Gardening for Fragrance

This time of year it’s easy to become nostalgic about the whiffs of scents that lifted from your garden on hot summer days. But this time of year can also be useful in planning for next year’s fragrances. If you live in the region of azaleas and madly

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  • Topic: Fragrant Gardens
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: Fragrance, scent, scented garden, smell,
  • Date: November 2005

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This time of year it’s easy to become nostalgic about the whiffs of scents that lifted from your garden on hot summer days. But this time of year can also be useful in planning for next year’s fragrances.

If you live in the region of azaleas and madly climbing honeysuckles, count yourself lucky. If you live in the Western hard-scrabble parts of the United States, don’t despair. Our scented native plants are subtle but if you apply a few tricks-of-the-trade, rich fragrances can be designed into any garden.

Instant Scents

Create a quick but fragrant garden by inserting large pots of annuals into existing beds. A good mix of perfumed annuals includes:

  • Sweet Peas, Stock, purple Petunias, Dahlberg Daisies, Nicotiana
  • English Primrose, Dianthus, Miniature Carnations, Sweet Alyssum

Many perennial flowers are also known for their scents. These are:

  • Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera), Lilies, Soapwort, Creeping Phlox
  • Garden Phlox, Hostas, Dianthus ‘Firewitch’ and ‘Horatio,’ Sweet Violets and many Peonies
  • Candytuft, Wallflower, Four O’Clocks, Evening Primrose (Oenothera)
  • Dame’s Violet, Forget-Me-Nots, Passion Flower, Bee Balm (Monarda), Lupine

Throughout the landscape bulbs can also be planted for fragrance. Some wonderfully scented bulbs include:

  • Muscari armeniacum #71200
  • Crocus pulchellus ‘Zephyr’ #39116
  • Tulipa batalinii ‘Bright Gem’ #96495
  • Tulipa Sylvestris #96546
  • Daffodil ‘Lemon Beauty’ Split-Corona Daffodil #39022
  • Iris cycloglossa Afghani Iris #61004
  • Daffodil jonquilla Fragrant Wild Daffodil #39019

Evening Scents

During the day flowers absorb heat, which builds up fragrances. Come nightfall those fragrances are released. Planting flowers and placing containers strategically around the garden such as near patios and other sitting areas creates pleasing aromas for evening gatherings.

Some of the evening scented flowers include:

  • Phlox paniculata ‘David’ (Tall White Garden Phlox)
  • Stomatium mustilinum
  • Cerastium tomentosum (Snow-in-Summer)

Scented Foliage

Many plants have aromatic leaves that add fragrance to gardens, especially if brushed or touched. Some of these are:

  • Agastache, Lavenders, Nepeta, Rosemary, Russian Sage, Artemisia,
  • Santolina, Salvia greggi and hybrids, culinary Sage (Salvia officinalis), Lemon Verbena, scented Geraniums.

Fragrant Trees

Catalpa and Linden trees, both reaching 40 feet, have intensely fragrant flowers that can permeate a whole garden. Other fragrant trees are the Amur Maple, Golden Chain Tree, and Purple Robe Locust and the lesser known, Yellowwood. The flowering crabapples and cherries also abound with fragrance.

Fragrant Shrubs

  • Winter Jasmine, Shrub Honeysuckle (Lonicera), Mock Orange (Philadelphus), Currants (Ribes)
  • Western Sand Cherry, spring and summer blooming Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)
  • Lilacs

For guaranteed fragrance in the garden all summer be sure to plant English Roses. Bred from old roses for their fragrance and hybrid roses for their ever-blooming quality, the result is a fragrant flower that blooms all season.

  • Apple scented heirloom Rosa eglanteria

Some of the hybrid roses that have wonderful fragrances are:

  • Mister Lincoln, Double Delight, Angel Face, Iceberg
  • Chrysler Imperial, George Burns, Scentimental

To further benefit from plant fragrances, place plants where they’ll be easy to smell: under your windows, near the patio or within sniffing distance of your garden paths. Protect the scented garden from wind, as it will quickly disperse the delicate plant fragrances. Fragrance adds another dimension to the landscape. A garden may be pleasing to the eye, but an unexpected fragrance will enhance its value. Special fans of fragrant landscapes are people with limited eyesight and young children, with their wonder of all things natural.

Katherine O’Brien, Nursery Manager and Landscape Consultant for Santa Fe Greenhouses, contributed to this article.