best way to judge soil’. 

The idea of distilling a dry rock or soil seems at first glance a bit odd but it was done in India where it is called it “matti ka attar” or “earth perfume.
It is produced from the local earth coming from such as dried up water-holes, lakes and wells. The is half baked and then distilled, the vapours from the still go directly into a base material, usually sandalwood oil, or for cheaper products, liquid paraffin. 
It was Australian researchers Isabel (Joy) Bear and Richard Thomas who by steam distilling rocks that had been exposed to warm, dry conditions in nature, discovered a yellowish oil – trapped in rocks and soil but released by moisture – this was responsible for the smell given off by the soil. This oil was named petrichor drawn from the Greek and construed to mean the blood of the gods. Following the ideas of the Gaia hypothesis originating with James Lovelock and Lyn Margulis it might better be called gaia-ichor the breath of Mother Earth!

The microorganisms themselves also have their own distinct aromas.
Interestingly Lyn Margulis as a scientist is known mostly for her work with micro-organisms for it is now known that it is not the mineral element that provides the aroma but the accumulation over time, perhaps immense time of the debris of the once living and dying communities that once colonised it. In other words, the odour source is organic and produced by the degradation of material by bacteria.
This Petrichor smell has been analysed as a combination of several fragrant chemical compounds, some have yet to be identified but one is 2-isopropyl-3-methoxy-pyrazine (IPMP). This is also a characteristic of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc grapes and contributes strongly to their odour. 
The primary contributors to petrichor’s complex aromatics are the actinobacteria, a genus or family of soil-dwelling bacteria so important in producing the all-important soil fertility component, humus, which too has its own distinct aroma, the smell of good sweet compost! So much so that it has its own fragrance brand, Humus by Michele Bianchi.

Amongst the genus of this actinomycete family are Streptomycetes which inhabit soil and are great decomposers.
​They also produce more than half of the world's antibiotics and are consequently invaluable in the medical field. The antibiotic Streptomycin was discovered in 1943 and it saved my life when as a young boy I suffered pneumonia. Treatment with this recently discovered drug was relatively unexplored and I remember the smell very well. Today many years later I relate it to Vetiver in my smell memory bank and the earthy taste of beetroots. 
Streptomyces, these soil-dwelling bacteria create the substance known as geosmin, the smell which I remember. Geosmin is a terpenoid that is also called likened to an earth smell. From the Greek it simply translates as earth smell. I would argue that whilst we recognise ‘it’ as a single smell it varies from where the source was a taken.

We humans are incredibly sensitive to geosmin and can detect very low concentrations.
Of course this complex material with its many components is synthesised to a commercially available single chemical Octahydro-4,8a-dimethyl-4a(2H)-naphthol sold as geosmin. So two names that show the difference between the scent of soil after rain, petrichor and the smell of earth in hand geosmin.  

Every spring I wait for the “Spring Thunder and Lightning “. When I was a kid, I was told by my po-po ( grand ma) that the Spring thunder and lightning wake up all the insects and animals from hibernations. Humidity and heavy rain follow after the Spring thunder, and it is usually in June, Father’s Day month.
Coming from a tropical city, I experienced those heavy rain... and those annoying mosquitoes and black flies and many pests insects. In many traditions, people would throw copper metals, like copper pennies in ponds and wishing wells. By doing so, mosquitoes would not lay eggs in those ponds and waters, as the eggs would not survive. During this period in China, for thousands of years, people would hang wormwood outside their doors and windows to keep the pesty mosquitoes and bugs out. People made and carry sachets and pouches so they would not be bitten by the bugs, as sometimes the bugs often carry diseases. In fact, the sachets were given to the empresses by the emperor in history to protect the Chinese royals.
Father’s Day is just around the corner, and many fathers like to go fishing or hiking , golfing or other outdoor activities. I would like to share this recipe containing the herbs that are used traditionally in sachets to keep one from insect bites. Insects do not like the scents of these herbs...in fact, some says insects are afraid of these plants.

Here is what I put in my sachets: (10 grams of each herb)
Wormwood ( 艾草）
Cloves ( 丁香）
Patchouli (藿香）
Peppermint（ 薄荷）
Honeysuckle (金銀花）

I put all these dried herbs in a blender and ground them into smaller pieces/ powders. I stuff the grinds in a sachet. The blend smells so beautiful... it is subtle with a hint of joy ( from the peppermint). This is a much better choice than the chemical insect spray. 

​Fathers can carry the sachets in their pockets. In addition, one can smoke these herbs to keep bugs away when outdoor.  Amazingly, most of these herbs are harvested during this Spring rain time. It is almost a gift from Mother Nature for us to use.
I made a big sachet for my father and I placed it in a pouch made from Fish leather... Process of tanning fish leather is a very old technique and does not use toxic chemicals. Fish leather is tanned using tannins ( often use teas and tree bark, like cedar). The leather can be dyed using berries and plants. I collect fish skins from restaurant wastes（ saved for me by chefs) when I need them.
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I hope this can inspire everyone and making that human-plant connections! I wish all the fathers a healthy and fun day on Father’s Day!

Almost every country in the world celebrates Mother’s Day.
Many countries, such as the US and Germany recognize May 9th as Mother’s Day this year. France celebrates on May 30th and Kenya on June 27th. Several other countries mark the day during the month of March. 

