Designing for Fragrance in the Western Garden

Plants that provide fragrance.

Ribes odoratum 'Crandall'
Item # 82650 		Ribes odoratum 'Crandall'
Clove-Scented Currant

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
Zizophora clinopodioides
Item # 99450 		Zizophora clinopodioides
Blue Mint Bush

each $5.49
3 to 6 plants $5.29
7 or more $4.99
Aethionema schistosum
Item # 11060 		Aethionema schistosum
Fragrant Persian Stonecress

each $5.49
3 to 6 plants $5.29
7 or more $4.99
Centranthus ruber 'Albus'
Item # 31650 		Centranthus ruber 'Albus'
White Jupiter's Beard

each $7.99
3 to 6 plants $7.79
7 or more $7.59
  • Topic: Fragrant Gardens
  • Author: Rand Lee
  • Keywords: scented plants, Garden Design, gardens
  • Date: February 2002

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My gardening friends know me as “Mister Pollen Nose.” Why? Because whenever I tour a garden or visit a nursery, I sniff every open flower in sight, seeking the fragrant ones. When I moved to Northern New Mexico 13 years ago after a childhood in mock orange-rich Connecticut and six years in the jasmine-strewn Florida Keys, I was quite sure that the only perfume I’d be able to grow in my dry, heavy alkaline clay yard would be eau de sagebrush. Surprise, surprise! I’ve found a plethora of perfumed plants that thrive in the west, some native, some imports. So if you’re a Pollen Nose too, read on.

When planning the scented garden, observe these guidelines:

Four feet is a good width for both paths and beds. It makes paths wide enough to negotiate with a wheelbarrow and beds narrow enough to reach into their centers from either side.

Many fragrant plants prefer full sun (it takes a lot of energy to pump out perfume). Here in Santa Fe the climate is so dry that plant scents are most easily perceived right after the plant has been watered, in the mornings, or in the evenings.

Irrigation systems need not be ruinously expensive (I water with recycled-tire soaker hoses) and can greatly increase your enjoyment of your scented garden. Put irrigation in before you plant, not after (as I foolishly did).

Choose a favorite season and emphasize scented plants that come to full glory at that time of year, but try to have something fragrant in your yard spring, summer, and fall. (There’s lots to choose from.)

Site fragrant plants where they’ll be easy to smell: under your windows, near the patio (or on it, in tubs), or within sniffing distance of your garden paths.

Site your wall vines and shrubs first; then your large perennials and biennials; then fill in with annuals and bulbs. Remember that fragrant bulbs can be scattered throughout the garden; later maturing plants will grow up and cover them.

Plant lots of what you love the best, so you can have enough for cut flowers, but avoid massing all of the same thing together. Monocultures invite devastation from disease and insects.

Make natives, xerics, and drought-tolerant plants the backbone of your garden, but don’t be afraid to experiment with plants you knew before you moved to a more challenging garden climate. I discovered many traditional cottage garden plants are far more drought tolerant than the garden books lead you to expect (though many need some irrigation or protection from the worst of the afternoon sun). Stocks (Matthiola), mignonette (Reseda odorata), wallflowers (Erysimum syn. Cheiranthus), phloxes, fragrant honeysuckles (Lonicera), thymes, scented violas and fragrant clematises can all thrive in the western garden with proper siting and some added moisture.

Wonderful Fragrant Shrubs:

  • Deciduous golden currant (Ribes aureum), 6’, upright, gold clove-scented blooms; tasty black summer berries
  • Lilacs (Syringa) the small flowered, arching, 6’ Persians (S. persica); compact Koreans (S. patula); and the common lilacs (S. vulgaris) in single or double white, lavender, rose, wine-red, mid purple, darkest violet, and bicolors
  • Roses (Rosa) water-hungry but indispensable, including Hybrid Teas; David Austin roses; super-hardy Canadian pavement roses; and species, such as sweetbriar or Old English eglantine (Rosa eglanteria syn. rubiginosa), with its single, pale-centered, light pink blossoms, apple-scented leaves; and many more
  • Butterfly bushes (Buddleia) including spring-blooming weeping B. alternifolia; B. davidii “Royal Red” (intense reddish wine flowers, green foliage); B. d. “Pink Delight” (bright pink flowers, gray foliage); B. d. “Black Knight” (darkest indigo-purple flowers, gray green foliage); and the rich golden yellow B. x weyeriana “Honeycomb”
  • Lavenders (Lavandula) 18” to 4’ tall, scented in leaf and flower, blooming anywhere from white (L. x intermedia “Alba” ) to pale pink (L. angustifolia “Melissa”) to dark purple (L. a. “Hidcote Superior”)
  • Hardy brooms (Cytisus) twiggy stems to 6’, pea-like pale yellow to gold blossoms
  • Littleleaf mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii) richly perfumed white flowers, gray-green foliage
  • Perennial sages (Salvia & others) particularly giant-flowered purple sage (Salvia pachyphylla, 3’, silver foliage, rosy purple spikes) and Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia, 4’, gray-green foliage, smoky lavender spikes)

Fabulous Fragrant Perennials:

  • Persian stone cress (Aethionema schistosum) blue-green mats, sheets of strongly perfumed pink blossom in spring
  • Cottage pinks (Dianthus) gray-green needle foliage, single to double clove-scented blossoms, May-July
  • Golden columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha) long-spurred yellow stars; Rocky Mountain native; May onward
  • Hummingbird mints (Agastache) long-blooming, upright, 4-6’, minty, root beery, or pungent gray-green foliage, showy bloom-spikes July-October
    • orange, pink, and lavender (Agastache x ‘Desert Sunrise’®)
    • soft pink and peach (Agastache aurantiaca ‘Just Peachy’)
    • soft orange (Agastache rupestris)
    • peach to pumpkin to burnt sienna (Agastache aurantiaca ‘Shades of Orange’)
    • raspberry pink (Agastache cana)
    • powder blue (Agastache x ‘Blue Fortune’)
    • deep violet blue (Agastache rugosum)
    • White Jupiter’s beard (Centranthus ruber “Albus”) green mounds, clouds of white blossom; summer
    • Chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata) xeric native; the ever blooming small yellow daisies, richly chocolate-scented, fade by noon
    • Blue mint bush (Zizophora clinopodioides) 18” mound, strongly scented foliage, and clouds of lilac bi-lipped blossom all summer; xeric
    • Palmer’s penstemon (Penstemon palmeri) one of the few scented penstemons, 4-5’, and huge baby pink cotton-candy-scented snapdragon flowers in early summer
    • Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis) phlox-like, to 4’, bloom clusters in white to lilac to purple, particularly fragrant morning and evening

Rand B. Lee is the author of Pleasures of the Cottage Garden and founder and President of the North American Cottage Garden society.