Fragrance Garden - Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Fragrance Garden

Fragrance Garden

The intimate Alice Recknagel Ireys Fragrance Garden was designed to bring people in close contact with plants to stimulate the senses of smell and touch. Created in 1955, it was the first garden in the country designed to accommodate people with visual impairments, though its multisensory approach appeals to all visitors, particularly children.

Visitors are encouraged to touch and smell the plants here. Braille labels identify the specimens, which grow in raised beds at just the right height for children and for people in wheelchairs. Garden beds are arranged by theme: plants with scented leaves, plants for touch, fragrant flowers, and kitchen herbs.

Highlights

a planter filled with plants and a statue of a child
This container in the Fragrance Garden is filled with lemon-scented plants. Photo by Blanca Begert.
pink and yellow lantana flower
Lantana camara (lantana) in June. Photo by Alvina Lai.
green sage leaves
Salvia officinalis ‘Berggarten‘ (common sage). Photo by Lee Patrick.
white fuzzy flower head of bunny tail grass
Lagurus ovatus (bunny tail grass). Photo by Alvina Lai.
spiky-leaved naranijilla
Solanum quitoense (naranijilla) is a strange, spiky plant in the Fragrance Garden. Photo by Blanca Begert.

Garden Layout

Show larger version of Fragrance Garden Map a map of the Fragrance Garden

Video

Learn about the history of the Fragrance Garden and how its special, sensory plant palette engages individuals in the Garden’s Seasonal Highlights Memory Tour program.

Learn More

Trees to See at BBG
Spring-Bulb Design Primer
Get to Know These Buds

Image, top of page: Blanca Begert