Regardless of when you celebrate this very special person, nothing could be more fitting than to give the mother or mothers in your life the gifts of Mother Nature and their amazing benefits of wellness and happiness.

Here are a few ideas that can help mothers Reconnect with Mother Nature:

• Plant a garden together. It could be an indoor garden, or a garden for a patio or balcony. Gardens can be healing and therapeutic as well as a wonderful source of nutrition-rich herbs and vegetables.

 

• Fresh Flowers and Plants. Flowers and plants are not just beautiful, but many scientific studies have shown that they have positive, uplifting effects on us and can also scrub the air of many toxic substances found in virtually every home.       

 

• Natural Perfumes. Not those big brand synthetic perfumes from the department stores, but perfumes made from all natural ingredients. Do a search for “natural perfume” and make sure you purchase from a certified natural perfumer who works with natural and sustainable ingredients.

Giving Mother’s Day gifts of Mother Nature can truly be the best possible gifts of all, so why not all three?

VanDusen Botanical Garden is jointly operated by the City of Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation and the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association, a charitable non-profit organization. The two organizations have worked together for more than 40 years under a shared vision of making the Garden cherished locally and renowned internationally.
Public art, lectures, seasonal blooms, family adventures, courses and other events are inviting visitors to discover the healing power of nature.

Vancouver Botanical Garden is so beautiful during fall, we could not resist sharing these pictures with you. 

Author and Pictures Rosemary Moore

More info about events organized by VanDusen Botanical Garden 

C’est à 12 Km de Rabat, sur la route nationale de Kenitra que Marcel François, ingénieur horticole français a acquis en 1951 un terrain plat et nu d’une superficie de quatre hectares et demi.
Son jardin est une invitation au voyage avec des plantes et des jardins évoquant la Chine, l’Asie méridionale, la Savane, le Congo, le Japon, le Brésil ou la Polynésie.
Une allégorie de la diversité avec des ambiances contrastées alliant flore luxuriante ou paysages arides…  Une œuvre généreuse d’un amoureux du Maroc qui a cédé ses jardins et sa demeure au gouvernement marocain. Les Jardins Exotiques de Bouknadel sont soutenu par la Fondation Mohammed VI pour la Protection de l'Environnement.

                                                   More info - Plus d'info 
                                           http://www.jardinsexotiques.com


Looking for an hotel nearby: check in Vichy Célestins Hotel Spa Resort 

Today we are disconnected from nature and need to reconnect. Our bodies are calling us to react and we feel we need to reconnect.
The best way to Reconnect with Nature is to look for Nature in everything. This takes a little bit more time since we first need to determine what is natural and what isn't. To do this, products have to have traceability, which allows us to find true natural products before our purchases are made. 
Here are the 10 Best Ways to Reconnect with Nature 

1. Think before buying. Who is making it? How is it made? Where does it come from? Can we trust it?
2. Read labels. If you see chemical terminology on the product, don’t buy! A natural product is a complete product with a name and it does not need labelling using chemical compounds. A rose is a rose, a lemon is a lemon. If you see chemicals formulas on a products label it means it is probably not natural, it is probably coming from a laboratory and was processed. You can do the same exercise with food, with perfumes... 
3. Eat fresh vegetables, fresh fruits and wild herbs, cereals that are not GMO processed and not polluted by chemical pesticides.
4. Eat honey, since bees are producing the best food made with flowers and plants. 
5. Breathe Nature. Learn how to breathe. From yoga classes, you will learn how to breathe, using breathing to massage your internal organs. The sense of smell is the most essential sense, and is the first of the senses developed in newborns. We breathe about 23040 times a day but we don't pay attention anymore to the benefits and importance of breathing.
6. Walk in Nature at least once a week. 
7. Buy perfumes from Certified Natural Perfumers only. Do you know that perfumes goes to your blood much faster than any medicine you swallow ? Don’t look for brands, look for perfumers! Look for Natural Perfumers that only use natural materials, and they should be certified. Breathe the power of nature. Natural perfumes are the easiest way to reconnect with nature as it brings you the beneficial power of flowers and plants directly in your lungs and organs. Make sure they are certified by the International Perfume Foundation*
8. Grow your own fragrant garden. Use the herbs and the plants in your food and understand how they can improve your health. Feel the beneficial power of plants and the energy they will provide you. If you don’t have a garden, spend some time growing a plant inside your house. The care you will give it will help you to reconnect with the vibration of nature.
9. Take a Natural Perfumery 6 months extensive course, learn about the healing power of nature. Your garden is your next pharmacy. In the past many women were perfumers and healers at the same time. They cultivated their garden and obtained the essence of plants and flowers through distillation, maceration or enfleurage. You can learn all these techniques and become a natural perfumer!
10. Join the Natural Perfumery Teacher’s Academy and learn how you can help others in sharing this ancient knowledge and become a Teacher.

*The International Perfume Foundation has existed since 1995 and has always promoted better practices in perfume making, and the use of naturals in perfume. This organisation spent 20 years lobbying institutions against chemical lobbies...
Other related article: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/21/access-nature-reduces-depression-obesity-european-report