Don't forget to add some fragrant flowers into your garden

I often see people walking down the sidewalk and turn their heads as they pass the fragrant flowers in my garden that are unseen from their vantage but make a most noticeable statement.

Walking in to a florist shop the scents will hit you as soon as you open the door.
In the garden landscape though,not every flower is graced with fragrance.

It is noteworthy though that most white flowers have a fragrance.
Since pollinators are usually attracted to bright colors, blues, purples, reds those flowers don’t need a fragrance.
White flowers, however, are not in the spectrum of colors that bees and birds or even some species of bats can see and therefore they don’t get pollinated.
These flowers,therefore, needed to attract pollinators by another means, thus, fragrance.

moonflower

White flowers add not just their soft fragrance but also light up the landscape with their sharp color.
The annual (in most zones) moonflower vine opens up during the evening and night time hours and creates a lovely ambiance on the patio trellis.
Follow our instructions to build an easy trellis.

The Casablanca Lily is a very fragrant flower with up to 8 large blooms on a single stalk. The bloom is short, however, but right around the 4th of July in our zone 5.

Another more subtle white flower is the David cultivar of phlox. It blooms for the better part of the summer.
Alyssum is a white fragrant annual that easily spreads in a growing season.

Fragrance extends to foliage like the Eucalyptus and lemongrass as well as evergreens and flowering trees and shrubs.

lemongrass

Lilac bushes are my most favorite. I have two planted near my children’s bedroom windows so that short lived fragrance floats into their bedrooms and dreams in mid spring.
Lilacs though, can get up to 15 feet high and are difficult to remove should they prove to be planted in an inconvenient place.
Dwarf varieties may be better suited to smaller areas. lilac

Although not many, there are a few bad smelling flowers.
One that immediately comes to mind is the popular Callery Pear tree.
It makes a beautiful spring display with its white flowers covering the branches but unless you have a head cold, the garbage dump like smell negates the visual appeal.

Here is a brief listing of some of the more fragrant flowers and zones they grow in:

Grape hyacinth zones 3 – 9
Sweet woodruff zones 3 – 8
Casa blanca lily zones 3 – 8
Dianthus zones 3 – 9
Hemerocallis Stella D’Oro zones 3 – 9
Phlox many varieties zones 3 – 8
Snowdrop windflower zones 4 -9

Azalea Western Lights zones 4 – 8
Hyacinth zones 4 -10
Clematis Betty Corning zones 4 -10
Echinacea Big Sky series zones 4 -9
Lavender zones 4 -9
Monarda zones 4 – 9
Agastache Heat Wave zone 5 -10
Buddleia zones 5 – 9
Sweet Autumn Clematis zone s5 - 8
Fothergilla Mt Airy (shrub) zones 5 – 8
Soapwort zones 5 -8
Viburnum (shrub) zones 5 -8
Daphne (shrub) zones 6-9
Gardenia (evergreen shrub) zones 7-9 (can be potted and wintered indoors for lower zones)

Return from Fragrant Flowers to Landscaping Ideas

Return from Fragrant Flowers to the Home page