Questers visit to Keyneston Mill Parterre Fragrances

​The weather was kind for 16 Questers who travelled by mini bus on September 5th to Keyneston Mill Parterre Fragrances and Botanic Gardens  near Blandford.
This was a truly original visit to an enterprise that started in 2015.
 David and Julia Bridger combined their interests in art, travel, design and gardening and bought a 50 acre plot of land that had been uncultivated for 10 years with the ambition to create original, organic English made fragrances.
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David showed us how the oils were extracted from the plants and distilled to produce the finished perfume.

Before  deciding if it would be a commercial product the perfume is sent to one of the worlds leading perfumers whose "nose" is used by Chanel, Guerlain and other leading houses to perfect the final product.

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This was a most interesting day and we left with an understanding of why some original perfumes cost so much and some were tempted by the samples on display

 They created a series of mini gardens each with a different theme planted with exotic species with particular scented qualities many from different parts of the world and with unknown abilities to withstand the English climate . As we walked around the gardens knowledgeable gardeners explained how each plant produced a fragrance from its flower, stem or root.
After a a delicious lunch chosen from an extensive menu, David and Julia told us how they were experimenting with different combinations of fragrances and we were able to sample many of these.