Scented garden

Have you ever sat in a garden especially after sundown, with the gentle breeze wafting scents of flower you can no longer see?
There is nothing as enchanting as the lovely fragrance of fresh flowers and foliage in a garden.

Plants make your garden look great and beautiful but scented varieties can add new dimensions to your outdoor space. Whether you love the classic scent of roses or floral lavender, or exotic Frangipanis, there is plenty to choose from when it comes to picking the perfect plants for your garden.

Fragrant flowers add an extra dimension to any garden, making your outdoor space a feast for all the senses.

Scent is one of the most savored and sought-after qualities in garden plants, and many scented floral are also fantastic for cutting, allowing you to fill your home with their beautiful perfume, too. Including fragrant flowers in your flower bed ideas will enhance your enjoyment of your garden.

Aroma often draws you to a plant before you can even see it, and engaging with fragrant flowers and foliage is a key part of a sensory garden experience. With the right choice of plants, there’s no reason your outdoor space can’t be filled with wonderful, sweet smelling blooms all year round.

However, before choosing the plants for your garden, there are a few things to consider before planting to ensure they reach their full potential.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) said: “Plant fragrant-flowered plants in a sheltered area where the fragrance can be retained for longer time in an enclosed courtyard or walled garden is ideal. For smaller growing plants at the front of raised beds or in containers, their floral scents can be enjoyed when passing”. To get the most out of your fragrant flower, consider planting them around seating areas, paths and doorways where you can enjoy their scents to the full.

When choosing fragrant flowers to plant, it’s also worth thinking about when you spend the most time in the garden. Some flowers, such as if you’re growing jasmine and nicotiana, intensify in fragrance in the evenings, so these are particularly good for planting as a patio idea, or in other spots where you might sit in a summer night. Whereas if you like to enjoy breakfast on a sunny terrace or courtyard, then fragrant roses scrambling up a nearby wall could fill the air with their aroma, and aromatic herbs can fill containers.

Include some of the best flowering shrub, climbers, bulb and annuals blooming throughout the seasons to fill your outdoor space with fragrant flower all year round.”

ROSES: Loveliest of all the flowers and popular. Everyone loves the scent. They are known for their fresh, floral fragrance, so choose strong-scented flowers and bright colours to compliment your garden. No scented garden is complete without a rose. Some of the most fragrant flowers to plant are David Austin’s famous English roses which have been bred to combine the best traits of modern rose varieties–including colour range and repeat flowering–with the wonderful fragrances of old varieties.

There are many rose garden ideas for ways they can be incorporated into your yard. All David Austin roses are fragrant, but there are five different fragrance profiles: myrrh, tea, fruity, musk and old rose. From David Austin roses, one of the top varieties for scent is the Generous Gardener, a rambling rose whose fragrance is a combination of musk, old rose and myrrh.

Also recommended is the climbing rose “Bathsheba” for myrrh and “Desdemona” for old rose, “Vanessa Bell” for tea, and the “Poet’s Wife” for fruity – all shrub varieties.
David Austin roses can be grown in a wide range of climatic zones, thriving in USDA zones 4-11.
Some top tips for successfully growing at these two extremes.

“In truly hot zones, plant roses where they get morning sun and protection from afternoon sun. To extend winter hardiness, choose an own root rose – a rose grown from a cutting, rather than grafted onto a rootstock – and always plant deep so that the crown is at least 2 inches below the surface of the soil”.

USDA zones 4-11
Flowers: May-November depending on variety
Plant: In full sun of best flowering, but a minimum of 4-6 hours direct sun per day, in fertile, humus-rich but well drained soil.

Pne: Some variety need to be pruned in winter, and others straight after flowering. Learn how to prune roses for the blooms year after year.

Tobacco Flower-Nicotiana
Nicotiana alata flowering tobacco, pink flowers that release their scent in the evening, are perfect for planting around patios, or as courtyard garden ideas for those who like to relax in the garden after getting home from work.

Nicotiana or tobacco flowers are great night-scented plants. Popular bedding plants are perfect for filling gaps in borders and container. They are usually grown as a half-hardly annual and are good for low maintenance border ideas and easy to grow. Although they look lovely all day, tobacco flowers really come into their own in the evening, when they release a heady fragrance to attract nocturnal pollinators.

Nicotiana alata is a great choice as its relatively small size means that pockets of it can be incorporated into pretty much garden or container display. Nicotiana alata varieties come in a range of colours, from pure white to hot pink to vivid lime green. For something taller, try the equally fragrant Nicotiana sylvestris, which is ideal for woodland gardens.

Clematis Or Nodding Virgins Bower: It is a climber which offers fragranced flower. Plant in full sun or a site with partial shade to enjoy the stunning plant in all its glory.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera Japonica): This popular shrub is loved for the cream flower which appears delicate and smell as sweet as honey and vanilla. Plant in full sun or partial shade for a boost to your garden.
Rhododendromn (Azalea): Any type of rhododendron will work well for a fragrant boost, just be sure to keep it in a space with dappled shade. Azaleas offer a strong floral fragrance that is more fresh than sweet.

Jasminum Willow-Leaved Jasmine: There are over 300 species. Most prefer hot climates. Some varieties can be found in colder region. From the jasmine family, this semi-evergreen medium sized shrub is most fragrant at night. It can be planted in full sun or partial shade as long as the soil is well drained. All jasmines are fragrant and their scents grow stronger in the evenings.

