Silly question I guess, but can't find the information searching google. So that's when I remembered the great input on this site. I live near the coast in South Carolina. We have Lavender which we grow in the herb garden and I enjoy the scent. But I am a bit baffled by the scent of Lavender which I smell very far removed from that area in some property that was recently cleared. When I mow I pass a certain section of weeds I smell a strong Lavender scent. I've searced the area and do not see anything that looks like a Lavender of anykind. But my nose does know. I can distinguish between a snickers or hersheys in my husbands mouth by smell alone. I can tell which animal by the urine smell, etc... and they test me all the time b/c of my reputation. It is not always a good thing to be able to smell all!!! But this is a great scent and I'd like to know what "weed" or wildly growing plant in SC would have such a fragrance? We are not in the mountains/Alps and just keeping Lavender growing in the herb garden is a task in comparison to other herbs. It is not that seeds have blown over to the field, etc.. so that's not it. It has to be some wild plant that has a scent like that of Lavender. Thanks for the help for anyone out there who might be able.
Amazing, I'm guessing no one knows what it might be. I'm still searching and if I find out what it is, I'll put the information up.
Look and see if Creeping Charlie is growing in the area or underfoot. When it's crushed, it has a strong lavender scent. It's definitely a weed in your area.
Hi lorax. Thanks for the reply!!! You are right Creeping Charlie is definitely here, can you believe they sell it and don't consider it a weed here! I actually like it myself : ). But alas, that is not growing in the area I mow. Although, now I want to go get some Creeping Charlie for the scent : ). Thanks again. If you have any other ideas, send them on. Still searching
Personally, I love Creeping Charlie and I used to have an entire lawn of it in place of grass. It's more drought-tolerant as well; I never used to water, just wait for the rains. I used to roll my Charlie lawn, rather than mowing - this keeps it softer on the tootsies and the crushing is what really releases the smell. Unfortunately, it's on the "no-import" lists for Ecuador, so I shall have to find another grass alternative, eventually. I'll keep racking my brains for other lavender-scented plants...
I do hope you find something that will work as well. Pardon my ignorance, but what did you mean by rolling it? I'm thinking about planting it in an area as a ground cover. Thanks for trying to help; don't rack your brains too much : ) not that trying to figure this out is not driving me crazy. Thanks again.
What I mean is taking a large roller type unit, (I bodged mine together out of a 45 gallon drum, part filled with water and rocks, and an old lawnmower handle), which is then used to flatten the plants. Professional rollers resemble light, one-axled hand-driven versions of pavement packers; mine was a great deal more rustic than that but it only cost me about $20 since I did the welding myself. The advantage is that rolling just crushes and flattens the herb you're using as groundcover, which leaves it softer to the bare footsies, whereas mowing cuts and leaves sharp stems which are less pleasent to tread upon. I had lawns of sweet clover and creeping charlie, both of which would have caused my feet to suffer from mowing. A friend of mine had a creeping mint lawn and used to borrow my roller, and the low sage groundcovers also benefit from being rolled occasionally. It makes the yard fragrant for about a day. If you're inclined, you can look up traditional British lawncare techniques for a full description of how to roll a lawn and for more precise information.
Ah - Thracian thyme! (Thymus thracicus) Another common, weedish plant that is widely distributed in your area. Strong lavender smell when crushed. Some of the Verbenas are also lavender-scented.... Basically, it looks like your culprit is in the Lamiaceae.
Oh my gosh, I think you found it!!! I looked up photos of Thymus thracicus and I believe that is what is growing as a prolific winter weed. It dies out some during the summer so it may not be that, but I will say it is normally between 70-80% humidity and reaches over 100 degrees at times. But it sure looks like it and I have yet to go out and smell it. But I'm guessing you have pinpointed it. Which is amazing because it is growing like crazy in between our banana plants. Thanks so much for your effort and all of the good information! So how did you know that? I'm amazed at how people know so much about these things. I've been gardening for 8 years and still feel overwhelmed with all of the information I have to learn. Thanks again. Happy Gardening.
I actually googled it - I used the string "lavender scented plant" and it was about the fourth hit down, from Zipcodezoo if I recall correctly.
Well thanks for your honesty. I googled it too : ), but I must have missed it. But I'm going to be doing that again because, guess what? I went out sniffing and broke some of that plant. It smelled like mint. Which was kind of nice though faint. My neighbors would have thought I was crazy if they saw me; I went around picking pieces of every weed and piece of grass I could find in that area. I found a really pretty tiny flower on some kind of a succulent looking leaved plant that I'm going to dig up and cultivate though it is a "weed". But I've learned about the Creeping Charlie and that has me motivated. I have a yellow verbena growing near and took a sniff of a crushed leaf but once again more mint like to my nose. Perhaps by some freak event the Lavender that is planted about 100 feet away could have had such a strong smell in the breeze just that day? I don't ever smell it otherwise, but that's the only thing I could think of for now. It is a very small new planting of the Lavender, but who knows?
It's possible. Certainly, the Andean lavenders have a very strong scent, and with chance winds I can sometimes smell the fields outside of the city.