Add a romantic touch to your garden with beautiful fragrant flowers. Perfumed plants are the ideal way to generate a calming, relaxed atmosphere outdoors and, with plenty of bulbs, shrubs and trees to choose from, it's easy to create your own scented garden. The key is to choose plants that flower at different times of the year so you have a gorgeously fragrant garden all year round. You should always use a mix of scented and unscented varieties so they don’t overwhelm each other, and keep strongly aromatic flowers separate. If you only have a small garden, two or three plants around entryways will ensure a lovely fragrance in the air, while a larger backyard means you can plant a few more shrubs and trees for year-round perfume.
Size matters
Want to fill your whole backyard with fragrance? Then you may want to plant a large tree such as a frangipani or jacaranda. The native frangipani is ideal for tropical gardens and has strongly scented, creamy-coloured flowers that turn to yellow as it blooms from spring through to autumn. Jacarandas, another favourite of Australian gardeners, have lovely, purplish-blue flowers that blossom throughout spring and summer. Short on space? Look for climbers that can be grown in pots or over a trellis, such as wisteria and sweet pea. Star jasmine is another good choice as it grows in pots but also does well in the garden; it has pretty white flowers with a lovely perfume during spring and summer. Many strongly scented plants, like gardenias and rosemaries, also make great hedge plants. Murraya is an excellent hedge plant too, and produces small white flowers with a citrus scent, first in spring and then again in summer or autumn.
Heaven scent
There are also lots of flowering shrubs that smell divine and are ideal planted along borders and walkways where everyone can enjoy their beautiful scent. Roses are essential to a perfumed garden and there are a huge variety to take your pick from. Lavender is another must-have – with its greyish green foliage and purple flowers, it can be grown as a hedge or in a sunny garden bed and blooms through winter and spring. Daphne, an evergreen shrub, also flowers in winter and gives off a lovely perfume, so plant it near entryways for best results. Gardenias are wonderful for fragrance – these pretty, low-maintenance shrubs have creamy, white flowers that give off a delightful perfume in summer. Another fantastic shrub that flowers during the warmer months is heliotrope, also known as cherry pie, an evergreen shrub with purple flowers and a sweet, vanilla-like scent.As well, many herbs will bring a delicious scent to your garden – rosemary, thyme and oregano make great groundcovers, while mint and basil smell exquisite and will come in handy for the kitchen too! These can be planted between flowers or else in pots to allow you to move them around the yard.So why not add some fragrant plants to your garden this spring? They're guaranteed to enhance your home and lift your mood!
Top picks for perfumed plants
Flowers
gardenia
rose
daffodil/jonquil
wisteria
murraya
lavender
daphne
jasmine
Foliage
lavender
lemon-scented gum
herbs – mint, thyme, rosemary etc
mint bush (Prostanthera) – an Australian native
citrus – foliage and flowers
scented geranium
diosma
Story by Lauren Broomham