How Landscape Plants Appeal to the Senses

When people talk about gardens, one of the first things mentioned is how beautiful they are. Visual elements are important, but gardens that leave lasting impressions appeal to all the senses – sight, smell, hearing, touch, and even taste.

In The Essential Garden Design Workbook, (2004 Timber Press, Inc.), landscape designer Rosemary Alexander says the most important role plants play in a garden is visual, but cautions gardeners not to overlook their other sensory qualities when selecting them.

Visual Appeal of Well-Designed Gardens

Landscapes resonate with people in many ways. The shape and form of plants – and their arrangement – serves to unite and balance the garden’s spaces. When selecting plants for form, think year-round appeal. Make sure the plant is attractive in its winter silhouette.

A plant’s height and width coupled with dark or light foliage can induce certain moods. For example, if plants are too large for the site, claustrophobia may ensue.

To create harmony, place landscape plants in balanced, proportional groupings. Gardeners can achieve bold, confident effects by repeating groups of balanced plantings.

Introduce varying textures within plant groupings. A plant’s leaves are its dominant textural feature, defined by the leaf’s margin (from smooth to fine to course toothed or lobed) and surface finish (rough or smooth). Contrast textures to create visual delight.

Color, especially seasonal color, is one of the most important elements for visual appeal. Color palettes should complement or contrast with the building architecture and the background, depending on the overall desired effect.

Think about color in conjunction with seasonal succession when choosing plants, and not just in flowers. Bark, fruit and leaf color should contribute and work with flower color for a year-long visual treat.

Scent and Fragrance in the Landscape

Walk through a garden after a rain. The air is filled with the heady aroma of growing things. “Green” seems to have its own smell; the scent of moist earth is ambrosia.

Mention fragrance in the garden and most gardeners think of roses, but many other plants contribute delightful scents. Gardenias planted next to a stoop can be a wonderful sensory experience in early summer. Summersweet and magnolia are other fragrant plants. Daphne is intensely fragrant and used next to a doorway can be heavenly. Various herbs contribute their scents to mix.

Watch out for stinky plants. Don’t plant a female ginkgo – the fruit is messy and smells awful. Some gardeners consider the herb Salvia sclarea (Clary Sage) to be a plant with questionable odor – according to Ms. Alexander, it has the fragrance of “smelly socks”.

Garden Sounds

Sound influences mood. The soft sigh of a breeze through leaves is relaxing. Storm winds raging through those same trees can be frightening. A gentle breeze through reeds creates a rattling sound, entirely different from the sound made as it blows through adjacent ornamental grasses. Some plants, like the Golden Rain tree, produce seed pods that make distinctive sounds when stirred by the breeze.

Use plants that attract birds. The soft twitter of bird song is one of nature’s most delightful choruses.

And don’t forget the soothing sounds of moving water. Gardeners can introduce water sound effects into their landscapes by building fountains or waterfalls, or installing a tinkling rain chain.

Like fragrance, some sounds can be intrusive. Use vegetative buffers like Leyland Cypress to create sound barriers to mute noise pollution.

Design Gardens for Tactile Appeal

Who doesn’t like to run their fingers over soft ornamental grass plumes? Or caress the silky leaves of Lamb’s Ear? Touching can be a sensuous experience, and every garden should introduce plants that provide tactile pleasure. Leaves can be smooth or rough to the touch, as can bark.

Use plants with prickly spines, like Yucca, to deter unwanted guests, both animal and human. Garden flora with spikes and thorns used as boundary plantings say “stay away!” in unmistakable terms.

Gardeners should learn all they can about the plants they want to feature in their garden. Watch out for poisonous plants like Hellebores (including Lenten Rose) which are toxic and cause skin irritation. Handle skin irritants with care. Use gloves, especially with plants used for cut flowers or where there’s a danger of sap contacting skin.

Tasty Garden Delights

Gardens designed for sensory delight should also include food plants like herbs, nut-bearing trees, berry canes, fruit trees and vegetables. Plant a grape vine trained to a trellis, or blackberry bushes in a back corner.

Or plant a Redbud tree – gardener Felder Rushing, in his book Tough Plants for Southern Gardens, (2003 Cool Springs Press), says the flowers taste just like raw peanuts, and suggests gardeners “…imagine them on a crisp, homegrown salad”.

Starving for space? Many plants, like strawberries, can be grown in containers. Or construct a raised bed in a sunny place for a compact kitchen garden replete with herbs, tomatoes, and greens.

There’s a trade-off when growing food plants – wildlife like them, too. Gardeners should recognize the higher maintenance requirements and plan accordingly.

Some plants, like the Daphne mentioned above, are toxic if ingested. Daphne, Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) and other poisonous plants are acceptable, but gardeners need to be aware – and educate everyone using the garden – of inherent dangers.

Think twice about using toxic plants where young children may come in contact with them.

With a little planning, gardeners can create landscape masterpieces that appeal to all the senses – gardens that provide wonderful retreats for friends, families, and neighbors for years to come.