Your favourite garden scent?

I must say scents are one of the things I really love about gardening/ nature - some of you too, hopefully. I'd love to hear about some other people's favourites!

May is a particularly fragrant month, especially after all the rain we've been having. My current favourite is the Belgian honeysuckle growing over the trellis at the end of the garden. I went down there to put something in the compost bin yesterday evening and was amazed by how strong and how beautiful the scent of the flowers was, even with some competition from the elderflowers on the bush in my neighbour's garden.

A few weeks ago it was my Aztec Pearl choisya - the flowers smell very sweet, and the leaves have a strong, quite different, resinous scent.

Soon we will have roses of course and the herbs are always good value too - lemon verbena, angelica and rue (which smells like coconut) being three of my favourites. Not to forget the smell of the earth itself, of wet stone after rain on a hot day, and even some garden products - I rather like the smell of fish, blood and bone, for instance.

And scents can be very evocative of course - smell is the sense most closely associated with memory, apparently. For a long time I had no idea why, on a particular corner on my route to the park with the dog of a morning, I would often think of my grandmother. Then I worked out that it was at the point where the path was overhung by a big conifer, and then that this was a Monterey cypress (cupressus macrocarpus), like she'd had in her garden when I was growing up. It was the smell of the tree that was setting off the memory!

 

Rosemary reminds me of the gardens outside the old city of Jerusalem in 1970

 

I wouldn't say it's my favourite but I like the smell of tomato plants, especially when you pinch them out.
I also love the smell of coriander and freshly cut grass/lawn.

 

I love touching the Monarda when its in flower but there is nothing like the heady perfume of old fashioned roses.

 

Clare, lovely thread.

So many scents and at different times of the year.

Hyacinths in spring bring out sweet and sad memories and evoke all sorts of emotions so I guess they would be my favourite garden scent.

Right now? Zaluzianskya is delightful overnight and into the morning. And the choisyas too.

Lavendar is wonderful in full flower and with the sun beating down its scent fills the air
Lilium regale and philadelphus in June.
Heliotrope from mid June to autumn and the honeysuckles in full swing too then.

The gorse on the towans though, with its coconut/vanilla scent wafting towards the beach, is so evocative instantly bringing back all sorts of memories.

Love the smell of new mown grass in summer, the scents of daphne, sarcoccoca, winter honeysuckle, wallflowers and witch hazels in late winter and early spring.

Scent, like music, can transport us in a second to another time

 

Was always lavender, loved it for its clean scent and warmth, and associated it with good weather (which we wait far too long for!). However, last year was our first year on the allotment and we inherited two blackcurrant bushes on the plot - the scent of those has now overtaken my love of lavender's scent - not only was it connected with good weather (picking them in summer) it also means they were ours and we were going to make some lovely food with them. Did some winter pruning of them too and could still smell blackcurrants on the wood!

 

As I was walking down the drive on the side of the house yesterday, where we have several pots containing clematis and roses, I noticed quite a nice perfume. Then I realised it was the scent of fabric conditioner coming from the vent in the wall for the tumble dryer under the stairs.

Sadly some nice scents have disappeared... Like creosote!

Wisteria has a nice perfume, so does Wright's Coal Tar Soap but my wife won't have that in the house.

 

Cut grass, tomato plants and dill I'm not into flowery scents apparently

Wood smoke is also lovely, it reminds me of childhood summers. Luckily our neighbour has a wood burning fireplace so we can get a wiff every now and then.

 

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

 

Nice post @Clare G . It changes with the seasons of course. Right now for me in my garden it is elderflower which dominates, mown grass and lemon verbena too. The lilac has been good but is coming to an end. I like brushing against the herbs as I wonder around, the thymes, rosemary and lavender.

 

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It smells like victory

 

I'm currently developing a chamomile pathway. Love the smell. Hoping that when you walk on it the chamomile gets broken up a bit to release the scent.