Anyone else interested in scented plants?

Thanks,

Thank you
I'll look out for the books but will definitely get hold of the skimmia.

 

I honestly can't think of a scented plant i don't like the smell of.....

 

Great thread Claralou, I love scented plants too, just been planting out some plants of Nicotiana Sylvestris, I haven't grown it for several years but remember wondering round the garden one warm evening trying to figure out where this amazing scent was coming from before realising it was this, looks pretty good too

 

I love nicotianas, Simbad. I grew a white one from seed called 'Fragrant Cloud' years ago. It was wonderful. Must remember to sow some next year! The ones you buy as plug plants don't usually have the strength of scent.

 

Ginger: Hedychium gardnerianum "Kahili" and "Gold Spot" (neither fully hardy though, I'm afraid, but would do well in a pot)

I've grown Night Scented Stocks around the patio before, but never really noticed that they made much difference, but we have Roses all round the patio and they do a fine job on their own when we are sat out late on a Summer's evening

Christo Lloyd devotes 20 pages of his book "The Well Tempered Garden" to Scent ... worth a read (I dug it out for an anecdote he wrote, but its not in that book ... perhaps it was one of his articles in Country Life ... it went something along the lines of some cut flowers being "key hole flowers" - the scent so strong that you should only present a keyhole between you and the room that the flowers are in! Asiatic Lilies, as cut flowers, are probably in that bracket)

 

As cut flowers I love Longifolium Lilies but really dislike Asiatic Lilies as they're so strong, especially after the first day. Unless it's deep winter if I receive Asiatic Lilies (I never buy them), I put them outside somewhere not too far from my back door. That way the scent softens and I can still enjoy them without being overpowered.

 

I adore scented plants

Currently my Wisteria is flowering and when I get halfway up the garden the smell just hits me.

I bought a few Daphne x translantica 'Eternal Fragrance' this year and although they were very young plants, they all flowered and the scent was delicious.

 

if you have space, a clerodendrum trichotomum (glory tree) is a must have .... I work in a garden, and the neighbours have one .... the fragrance is very strong and can be smelt from far

 

Hello Merleworld! Daphnes have the most amazing scent. I grew Daphne odorata marginata for years and years before it suddenly turned up its toes without warning. Might have another try some time.

John, that nemesia sounds lovely. I really want to swap my postage stamp town garden for a proper space where I can grow large drifts of such things. Some people crave state of the art kitchens or swanky bathrooms: I just want a decent green patch with room for a greenhouse and a compost heap.

 

I was quite disapointed last year though, grew a green one 'Langsdorfii' lovely plant flowered for months and has an AGM, but it didn't have any scent, I'd just assumed with it being a nicotiana it would have.
Another that I love and is flowering now is iris 'Jane Phillips' never known an iris with such a strong scent, gorgeous, I'll get a picture later

 

Now that Glory Tree looks interesting Dim.....i'll be keeping an eye out for that
I know this may seem boring to some but aswell as all the beautiful scents flowers and foliage give us....i tell you what does it for me just as much....Grassespecially freshly mown

 

I love a good curry, but you can have too much of a good thing. When the wind is in the wrong direction, I already get wafts from the local Tandoori, as well as the Chinese takeaway, the kebab shop and the fish and chip shop.

I love many leaf scents, however. Often, you have to vandalise the plant to get the smell - but my favourite, Lemon Verbena (Lippia citriodora) only needs the slightest touch for it to release its delicious smell. In Gone With the Wind, Scarlett O'Hara's mum sewed sachets of dried leaves into the hem of her dress so she'd leave a cloud of perfume as she rustled! The smell is more than just lemon; there's a hint of barley sugar as well. I grow mine in a pot as it's not hardy. It doesn't need any special treatment, though. You can just chop it back and bung it in the shed for the winter and bring it out when the frosts are over.

 

ooooh. My first lupins are colouring up and coming out. That's a pretty perfume for me,
must go out and have a good sniff tomorrow,

 

Excellent idea for a thread!
I used to follow another garden forum which discussed this very issue years ago, resulting in a long list of people's most scented favourites. It's on this link.

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/fragrant/2004062551022245.html

It's very USA biased, good in a way because it mentions many plants unfamiliar to a UK gardener, but of course, there's no guarantee they will be easy to cultivate here.

My own personal (easy to grow) faves are:
Liliums regale, longiflorum and oriental. Can't get enough!

Tellima grandiflora - a dark horse, this one.

Daphne odora marginata

Jasminum officinale

Cheerfulness narcissi

Hesperis matronalis

Alecost- aromatic herb, you have to rub the leaves to get the scent

Cedronella canariensis Balm of Gilead - aromatic herb, ditto

A blue geranium I have with wonderful scented leaves.

Just about any mint.


Things like reseda and flowering currant certainly smell - but are pretty rank, IMO. I'd like to grow heliotrope because I have smelt varieties that are exactly like the Pickerings cherry pie filling that my mum used to feed us when we were little! I'd like to find a nice big, relaxed variety, not the dumpy bedding sort. Things like wallflowers I just can't smell what all the fuss is about.