Contents

Introduction: Gardens Where the Senses Bloom

Sight
"Almost any garden, if you see it at just the right momemnt, can be confused with paradise."
Henry Mitchell

Smell
"The breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand."
Francis Bacon

Touch
"I felt the rain's cool fingertips / Brushed tenderly across my lips..."
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sound
"Nine bean rows will I have there / And a hive for the honey bee, / And live alone in a bee-loud glade."
W. B. Yeats

Taste
Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. Yahweh God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden. Yahweh God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it.
Genesis 2:8-16

The Sixth Sense
"O mickle is the powerful grace that lies / In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities."
William Shakespeare

Appendices:
Chart of plants by sensuous qualities

Index

If camellias, like this 'Mary Christian' cultivar at the Cecil and Molly Smith garden in Oregon, were fragrant, surely they would be more widely planted. Their visual beauty must compensate for their scentless blossoms.