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osmoz KIDS is a fragrant new section of our site that’s both educational and fun. It will allow you to initiate your children, nephews or nieces, cousins or friends’ children into the delightfully surprising world of scents. Each issue will present a different theme, with smells to discover in a playful, simple and safe way that can keep your little rascals busy on a rainy day…
 

All About Flowers
 
A lot of different fragrances – for women and even some for men – smell like flowers.
But what do flowers really smell like?
At the florist’s
Florists’ shops are always full of colors, and they smell good too, don’t they? It smells sort of like the grass at Grandma’s house or the bouquets of flowers that guests sometimes bring for Mom. I already know what roses look like. Let’s smell some (but watch out for the thorns!). They don’t all smell the same, and some have a stronger smell than others. Most of them have a yummy light, sweet smell. But there are other flowers at the florist’s that have a stronger smell than roses do, like lilies and carnations. They have a sort of spicy smell. Some people like it, some people don’t. And there are lots of other flowers that hardly smell at all, like tulips and orchids. There’s a very pretty flower that I didn’t know about before. The florist said it’s called freesia. It’s pronounced ‘freeze ya’, but it doesn’t smell frozen, it smells sweet and warm, almost like honey.
 
In the flower garden
There are lots of flowers here too. They change every season, except in winter, when it’s kind of sad, because there are hardly any flowers at all. Hyacinths are one of the first flowers that come out in spring. They smell green, like stems, and a little spicy, too. In April or May, there’s lily-of-the-valley… which doesn’t look like a lily and doesn’t only grow in valleys! It’s too bad that lily-of-the-valley doesn’t bloom for very long. It has a very fresh scent, green too, it reminds me of the smell of wood and of mom’s beauty cream. In some gardens, where it’s nice and sunny and warm, you can find lavender growing. You can use lavender to make potpourris (renovie au numéro d’avant, qui explique comment faire un potpourri ?) or sachets to make closets or dressers smell good. Lavender smells sweet and sort of sharp too. It reminds me of rosemary, an herb Mom uses for cooking. One of the other flowers I found out about is called a peony. It’s pretty because it has big pink red or white flowers. The smell reminds me of roses and wet grass, but it isn’t very strong.

How to remember all those nice smells
Rose, lily-of-the-valley, freesia… It isn’t easy to remember all those nice flower smells, because flowers are “ephemeral” (that means that don’t last very long). So to help you remember, you can take a picture whenever you find a new flower, like jasmine or mimosa, which we I still have to find out about... Or you could draw them in your sketchpad, and write their name and what the smell reminds you of. But the best way to remember what flowers smell like is… to smell them a lot! One thing that works really well is to go with your mom or dad every time they go to the florist!
   

 

 

For this activity, you need:
- a florist near home
- a park or flower garden near home
- a camera and/or a little sketchpad

Age range > 9+

Tips:
- You should always wash your hands after you’ve touched or picked flowers or plants.
- Never pick flowers unless you’ve asked if you’re allowed to.
- At the florist’s you can smell the flowers, but you can’t touch them. If you want to see them better, ask an adult to show them to you.