Garden scents: 10 of the best
My default setting when it comes to scent, be it on my person or in my home, is for incense or those that are smoky or leathery. Because, by the time I hit my 30s, scents that were sweet, pretty and fresh had lost their appeal. And while I know the experts tell you to change your scent according to the season, I generally ignore this. Fragrances are increasingly amalgamating heavier ingredients with lighter ones to work across the seasons, so the advice holds less water. A decent oud with rose scent, for instance, can work beautifully in summer or winter. Right now, however, for reasons inexplicable to myself, how I want to smell is shifting into nature, specifically the kind you find in a garden – a fruit and vegetable garden to be precise. Which is why my perfume palette is now gravitating towards scents that are infused with tomatoes, basil, rhubarb, carrots, cucumber and even sweet potato. Florals, of course, are nice (you can't go wrong with a high-quality rose or jasmine scent), but there is something super-innovative about these scents and they're perfect if you want something a little different. Also, for anyone who, like me, is not the least bit green-fingered, this is one way to embody the fantasy that I am.
The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
1. Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Rosa Verde (cucumber) £92, guerlain.com 2. LBTY Tudor (ginger) from £45, libertylondon.com 3. Diptyque Oyedo (raspberry and thyme) £98, selfridges.com 4. Prada Infusion de Rhubarbe £140, prada.com 5. Dries van Noten, Crazy Basil £225, selfridges.com 6. Miller Harris La Feuille (tomato) £190, millerharris.com7. Jo Malone London English Pear & Sweet Pea Cologne £82, jomalone.co.uk 8. Les Jardins Français Eau Triple Caribbean Sweet Potato and Afghan Carrot £150, buly1803.com 9. Byredo De Los Santos (clary sage) £150, spacenk.com 10. Hermès Eau de Basilic Pourpre Eau de Cologne £75, hermes.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
The best online nurseries to transform your garden without leaving home
It feels almost illicit to admit this, but for the past few months I've been in two very useful WhatsApp groups that exist to serve people who live in a certain corner of London interested in home improvement and gardening. I've come to find the patter of insight and community feeling around matters such as leftover boxes of tiles and how to solve a kitchen island conundrum strangely calming. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. It took me years to visit famous historic gardens such as Great Dixter and Sissinghurst – my love affair with gardening started with the well-tended window boxes on south London housing estates and the unruly front garden roses that you can smell from the pavement. Ordinary, not-enough-time, don't-know-the-Latin-name gardening is my jam, and there's plenty of it to be enjoyed in the group. Plus, the other day someone asked a question that I thought it worth sharing here: where to buy plants if you don't have a car and live in a city? Both apply to me. For the first few years of my gardening adventure, I would travel to local nurseries and carry cardboard crates home on the bus or back of my bike. These days, I make a couple of jaunts a year to one particular stall on Columbia Road flower market in east London for interesting perennials. I've not bought a single plant this year – I divided a lot of trusty perennials in the autumn, and they've filled up the beds instead. But when I am wanting to fill a bed or a tub or a micropond, I go online. Mail-order plant nurseries used to satisfy the avid gardener's retail therapy needs, and the same is true now, only on the internet. There are specialist nurseries for whatever you may want: peat-free perennials from Penlan Perennials (I especially like their shade offerings and ferns); foxgloves and hollyhocks from The Botanic Nursery; always-amazing peat-free varieties from Beth Chatto, whose site allows you to filter by situation and colour (their packaging and customer service is great, too). I get that it can seem intimidating – clinical, even – to buy living things on the internet, and it's important that you're around to give the plants a good drink when they arrive. But once you get into buying plants online it can totally shape your gardening. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion You can buy young plants in 9cm pots, for instance, which are cheaper and will grow better than the already-flowering more mature specimens on show at the garden centre. It's also easier to stick to your colour scheme or planting plan. Newsletters and catalogues will remind you when to get into the seasonal habits of care and maintenance, and you'll be introduced to all manner of plants you never knew existed. Plus, less time carting plants on buses means more time enjoying them in your garden.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
The joy of Sussex: how English wine came of age
