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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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!