3/1/22

Friendship Garden (Shulton)


Released in 1939 and discontinued in the early seventies, Early American Friendship Garden by Shulton was the brand's "green" floral springtime splash. (How's that for alliteration?) I happened across two interesting things at an antique store last week, a stone head of Buddha that could be worth thousands and was only priced in the hundreds, and a four ounce bottle of this stuff, which I sampled. I didn't buy either, but they were the only items that piqued my interest and have me thinking of returning for purchases. 

Friendship Garden comes in an eau de cologne concentration; it only lasts about two hours and doesn't project beyond a couple of inches. It's an aldehydic floral that reminds me of the current iteration of Wind Song by Prince Matchabelli. The differences to my nose are its bitterness and the absence of stone fruit notes like peach and plum. Wind Song has the character of a typical fifties fruity-floral, with a sweet and powdery aura that grows woodier as it dries, but Friendship Garden remains fairly cool, green, and bitter from top to bottom. There's a lick of crisp bergamot and galbanum on top, followed five minutes later by a gauzy haze of geranium, dandelion, lavender, and the cut-grass generalized aroma of wildflowers, whatever they might be. Think the tart and very light smell of some random colorful bouquet you can buy for fifteen dollars at your local supermarket, and you have an idea of FG's heart. Green, vaguely floral and herbal, a bit flat, and totally forgettable.

The far drydown is a rather sour lemony musk, with just the faintest hint of woodiness, and little to no charm beyond a memory of what preceded it. Friendship Garden isn't really a great fragrance in my opinion, but it was a significant release for its time. I found a bottle advertised for $3 in a December, 1942 issue of Life Magazine. Adjusting for inflation to today's dollar, and that comes to fifty bucks. Not cheap. If you find a bottle for a few dollars, grab it, but this isn't anything an avid collector should lose sleep over.