The best time to visit an English vineyard as a punter is right now (in my opinion, of course, but surely a personal column doesn't need that caveat every week). Hear me out: in winter, a vineyard is all gnarled wood and hard soil, which is an aesthetic I can get behind (no surprise there), but it's perhaps not the most evocative for drinkers who want a sense of place. Winter is a good time to visit as trade, mind, because the winemaker actually has time to think about their answers to your questions, rather than panicking about whether they should have waited to bring in the ortega. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Then there's summer: the grapes are hanging pregnant on the vine, it's sunny, it's sublime, but there's simply too much work to do. As a visitor, you always feel as if you're standing in the wrong place and you feel a bit guilty asking for a tour. But in late spring and early summer, there's a gentle hum of anticipation. Things are about to get started. Most British wineries are concentrated down south (sorry, fellow northerners), and one region in particular really pulls in the wine tourists: Sussex. It is, like most regions in the south of England, known for producing sparkling wine, and received a PDO (protected designation of origin) in 2022. To get the PDO, Sussex sparkling must be made in the traditional, champagne-style method, and it must also be approved by an accredited organisation that's part of the Food Standards Agency. OK, that's all good to know and everything, but where can I go to drink the stuff? England's largest single-estate organic wine producer, Oxney, is one of my favourites to visit, and it's the . It's all charred timber buildings and feels a lot more intimate than other, bigger operations nearby, and its sparkling non-vintage rosé is a perennial crowdpleaser (as, for that matter, are any of its vintage stuff, if you can get hold of it). There are vineyard cottages for larger group visits and a couple of shepherd's huts for couples. Rathfinny is another vineyard with charming rooms, and several places to eat/drink extremely well (it tends to be a bit windy, though, so pack a sensible windbreaker), while Stopham recently reopened its Saturday tasting tours with the winemaker. And though I haven't yet been myself, I've been told that Artelium is a real treat, and I really like their wines. Much the same goes for Wiston's lavish sparkling wines, and I definitely need to put faces to the names. Today's pick features a few Sussex wines to get you in the mood for a late-spring excursion. Yes, they're a fair bit spennier than my usual recommendations, but I've already explained the reasons behind the relative expense of English wine in an earlier column. Besides, things are often cheaper at the cellar door, which gives you one more reason to visit and support these English wineries directly. Nutbourne Vineyards Sussex Reserve 2022 £15.49 Grape Britannia, 12%. A peachy, fliny blend of Germanic varieties and pinot noir. Artelium Pinot Noir 2023 £28 Artelium, 12%. England produces some actually good red wines! And this one is bright and aromatic. Oxney Organic Estate NV Brut Rosé £28 Waitrose, 11.5%. Orchard fruit, strawberry patisserie – and a snip compared with champagne Wiston Estate Rosé £38 Wiston Estate, 12%. Generous pink sparkling with seasonal English fruit and great acidity
North Wales Chronicle
3 days ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Harry and Meghan considered changing surname to Spencer
However, this plan was apparently shelved after the UK passports for Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet were issued almost six months after the initial applications. The passport application was apparantly delayed (Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA) A source claimed that the duke and duchess feared that UK officials were delaying the process because of the applications included HRH titles (His/Her Royal Highness) for both children. According to The Guardian, a source close to the Sussexes said: 'There was clear reluctance to issue passports for the kids." However, after three months without receiving the documents because of "technical issues," it is understood that Harry and Meghan reapplied using the 24-hour passport service, only for their meeting to be cancelled because of a "systems failure". The source claimed: 'The king hadn't wanted Archie and Lili to carry the titles, most of all the HRH, and the British passports, once created, would be the first and perhaps the only legal proof of their names'. They added: "Harry was at a point where British passports for his children with their updated Sussex surnames (since the death of Queen Elizabeth II) were being blocked with a string of excuses over the course of five months. 'Out of sheer exasperation he went to his uncle to effectively say: 'My family are supposed to have the same name and they're stopping that from happening because the kids are legally HRH, so if push comes to shove, if this blows up and they won't let the kids be called Sussex, then can we use Spencer as a surname?'' It is understood that Prince Harry wants his children to have the HRH titles so that they can decide for themselves in the future if they want to be working royals. The standard wait time for a UK passport is within three weeks (Image: Phil Harris/Daily Mirror/PA Wire) Prince Harry says he doesn't know 'how much longer my father has' Prince Harry loses appeal on keeping level of police protection when in the UK According to the UK Government website, the standard wait time for a British Passport is within three weeks. However, this could take longer if more information is required or if applicants need to be interviewed. The turnaround time may also differ for those applying from another country. The application time starts when the Passport Office receives an applicant's documents.
