The Scentual Garden * Holiday Book Pick

The Scentual Garden by Ken Druse is a lavish book that serves as a travel guide through the many fragrances dressing up gardens. Divided into sections like “Why Plants Smell,” “Capturing Scent,” and “An Encyclopedia of Fragrant Plants” the reader browses through ancient and contemporary applications.

Lifelike botanical photographs by Ellen Hoverkamp and Druse’s garden photographs complement the fascinating text. On the simpler end of the spectrum, one can capture a flowers’ fragrances most easily by simply cutting and placing in a vase. Otherwise, ancient formulas include steeping flowers in oil and bottling it for future fragrance elation.

Even simple herbs like thyme and sage are lovingly described as carriers of heady odors pressed under the heat of the sun.

At night, when you want to pull away from all those pesty electronics, The Scentful Garden will relax the mind and excite the senses.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis