VanDusen gardens in mid-fall is not quite as glorious as in the beginning, where the summer's abundance is still apparent; nor as majestic as later in the fall, when the leaves have fully changed their colours, painting the horizon with deep red flames of Japanese maple, burnt orange, russet and caramel from the various deciduous trees.

It is somewhere in between - with the last flowers in still bloom (many of which are purple, I noticed), mushrooms popping up here and there - farewell to all that's sweet and abundant before we fold up the picnic and get in for a long dark winter. Our walk ended at the fragrance garden - a tiny plot packed with flowers, shrubs and bushes that exude scent in one way or another.



You can only imagine my delight finding the fragrance garden still alive with some fragrant energy still intact: sweet peas were what truly invited me to the garden, which looked rather miserable as a whole. Sweetpeas have such a delicate perfume that I'm at loss of words to describe except that I'm sure I've smelled soaps that try to imitate it rather well... Their delightful colours are more dense in the petals' edge, like stains of watercolour.




Scented geraniums (pellargoniums, really...) including musk and apple scented ones. It's the leaves that are fragrant, so that's where the hand symbol should be (curiously, the nice botanical signage did not include the "Fragrance Symbols").


Daphnes, smelling almost exactly like ylang ylang, and somewhat of the lily...



Purple heliotrope still smelled like baked marzipan. Angel's trumpets, which were still saving their scent for the night, 


Tobacco flowers were not in this particular garden, scattered everywhere. It is almost tobacco harvest season...

I was very touched to see a fragrance garden at VanDusen. Vancouver is now known for being particularly fragrance friendly, so it's thoughtful that they have planted an area dedicated to perfumed plants. I hope more people will learn to appreciate scent - if not perfume and the many beautiful fragrances that surround us. I am very much inspired to plan and plant my own fragrant garden. I just need a little more land around me, but that's another story... In the meantime, I'm thankful for the many beautiful gardens in my city, and I hope that you are also fortunate to have gardens you can enjoy. They are truly like sanctuaries.