Scent Magic: Notes from a Gardener

In Scent Magic, a book which is at once romantic and extremely practical, plantswoman, designer and garden-maker extraordinaire Isobel Bannerman immerses the reader in the luscious scents of the fragrant garden through a warmly written diary of her year’s gardening; and combines this with an encyclopaedic reference work of the best aromatic plants to grow throughout the year. Whether evoking the freshly baked sponge smell emanating from wisteria, describing ‘Stanwell Perpetual’ as ‘the kind of rose that would taste of apricot and raspberries swirled together’, or championing the magic of the Himalayan cowslip, ‘scented profoundly and deliciously like the dark vault of a Damascus spice merchant’, the glorious poetry of her descriptions is here joined with a lifetime’s experience of gardening and plant cultivation.