In 2012 we will celebrate the 5 senses

Our senses are the physical means by which we all see, hear, smell, taste and feel things. While many people choose plants for their garden based on visual beauty, you may also want to concentrate on choosing plants that stimulate the other senses.

Gardens You Can Smell
Each plant has its own smell. Different smells can change your mood, and your garden can help you benefit from this. For instance an area surrounded by the scents of lilacs, roses, or lily-of-the-valley can create a peaceful place. Some heavy scents, like honeysuckle, jasmine and wisteria, can make you feel tired. Herbs used for cooking, like oregano, sage, and thyme, will often help with your appetite, while Herbs such as lavender, rosemary, and lemon verbena can invigorate you!
Fragrant Trees and Shrubs
Citrus - Citrus sp.
Daphne - Daphne sp.
Frangipani - Plumeria sp.
Gardenia - Gardenia jasminoides
Jasmine - Jasminum nudiflorum
Lilac - Syringa sp.
Mock Orange - Philadelphus sp.
Rose - Rosa sp.
Fragrant Vines
Clematis - Clematis sp.
Climbing Rose - Rosa sp.
Honeysuckle - Lonicera sp.
Jasmine - Jasminum nudiflorum
Sweet Pea - Lathyrus latifolius
Wisteria - Wisteria floribunda

Gardens You Can Taste
The vegetable garden is an obvious place to find great tastes. Maybe you like hot, sour or spicy. You could try hot peppers, sour gherkins, radishes or arugula. Like a sweeter taste? Try some cherry tomatoes, carrots, raspberries or snap peas. Of course you can find lots of tastes in between with green beans, lettuce, broccoli and cucumbers.
Herbs are another source of great tastes. Some herbs have their own unique taste. Other herbs can offer a choice of tastes, such as the different varieties of basil which can taste sweet, spicy, like licorice, lemon or lime.  Other herbs, such as mint, dill, cilantro, chives, sage and rosemary, can provide a whole range of inviting tastes. You can also find flowers that are edible and tasty, such as calendula, violas, nasturtiums and the dried seeds from sunflowers.

 

Gardens You Can See
There is no better way to stimulate your senses than to look at a garden filled with brightly colored plants. Such as Reds, Yellow, Orange. On the other hand, a garden with blues, silver, and lavenders can bring a sense of calm to the onlooker.
 While we cannot see a taste or sound, and certainly we cannot see the smell of something, we can see texture! Hence the feel of plants can be perceived through our sight. for example you can anticipate the feel of large soft Colocasias before actually touching them. Same goes for the orange thorns on Solanum pyracanthemum, if they are not taken as a warning sign for a painful feeling  I don’t know what is!
On occasion our sight can even play tricks on us. As the case with false perspectives, objects seeming closer or further depending on color or line configuration!Did you know that a mass of red flowers will appear closer than they actually are while a mass of blue flowers will seem further away.
There are even vegetables that are brightly colored when ripe, such as gold zucchini squash, red leaf lettuce, and purple podded beans These vegetables stand out from the surrounding green foliage and make harvesting easier for the visually impaired gardener.

Gardens You Can Hear
The sounds that a garden makes can create interest and excitement.  The whisper of weeping plants, such as willows and birch, has a calming influence. The rustling of ornamental grasses and bamboo can create a sense of activity.
Plants to Listen To
Animated Oats - Avena sterilis
Balloon Flower - Platycodon grandiflorus
Bamboo - Many species
Chinese lantern plant - Physalis alkekengi
Honesty or Money Plant - Lunaria annua
Pampas grass - Cortaderia selloana
Pearl Grass - Briza maxima

 

Gardens You Can Feel
There are plants with different textures that you can include in the garden. Some plants have soft, fuzzy leaves or flowers, like lamb's ear, woolly thyme, and pussy willow. Many ornamental grasses, especially hare's tail grass, have fluffy flower heads. The blossoms on some plants, such as hibiscus, gardenia, and most lilies, feel silky to the touch. Blossoms of statice and globe amaranth have a papery feel, as do the seed pods of honesty (also called the money plant). While other  plants are screaming “do not touch me”, with their big colorful thorns such as Solanums.
Plants to Touch
Cape Jasmine - Gardenia jasminoides
Cockscomb - Celosia cristata
Feather grass - Stipa pennata
Gay-feather - Liatris spicata
Globe Amaranth - Gomphrena globosa
Hare's Tale Grass - Lagurus ovatus
Lamb's ears - Stachys byzantina
Lily - Lilium sp.
Love-lies-bleeding - Amaranthus caudatus
Verbascum sp.

Poppy - Papaver nudicaule
Pussy willow - Salix discolor
Rose mallow - Hibiscus coccineus
Squirrel-tail grass - Hordeum jubatum
Statice - Limonium latifolium
Woolly thyme - Thymus praecox
Wormwood - Artemisia sp.

Last Modified: 02/06/2012, rugardens@njaes.rutgers.edu.
©2010 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey