Scent, fragrance and memory can all be found in the garden.
Naomi Sachs, who writes at Therapeutic Landscapes Database Blog: News and Other Good Information about Landscapes for Health, wrote two very good posts on “Garden fragrance as an emotional memory trigger” (5/14) and “More on scent, fragrance and memory: Guest blog post” (5/31). In the two essays, she explores the scent of flowers as powerful triggers of memory in elderly people whose memories are slipping away.
A commentor to Naomi’s first post, Wendy Meyer, left the link to her own thesis on “Persistence of Memory: Scent Gardens for Therapeutic Life Review in Communities for the Elderly.”
It’s all fascinating reading: Naomi’s two posts and Wendy’s thesis are thought provoking and inspiring.
Those of you who follow The Canary Report know that I am an avid gardener; I love the concept of therapeutic gardens. My gardens are my therapy for living with chronic illness: they keep me grounded, connected to the beauty of life and nature, and I especially enjoy tending to my fish ponds and water plants.
Those of us with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity use our noses as our first line of defense against chemical assault, and for me, to smell something vibrant and natural in my gardens, like flowers, that evoke pleasure rather than illness brought on by a whiff of a toxic chemical, is always a very special treat.
At the end of Naomi’s 5/14 post, after a delightful anecdote about lilacs snapping an elderly woman out of dementia enough to recognize a loved one, she writes: “One caveat: In some cases, such as with gardens for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, even a good scent may be too overwhelming, and even nauseating. I don’t know of any specific research on what to steer clear of – if anyone reading this knows, please pass the information my way and I’ll list it on the Therapeutic Landscapes Network’s website.”
I jumped at the chance to comment about how toxic chemical injury can trigger not only chemical sensitivity, but also sensitivity to certain botanicals such as mints, pine, eucalyptus and camphor. If you have more to add, I’m sure Naomi would love to hear from you, too.
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