Building A Fragrant Garden: 25 Scents To Grow

Building a fragrant garden is a great way to create a sensory experience that evokes feelings and memories. When choosing fragrant plants, it's important to select scents that appeal to you and that you want to experience in your garden. You can add fragrance to key areas of your garden, such as between your front door and driveway, or along a pathway. To ensure your garden smells good all year round, you can plant seasonal flowers and herbs like snowdrops and crocuses in spring, lavender and rosemary in summer, chrysanthemums in fall, and evergreens in winter. You can also create a succession of smells by staggering your plants, mixing shrubs with perennials, bulbs, and annuals.

Choose fragrant plants that appeal to you and your sense of smell

When building a fragrant garden, it's important to remember that fragrance is very personal. Everyone has a unique sense of smell, so it's best to choose scents that appeal to you and evoke the feelings and moods you want to experience. If you want a garden that smells as good as it looks, incorporate fragrant plants everywhere. For example, you could put hyacinths beside your front door, lilacs beneath your bedroom window, and Oriental lilies in planters on your patio. You could also edge a pathway with sweet alyssum or lavender, plant fragrant roses behind a garden bench, and surround your deck or patio with pots of gardenias, jasmine and crinum.

You can also add fragrance to places where you can sample it as you walk by, such as between your front door and driveway. This doesn't have to be flowers – you could have a low-growing "hedge" of hardy, upright rosemary leaning over the edge of a path, for example.

It's a good idea to plan for a succession of smells, rather than lining a walk with a single type of flower. Instead, plant a staggered palette that mixes shrubs, perennials, bulbs and annuals. For example, you could have dwarf late-winter viburnums with their clove-scented flowers in March and April, followed by summer-flowering perennials like lavender, rosemary, salvia and thyme. In fall, try planting chrysanthemums and dianthus, and in winter, enjoy the fragrance from evergreens, holly and sweet box.

Remember that fragrance is often evocative because smell, memory and emotion are closely linked in the brain. The best way to sample an aroma is to take short sniffs, not long, deep breaths, and then take an occasional break by smelling the crook of your elbow.

Incorporate fragrant plants in as many places as possible

When building a fragrant garden, it's important to incorporate fragrant plants in as many places as possible. Choose plants that appeal to you and that evoke the feelings and moods you want to experience. For example, you could put hyacinths beside your front door, lilacs beneath your bedroom window, and Oriental lilies in planters on your patio. You could also edge a pathway with sweet alyssum or lavender, plant fragrant roses behind a garden bench, and surround your deck or patio with pots of gardenias, jasmine and crinum.

It's also a good idea to add fragrance to places where you can sample it as you walk by. For example, you could plant a low-growing hedge of hardy, upright rosemary between your front door and driveway. This way, you can brush up against the evergreen herb as you walk by and fill the air with its bracing scent.

You can also plan for a succession of smells by staggering your plants. Instead of lining the whole walk with lilacs, mix shrubs, perennials, bulbs and annuals to create a palette of scents. This way, you can have a garden that is always full of scent, with different plants blooming in different seasons. For example, in early spring, you might plant snowdrops, crocuses, scilla and grape hyacinths for a sweet fragrance. In summer, try perennials like lavender, rosemary, salvia and thyme. In fall, plant chrysanthemums and dianthus, and in winter, enjoy the fragrance from evergreens, holly and sweet box.

Plan for a succession of smells

When building a fragrant garden, it's important to plan for a succession of smells. This means not lining the whole walk with lilacs, for example, which would yield a single scent-filled moment. Instead, plant a staggered palette that mixes shrubs, perennials, bulbs and annuals.

In early spring, you might plant snowdrops, crocuses, scilla and grape hyacinths for a sweet fragrance. In summer, plant perennials like lavender, rosemary, salvia and thyme. In fall, try planting chrysanthemums and dianthus. And in winter, you can still enjoy the fragrance from plants like evergreens, holly and sweet box.

You can also add fragrance to places where you can sample it as you walk by – between your front door and driveway, for example. This doesn't have to be flowers – you could plant a low-growing "hedge" of hardy, upright rosemary, for instance.

By using a variety of fragrant plants, you can have a garden that is always full of scent.

Make sure each key area of the garden will benefit from fragrance in each season

To ensure that each key area of your 25 by 25 fragrance garden benefits from scent all year round, you'll need to choose a variety of fragrant plants that flower at different times of the year. In early spring, you might plant snowdrops, crocuses, scilla and grape hyacinths for a sweet fragrance. In summer, opt for perennials like lavender, rosemary, salvia and thyme. In fall, chrysanthemums and dianthus will provide fragrance, and in winter, you can enjoy the scent of evergreens, holly and sweet box.

You can also add fragrance to your garden at different times of day. There are some wonderful night-scented plants that perfume the air and add dramatic shadows, luminous colour and shimmer.

When choosing fragrant plants, go with scents that appeal to you and that evoke the feelings and moods you want to experience. You might like to put hyacinths beside your front door, lilacs beneath your bedroom window and Oriental lilies in planters on your patio. Edge a pathway with sweet alyssum or lavender, plant fragrant roses behind a garden bench, and surround your deck or patio with pots of gardenias, jasmine and crinum.

Add fragrance to places where you can sample it as you walk by

When building a fragrant garden, it's important to add fragrance to places where you can sample it as you walk by. For example, between your front door and driveway. You could plant flowers such as hyacinths, lilacs, Oriental lilies, fragrant roses, gardenias, jasmine and crinum. You could also plant herbs such as rosemary, lavender, thyme and sage.

To create a truly fragrant garden, it's important to plan for a succession of smells. Rather than lining a walk with lilacs, for example, mix shrubs, perennials, bulbs and annuals to create a staggered palette of scents. This will ensure that your garden smells as good as it looks.

It's also worth thinking about fragrance in each season. In early spring, you might plant snowdrops, crocuses, scilla and grape hyacinths for a sweet fragrance. In summer, plant perennials like lavender, rosemary, salvia and thyme. In fall, try planting chrysanthemums and dianthus. And in winter, you can still enjoy the fragrance from evergreens, holly and sweet box.

Finally, remember that fragrance is very personal. Everyone has a unique sense of smell, so choose scents that appeal to you and evoke the feelings and moods you want to experience.

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