Flowers for Fragrance

Written by Peter Fitzmaurice

Everyone loves splashes of vivid colour in a hanging basket, or marvels at a landscape that displays an everchanging rainbow of colours from season to season. There is, nothing more intoxicating than the fragrance of a honeysuckle on the still evening air, or a waft of fragrance from a nearby Star Jasmine Trachelospermum japonicum. 

The strongest memories of my childhood come flooding back when I smell Gardenia blossoms. The scent takes me right back to the front steps of my family home in Cape Town, my dad watering this beautiful glossy leaved plant, telling me how he’d planted it when I was just a little boy. It was over 6 feet tall and full of perfect, white, headily scented, rose-like flowers. I highly recommend that when next looking for a plant for a container or space in your garden, keep in mind this important characteristic that tends to get forgotten: Fragrance!

Stunning Annual Blooms

Place scented plants near an entryway, outdoor dining space or open window where their fragrance can be fully appreciated, even indoors. Here are some of my favorites, and how and where they would flourish:

Sweet alyssum is a lovely annual that produces a low-growing carpet of honey scented blooms in shades of purple, mauve or white all summer long. Flower power can be slowed by intense summer heat, but plants will bloom again, once things cool down a bit.

One of my favourite scented annuals! Stocks (Matthiola incana) are a delight in the early spring, with colourful displays of softly fragrant lavender, pink, red and white blossoms. While on the subject of stocks: I wish more folk knew about the delightful evening scented stock, Matthiola longepetala. Its fragrance is incredible; intensifies at dusk when the flowers open, making it the perfect addition to a window box or planter in a sunny spot near an outdoor dining table.

The colour of Heliotrope is beautiful, from the intense purplish blue of Heliotrope ‘Marine’ and the soft lilac blue of ‘Sachet’ to the crisp white of ‘White Lady’. To my nose, Heliotrope smells like a cross between vanilla and baby powder. This plant can easily be popped into the side of a hanging basket to add fragrance and colour to your planting or be the centre of attention in a mixed planter in full to part sun. They do not like to dry out for long periods of time and they hate soggy feet.

For Fragrance Year After Year

Asiatic and Oriental lilies are some of the most dramatic fragrant plants that we can grow in our gardens here on the West Coast and the Okanagan. Technically a perennial but often planted as a bulb in the fall, and more commonly in the early spring, these plants are immensely rewarding, not only for their stately looks, but also, for their beautiful fragrance. Some lilies are grown for their good looks only, at the expense of fragrance, so be sure to check the label.

Peonies truly offer the best of both worlds. Not only are peony flowers beautiful they also have the finest of fragrances. Prized for their often “double-double” flower heads and voluptuous petal formations, they are also known for their intoxicating perfume.

Ever Fragrant Evergreens

If you are looking for a “welcoming” evergreen hedge near an entryway, there is nothing better than Sweet box (Sarcococca confusa) for fragrance. The plant is neat and compact and needs minimal attention, but in late January, early February you will be delighted with its citrusy fragrance from almost insignificant white blooms. 

While on the subject of broadleaf evergreens, let’s take a look at Mexican mock orange (Choisya ternata) which is in full of bloom April – June. Though the main appeal of this shrub is its beautifully fragrant blooms, you will be happy to know it is also evergreen and will grow to around 8 feet if left to its own devices. It can, however, easily be kept to around 5- 6 feet. Its namesake, the deciduous mock orange (Philadelphus coronarious) is a wonderful shrub that once established, will become a cloud of heavenly scent in mid summer. There is nothing quite like the scent of the mock orange blossom! This beauty can grow to 10 feet tall and as wide, although several cultivars are available which will grow between 4 & 6 feet high.

A beautifully scented plant that has received renewed interest in the last decade or so, is the Butterfly bush. Imagine sprays of purple, red, lilac or mauve, (even white) that emit clouds of fragrance attracting hummingbirds and butterflies alike!

• Please note that GARDENWORKS offers only sterile, non-invasive cultivars.

I would be remiss if I did not at least mention a few of my all-time favourite fragrant shrubs Lilacs and Exbury azaleas that come in an amazing variety of different colours, shapes and sizes. Great in the landscape or in a container in a sunny spot on a patio. These beautiful plants will add another element to your garden by providing fragrance and perhaps a bit of nostalgia as well.