Tag Archive for: fragrant garden

Real garden

How to create the perfect garden

how to create the perfect garden
A basic green planting is easily transformed into a real garden by adding in lovely flowers like crocosmia Lucifer and the gloriously scented white-eyed pink Volcano® Phlox.

Do you ever dream of having a garden, like our grandparents, that’s filled with flowers and perfume? The surprise is that creating the perfect garden that looks and smells like the real thing is as easy as one, two, three…

1. Start small: don’t tackle the whole forty acres but pick the areas where you’re going to notice the most change. The garden nearest the front and back doors. The patio, courtyard or balcony. It doesn’t matter how big or small the space you’re working with: it just needs to be somewhere you spend time. Take real or mental pics of the space you’re working with and if you’re handy with a pencil and the back of an envelope, do a quick sketch plan of what’s already there. This helps you prepare for what comes next.

Always pick plants that have been bred to be un-fussy like Volcano® Phlox. This one is pink with red eye, and there are eight other colour options to choose from.

2. Something has to go: you usually need to pull old plants out to make room for the new. Move your evictees to another spot or give them away if you hate waste, but the idea is to give your gorgeous new plants enough soil space and head room to thrive without having to fight for fresh air and moisture. Now mark the gaps on your sketch (or take fresh pics) then head down to the garden centre.

Volcano® phlox in white and pink with red roses and orange daylilies added to the mix make for a real, scented, colour-filled garden complete with a path to take you to your secret places.

3. The fun bit: at the garden centre, take a look around. From your pics and sketch you’ll know how many plants you’re there to buy. As for what to get, here’s a great list to start with. You want easy care, scented, colourful and bullet-proof. Roses. Phlox. Lavender. Heliotrope. Daphne. Honeysuckle. You get the idea. But do a quick check online to make sure that the plant in your hand is one of the well-bred varieties (you don’t want a fussy old variety that won’t deliver). For example, look for Volcano® Phlox which is sturdy, long flowering and super tolerant of powdery mildew that plagues other phlox.

And that’s it. Collect and tuck your real garden plants into nooks and crannies and your garden will give you as much pleasure as a child’s visit to their grandparents’ place.

Design a fragrant garden

Gardens that look beautiful are certainly lovely to enjoy, but sweetly scented gardens take our enjoyment to a whole new level.  Whether your outdoor space is simply a small deck, or a full sized garden and yard, here are some simple tips to design a fragrant garden.

1: Think big. 

Flowering trees, simply because of their size, can add fragrance to an area 20 feet or more in diameter. Some great examples include lilacs, mock orange trees (perfect in climates where it’s too cold to grow citrus trees), Japanese fringe trees, Baby Grand™ Magnolia and Korean spice viburnum.  For areas with limited space, you can’t go wrong with Fairy Magnolia® magnolias. These bushy shrubs cover themselves with a blanket of fragrant flowers each spring but grow to only 9-12 feet high and 5-7 feet wide. Bonus: after they’ve completed their bloom cycle, they leave behind glossy green foliage and make a perfect specimen tree or full hedge if planted in multiples. 

design a fragrant garden

If you have the space and proper support for them, flowering vines are also a tremendous way to add fragrance. Imagine blooming ‘Scentsation’ Honeysuckle or old-fashioned sweet peas spilling over a fence or garden gate, or a gorgeous wisteria spilling over richly scented peonies.

design a fragrant garden

2: Select plants with varying bloom times.

To enjoy lovely scents all season long, make certain to include a variety of blooming plants in your yard, garden, or even in pots on your deck. Perfume Princess™ Daphne is the earliest and longest flowering daphne, blooming from mid winter to late spring. Plant it near a doorway or under a window to delight in its delicious scent, both indoors and out.

design a fragrant garden

Spring-flowering bulbs like hyacinths and paperwhites all bring back memories of our grandmother’s garden. Other early-blooming shrubs and perennials such as witch hazel, andromeda (Pieris japonica) and dwarf fothergilla and peonies all open the season with lovely scents, and then carry on throughout the summer and into the fall with attractive foliage.

Moving into the warmer summer months, you can always count on gardenias, summersweet , and lightly scented Flower Carpet® Amber (seen above) to not only add fragrance, but also attract pollinators. A real butterfly magnet, Volcano® phlox (seen below) bloom into early fall if deadheaded at least once in the season.  They send off a light fragrance, both in the garden and as a cut flower. 

design a fragrant garden

For fragrant annuals, you can’t go wrong with clove-scented stock, with their gorgeous pink, purple red or white blooms.  They’re wonderful in the garden and make great cut flowers too.  Another later blooming option is aromatic Bluebeard spirea (caryopteris).  Sending off tiny blue flowers from late summer into fall, this low maintenance shrub is also deer resistant and attracts butterflies!

3: Don’t forget the little guys

Even a few tiny lily of the valley stalks placed in a vase with violets can add fragrance to an entire room.  Lavender blooms may be tiny, but with its soothing scent, this plant often appears on the “best-smelling flowers” list.  And as a bonus, the more you cut, the more lavender blooms.  Sweet alyssum (seen below, surrounding Strawberries & Cream hydrangeas), is grown easily and inexpensively by seed and emits a honey-sweet scent that beckons to pollinators.  This tiny-blossomed annual looks delicate but it stands up to early frosts, self-seeds and works nicely as filler between other annuals or perennials and in container plantings.

4: Delight in Round-the-Clock Fragrance

If you enjoy spending time outdoors in the evening, don’t forget to plant fragrant night bloomers.  Although easy-to grow annual flowering tobacco (nicotiana) blossoms are open much of the day, they wait until the sun goes down to release their incredible fragrance. (Hint:  for the strongest fragrance, look for the old fashioned varieties like nicotiana alata or sylvestris).  Night blooming Jasmine shrubs sweeten the air with their tiny white flowers that open in the evening and close in the morning.  And, although it’s poisonous, it’s hard to resist Angel Trumpet’s alluring night fragrance.  This stunning plant is ideal grown in a container and placed out of harm’s way on a deck or patio.

And finally, while enhancing your garden to delight the senses, remember to place your fragrant plants in areas where you’ll enjoy them most!