Smelly flowers & plants

So I love smelly flowers & plants, nothing beats the smells wafting on a gentle breeze during the spring & summer months so I wondered if there are any good lists describing the sorts of smells different plants & flowers emit and for how long, or any recommendations of your own favourites?

In the past with the old garden configuration, I quite enjoyed the smell of sage, chives, fennel where they have spilled over onto the lawn from the herb bed and the lawnmower has cut them up, but sadly these smells dont last for too long, just a few hours.

I do love a strong smelly rose, we've had some smelly stocks in the past they didnt grow too well, I suspect when ripping up that part of the garden because the weed suppressor material was just an inch below the surface probably hindering the roots, but I didnt plant those.

Even wild blackberries late summer smell nice.

So with a blank canvas what would people recommend?

TIA

 

@FlymoDM
be back with some ideas later ....but heres some great links that i have referred to, for now
26 of the best scented plants
The best scented plants for your garden
Happy browsing

 

Hiya FlymoDM

Something I value in the garden is scent.

From mid summer onwards the perennial heliotrope is essential here. I have them in pots by the doors, near windows, on pathways and planted out. The scent of these "cherry pies" is unmatcheable. I have Chatsworth, White Queen and White Lady and Lady Gilmore. The scent simply wafts across the garden. I have several honeysuckles.....not all are scented by the way....too; lovely.
In late June Philadelphus....the Mock Orange...is delightful. I have one near the lawn and it is magical to smell it as I mow the lawn
Lillium Regale produces powerful scent from June through to July on tall white flowers.
Zaluzianskya....the night phlox....simple fills the evening air with lovely fragrance; put one in a conservatory and you will walk into a wall of warm pleasure first thing in the morning
Summer jasmine and trachelospermum are excellent too from mid to late summer.
Hymenocallis....the spider plant....is wow! Rich long green leaves produce amazing white flowers with an equally amazing scent in early summer. For pots or in the ground but in pots you will more easily access the perfume.

In mid winter sarcoccoca is amazing.....again it is a scent that fills the garden. Witch Hazel too is great too at this time

Early spring daphne Odora Aureomarginata is absolutely overwhelming ....prob the most powerful scent at this time of year. Choisya from late spring to early summer has a strong orange vanilla scent I would not be without. Hyacinths and Yellow Cheerfulness daffodils ( the most scented of all daffs I think). Winter stocks come into their own in spring too. Many wallflowers are scented as well.

Dont forget the scent from foliage too.....I have lemon verbena, lippia citriodora, in pots and in the ground. Brush against it or touch it for the strongest possible lemon smell. Ditto for salvia elegantissima, the pineapple sage; exactly as with lemon verbena except the smell is powerfully of pineapple. There is also an orange variety.
Diosma Sunset Gold looks like a heather but is bigger with surflike movement in the slightest breeze has a very pleasant citrussy fragrance when touched.
Agastaches, according to variety, have foliage scents of orange,blackcurrant, coconut, apple, pine, etc. The salvias too have different foliage scent. Of course the scented pelargoniums...Lady Plymouth, Prince of Orange and lots of others.
Dont dismiss the tactile smell of mint either.......apple, chocolate or peppermint. Thymes too will release their scent when touched. (Near where I live, wild thyme grows on the towans leading to the beach and walking on it, esp early mornings, is fantastic). On the same towans gorse with its coconut/vanilla smell at any time of year is intoxicating. Evening primrose, oenothera grows out there too having its charming unique smell

The smell of ripening apples and figs and melons ......yum, yum

Could go on and on but the smell of new mown grass is always amazing to me

There you go FlymoDM a few ....just a few...of the smells here

 

A busy Bee today? Great link!

@Verdun! Amazing amount of information there. I'm also very interested in scented plants, and love touching the leaves on my geraniums, lavenders, mints,rosemary and thyme when I am out in the garden. My new find this year, nemesia, is beautifully scented, with a strong scent of vanilla when passing nearby. I'm very keen to get more scent into the garden, particularly the front which is very bland and needs to be worked on.

 

Hi @Verdun . Do all those different smells work together?

G.

 

@Irmemac thats me my luvverly friend

 

Yes Gary, I think they marry very well.
It's not like being in a hair salon or perfumery.
Here something is noticed in one area then another elsewhere gemerally
My thinking has always been "how would a blind person appreciate my garden".
The common and ordinary like rosemary, for example. Brush past it and the scent stays with you...for us with good sight plant a good blue variety, I grow Mrs.Reeds Dark Blue, prob the best blue flowering upright rosemary available....just as easy to plant a good bright blue as the common insipid varieties.....so you have an evergreen, superb flowering, tactile "smelly" plant. How easy is that?

 

I have looked into Heliotrope chatsworth. There only seem to be blue varieties available. Where do the white ones come from? Are there any other colours? Would they work in my stacker plant pots?

G.

 

@Jack Sparrow
Please NOTE Heliotrope are known to be toxic to animals and i know you have mentioned you have dogs and cats Saying that they are beautiful plants in the right place as all plants are
Heliotrope | Poisonous Plant For Pets

 

@Jack Sparrow
Smelly, if you want smelly then some of the arums are hard to beat for example Arum italicum in spring through to Arum pictum in autumn. Dracunculus vulgaris, the Dragon Arum, could clear a small garden for several days in summer.

 

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@NigelJ

 

gary, the heliotrope you want is Chatsworth. You can buy seeds of heliotrope Marine, an annual, but this is far inferior. Not easy to get plants so you will need to look hard. The little online nursery I sourced my white varieties from mine from has recently closed down. Originally I got Chatsworth from a guy who grew it down here.

Concerning plants that are a danger to pets, let's be sensible here. Our gardens, our homes, are full of potentially poisonous plants. I also think animals have a reasonable sense of safety and danger. Do you like lilies? Poisonous. Aconitum? Poisonous. I could make a list. Take sensible precautions of course if anyone is really worried. If we remove all possibly poisonous plants we would have very little in our gardens

"Smelly"??? Ha ha. I guess anything described as smelly is less attractive than "scented"

 

Lets be sensible here!!! im sharing the information - what members do with it is their prerogative...i for one would sooner share than reading at a later date that there was a fatality that may have been avoided - i do think that we as gardeners with any potential negative outcome for two-legged or fourlegged members have a certain sense of duty to allow who we are notifying to make their own choices regarding safety ...After all who are we to say which pet will choose to nibble at or not at known toxic plants ....certainly not I, im not the oracle as an animal lover i certainly would want to know!
To warn someone of potentially invasive plants and not of potentially toxic plants surely can be regarded as somewhat remiss methinks

 

Potentially most plants are toxic!
For the record cats and dogs are fine here .......a friend of mine has several pets, lost count of how many, and she grows many heliotropes. No problems at all
Additionally, the perennial heliotrope is a very old traditional plant and featured in yesteryear gardens. If really dangerous they would have been memtioned down the years.
We need to be sensible here but respect to you Bee happy