I learned quite a few things on a recent trip to Longwood Gardens. Their exhibit Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance is a treat for your nose…as well as your eyes.
You learn that infants can recognize their mother’s scent even before they are born. How they determine this beats me, but I’m impressed just the same.
I had always heard that scent is one of the strongest triggers for memories. Who doesn’t remember that first day of school and the scent of a newly opened book, Grandma’s house and the smell onions sautéed in butter, or the smell of fresh-mowed grass when you ran outside to play after school. These smells are anchored to powerful childhood memories.
So follow your nose as it makes its way past the jasmine in the conservatory, the lilacs just above the topiary garden, or the scents that you can create in the Music Room. Pay special attention to the giant perfume bottles placed throughout Longwood.
And, oh yes, there are at least 56,000 tulips to see as well.
Along with other flowers.
especially if you stuck your nose underneath!
