In article ,
"Stephanie Franklin" wrote:

My wife is blind and I want to create a garden using fragrant plants. We
have a gardenia and a couple of roses. Oleander are also good although the
sap is poisonous. Daphne is another goody. The other requirement is the
plants must be water frugal. Any other suggestions?

You could try the Diggers Club catalogue; they try for drought-resistant
plants. Don't overlook culinary herbs. A bed of various mints could be
interesting, or planted somewhere where you walk on them. People make thyme,
pennyroyal and camomile lawns, though the descriptions sound very
labour-intensive.

My only other suggestion is that you raise some beds quite high so that your
wife isn't crawling around on the ground to smell the thyme! Actually some
friends of mine have made a thyme seat on the top of their (disused!) septic.

Don't overlook the natives. Lemon-scented tea tree, gum trees, mint-bushes (I
think they STINK, so try before you buy), brown boronia (apparently some
people can't smell this), baeckea virgata...

Try also for different textures -- lambs tongues or tibouchina are furry.
Asparagus (the edible one, not "asparagus plant") has soft fronds, and feeling
for the shoots in spring could be fun. Or bandicooting potatoes.

Other scents: freesias (only refracta alba; the cultivars aren't as nice),
diosma, elder flower, citrus plants, jasmine, and what about the resinous
scents from conifers?

Lastly, remember that it is possible for scents to clash, just like colours,
so proceed with caution! And we all have our preferences. I hate the smell
of Murraya paniculata -- it's too cloying -- but obviously lots of people like
it. I find some roses smell too "soapy", too.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"...children should continue to be breastfed... for up to two years of age
or beyond." -- Innocenti Declaration, Florence, 1 August 1990