If you’re ready to see beautiful blooms – Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden has ’em in the Conservatory and we’re starting to see a few more outside in the Garden. Pictured above is an early-bloomer (in warm years it can bloom as early as December!!!) – doesn’t it get you thinking about spring?

Here at the Garden, we are already thinking about SUMMER. Yesterday I had the great privilege of participating in a joint pot-luck lunch/meeting with our education and horticulture departments. (BTW – the food was fantastic. Lucy even harvested wild mushrooms for a wonderful turnover!)

The reason for the meeting was to plan for “A Feast for the Senses” – an exhibit of displays and containers at the Garden from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The goal of the exhibit is to engage and stimulate our visitors’ five senses as much as possible. It’s been said Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is one of the best places in town to enjoy all five senses

Education manager Randee Humphrey skillfully led the exercise – we broke down into groups of five people at each table. A representative from each table reached into a basket and chose an item representing a sense – at my table we drew a bottle with vanilla beans in it – smell. Then our table spent some time thinking about the different ways to highlight smell in the Garden – everything from the sweet smell of moonvine to the stinky smell of Dranuculus – and reported back to the group as a whole. Of course the other tables did sounds, touch, taste, etc.

Which got me to thinking about this blog. Smell is supposedly one of the strongest of the senses as far as evoking memories. That fragrance of honeysuckle from our childhoods came up as one example.

I’d love to hear if anyone out there has some memories related to smells or fragrance in the Garden that he or she would like to share.

Beth Monroe is public relations director at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden .

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