Lillium sp
Oriental Lily are the classic irresistible hybrid and come in various breeds and scents. They are known for their intense beauty and famously strong fragrance. They are tall and stately (4 feet), and tend to grow more slowly. Oriental lilies are known for their fragrant perfume. They are easy to grow and do best in full sunlight. They have a fast growth rate and should be planted in full sun well-drained loamy or sandy soil.

Lillium”Stargazer”: This crimson cultivar is a popular hybrid of the oriental group. It looks like growing at stars at night. Its large showing flower makes it a showstopper when in bloom. All lilies are aromatic, but this hybrid is the most fragrant of all. Their sensual and slightly spicy scent is addictive to fall in love with. They grow in partial shade in well draining soil. Stargazers make excellent cut flowers, and they are attractive to butterflies, humming birds and other pollinators. Plant stargazer bulbs 6 to 8 inches deep in the ground. Planting in groups of three or five bulbs gives a pleasing look in the garden. These plants should be spaced 8 to 12 inches apart. They do well in most soils other than wet, clay soil that may cause the bulbs to rot.

Light stargazer do best in full sum (eight hours per day) but will tolerate part shade.

African Queen Trumpet Lilies have lovely 6-8 inches long apricot-tangerine blossoms with a raspberry plum reverse. Their study six foot stem can carry up to a dozen flowers. These giant yet elegant lilies provide gardens with an intoxicating fragrance. Plant your African Queen trumpet lilies bulbs behind other perennials for a striking aesthetic effect from these exotic perennials. African Queen trumpet lilies like their bulbs planted in the shade and their blooms pecking into the sunlight. Need full or partial sun. Need well- drained, loamy and moist soil.

Queen of the Night Flower (botanical name: Epiphyllum Oxypetalum) aka Queen of the Night:
Ducthman’s pipe ‘orchid cactus’ moon cactus is a genus of about 20 species of cactus. It rarely blooms and only for one night and its flowers wilt before dawn and only once a year. Though it is sometimes referred to as a night blooming cereus, it is not closely related to any of the species in the tribe cerecae such as selenicereus, that are more commonly known as night blooming cereus. All cereus bloom at night and terrestrial plant, epiphyllum species, are usually epiphytic.

Plant Details
Native of Mexico, South America, but now widely grown and naturalised in tropical and sub-tropical regions. It has deep green, 3-ribbed, zinches-wide stems with dark spines which grow quickly to 15 feet (possibly to 30 feet) attaching themselves to the trunk, wall or house by means of strong aerial roots. Without support, the stems create a large free standing mound with a beautiful snaking pattern. Individual flower lasts just for one night, but plants bloom from May to mid October. Their petals are white in order to reflect moon light, giving the flower a lovely glow that attracts nocturnal pollinators moths and bats.

Ylang-Ylang (Canaga Odorata) is native to rainforests of South East Asia and Australia. It is called ‘’perfume tree” and blooms profusely year round, pouring exotic fragrance to far long distances. World most expensive perfumes are made from it.

Frangipani is Icon of the tropical dry harmattan season that has delicious fragrance with overtones of peaches, jasmine, honeysuckle and apples that cast a spell of tropical paradise over any style of garden. Plant it where you can fully appreciate its flower and fragrance. Once you are seduced by the sweet scent of frangipani, you’ll fall in love with their grace, splendor and simplicity. Frangipani is an easy plant to grow, it thrives with little maintenance. They have been known to withstand drought and neglect, once established.
Gardenia augusta are one of the most well-known and loved fragrance in the garden and are always a good choice for both their scent and beautiful blooms and foliage. Dozens of creamy white flowers come out with a lustful scent. These heat-loving evergreen shrubs are best grown in moderate year-round climate. Gardenia generally prefer drained acidic soil when outside, and bright light and humidity when kept indoors.

WHICH FLOWER HAS THE STRONGEST FRAGRANCE
Many of the plants listed above have some of the strongest fragrance. However, the scent of fragrant flower can be intensified by heat, humidity and being trapped within a confined space,
We force oriental lilies into the conservatories during the winter months. When you put a couple of hundreds of them in an enclosed space, the scent is strong, unmistakable, and very floral. But during summer, the humid, warm air intensifies the gardenia-like fragrance of hosta plantaginea ‘aphrodite’

WHAT IS A VERY FRAGRANT FLOWER
There are many flowers that are very fragrant, but it is important to remember that what one person finds pleasant scent, another may not.

Scent is a very personal preference, not only is the pleasantness of scent subjective, but different people are wired to detect and perceive scent differently. Some may not even be able to smell certain scents at all.

Which jasmine plant is the most fragrant? Most of the highly scented jasmine are the indoor species that grow as houseplants. The most fragrant are jasminum angulare, jasminum grandiflorum ‘de grasse – which is beautifully scented and used in the perfume industry- and jasminum sambac, which is probably the most highly scented of all the indoor species.

Another highly fragrant hardy jasmine is the deciduous jasmine officinable f. affine. It is quite happy to be container-grown, so if you’re short of space, you can grow it on the patio scrambling up an obelisk.

The garden experience can reach all of the senses, but favourite is fragrance: what makes a plant’s fragrance appealing if not intoxicating is highly subjective. A well-planted garden should awaken all of the senses. The sight of colorful flowers, the contrasting touch of luxuious shrubbery, the chirp and buzz of creatures hard at work, the flavour of freshly grown fruits and vegetables and of course scents of the season.

Turn your garden into a symphony of olfatory delights by selecting flowering plants and herbs and other plants based not just on their colorful beauty but also their scents.