The Fragrant Flower Garden: Growing, Arranging & Preserving Natural Scents

by Stefani Bittner, Alethea Harampolis

Make your garden and home look and smell heavenly with this accessible gardening guide that explains how to grow fragrant flowers outdoors and bring natural scents indoors by creating floral arrangements, scented beauty products, and more.

There is nothing like the beauty and scent of a flower-filled garden and home. The Fragrant Flower Garden shows you how to grow flowers that are a feast for the nose as well as the eyes, from a naturally perfumed carpet of sweet alyssum and the warm, spicy scent of gardenia to the heavenly aroma of lilacs.

A beautiful garden is one where you can find joy in every sense--literally. The Fragrant Flower Garden makes this dream a reality with garden design guidance for a year’s worth of flowers, foliage, and fragrance. Then, reap the wellness benefits of your fragrant flowers through DIY projects such as making floral arrangements, perfumes, tub soaks, and tinctures.

Whether you prefer the smell of classic lavender or something more adventurous like chocolate cosmos, The Fragrant Flower Garden opens the door to creating a scented flower garden that is a delight for all.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

Published March 5, 2024

About the author

Stefani Bittner is the owner of Homestead Design Collective, a San Francisco Bay Area landscape design firm focused on creating beautiful gardens that provide harvest.

Her team offers a unique and sophisticated approach, using both organic farming and fine gardening skills, for people who want help creating aesthetically designed, organic edible gardens. Stefani is the co-author of The Beautiful Edible Garden (Ten Speed Press, 2013) and co-author of Harvest ( Ten Speed Press, 2017).

Homestead provides design, installation, and full-service organic maintenance, harvesting, bee keeping, floristry and composting services. Homestead recently designed and installed the new Test Gardens for Sunset Magazine. Stefani's work has been featured in San Francisco Chronicle, Sunset Magazine, C Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Better Homes & Gardens, and Gardenista.com.

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is direct with facts and the chapters are organized logically. For example, Seasonal Scents, Hourly Scents, Nightly Scents, and so on. The author gives plenty of examples of plants, shrubs, flowers, and trees for each category.

I'm glad my library has this book.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. The paper quality is impressive and the pictures are beautiful. I also enjoyed the sections on arranging the flowers making potpourri, stick perfumes and tinctures, and other ideas for using the flowers. The book also included a list of resources.

[Brynn Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for my flower library, I love the photography and all the amazing ideas for the best scented blooms 💖

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not going to lie, there just weren't enough pictures in this for what it was about!

[Mary Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great reference volume for the subject.

[genrejourneys · Rating 4 out of 5]

A breezy and simple introduction to a scent-sensitive garden! I found the overall pitch really fun, though I’m no expert.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not encyclopedic, but a nice introduction to the topic!