Question
The blanket for my daughter's casket was made of stargazer lilies and roses.  I have since created her a memory garden, and found bulbs of the lilies for the garden.  They are just beginning to open and I am so disappointed in there seems to be no wonderful fragrance.  Did I do something wrong, or did I plant the wrong kind of stargazers?

Answer
First, you have done nothing wrong -- and a combination of Lilies and Roses would be a very beautiful sight, with potential for strong, deep fragrance.  I am one of those people who can't take a scentless flower seriously.

A word about flower fragrance: This is something that actually depends on several other details, although you would not consider that to be true.  Some time ago, a reader asked why one particular Tea Rose was strongly and freely fragrant one year and then the following year bloomed with no scent.

Thing is, scent is strongest in flowering plants that are perfectly healthy.  If a plant is not healthy, scent suffers.

Another variable, this one out of our control: Pollution.  Chemicals in the air are like football linebackers running a blitz.  Fragrance molecules pour from the open bloom.  But as they float through the air, they bang into random airborne molecules of chemical fumes and emissions, where they are blocked from floating any further around the garden.  Consequently, scents that used to carry now end short of their destination from the previous decade.

Clean air and top quality culture would improve results.  Lilies should be growing at this time of year, not in a bag in the basement, forgotten.

Stargazers are known for a fragrance that can make you swoon.  Roses vary; some are heavenly, others are totally scent-free.  No amount of TLC or prayer will turn a scentless Rose into one with great fragrance.  Perhaps you need advice on care and feeding of these plants?  Let me know.  Peace,

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER