Mother’s Day is coming up and it is time to spoil her with plants for the scented garden. It is so natural to look at a beautiful flower and then reach over to smell it. Unfortunately, not all beautiful flowers are fragrant but here are some of our favourite scented plants.
The most familiar scented ones are Roses. They love full sun, good drainage and air circulation. Choose disease resistant hardy varieties such as ‘Sunsprite’ which is a very fragrant, deep yellow floribunda. It forms a lovely bush about 2-2 ½’ and has clusters of cupped shaped 3” blooms that flower repeatedly all summer. ’Wild
Blue Yonder’ is an AARS award winner with very fragrant, large double ruffled petals. The color is a
velvety wine-purple layered onto rich lavender with a fragrance of sweet citrus and rose. It forms a vigorous hardy 3’ bush and is a repeat bloomer. ‘Double Delight’ is an AARS award winning Hybrid Tea. It has gorgeous large, double red and white blooms with red edges; a strong spicy fragrance and is a repeat
bloomer. It makes an excellent cut flower and forms a bush 3-5’ tall. Another unique colored rose is ‘Intrique’ which is a warm royal plum-purple. It forms a 2 ½’ bush which has very fragrant blooms of citrus-rose.
This is also an AARS award winner for its great beauty, form, and garden performance.
Lilacs are also a garden favourite. They are easy to grow, prefer full to part sun and have showy highly scented flowers which attract hummingbirds and butterflies. They can be used as a cut flower and make an excellent hedge. Give them good drainage and air circulation and prune immediately after flowering.
Syringa ‘Miss Kim’ has a wonderful compact habit that forms a 3’ bush making it ideal for most gardens.
‘Katherine Havemeyer’ is an early blooming French lilac with abundant clusters of double lavender-pink fragrant flowers and grows 10-12’ feet and ‘Charles Joly’ grows 8-10 feet with sensational showy lilac colored panicles. The ‘Wedgewood Blue’ has showy fragrant flowers that open lilac pink and become a true blue. It is only 6’ and makes a great hedge. A really unique color is the Syringa ‘Primrose’ which has exceptionally fragrant pastel yellow flowers that become richer in color within 5 years.
For a lovely fragrant white flowered bush, consider Choisya ternata (Mock Orange) which is a medium size evergreen shrub with fragrant star shaped flowers. This award winning plant loves well-drained soil, part sun and is drought resistant.
Lavender is another must in the scented garden. It has a strong fragrance, is loved by the bees and butterflies. It is also great for edging paths and borders or placed in the rock garden. They can be mass planted or used as a specimen and make exceptional dried flowers. When considering lavender, most people think of the English variety. It produces dense spikes of fragrant bluish-purple flowers with slender rosemary like leaves. Two common varieties of Lavandula angustifolia are the compact ‘Munstead’ at 18-24” and the ‘Hidcote’ at 24.” The ‘Provence’ is also English lavender that happens to be grown in France. It has light lavender blue flowers and is grown commercially for its oil and strongly scented thin stems.
The Spanish Lavender has dark purple pineapple-shaped heads and looks stunning in the garden. One of my favourites is the ‘ Silver Anouk ‘. It has fragrant silver grey leaves that form a bushy evergreen mound and is excellent in containers or used as a topiary. Lavenders are all drought tolerant, attract butterflies, and are rabbit and deer resistant.
For the shade garden, the delightful Galium odoratum (Sweet Woodrow) is a fast growing groundcover that has attractive foliage and vanilla fragrant white flowers. They love the moist, well drained soil, and filtered light often found in the woodland garden. Cut them back in the spring. They make wonderful dried
flowers.
Nicotianas are a great choice for containers and are one of the best plants for evening fragrance when you are sitting on your deck or in your garden at the end of the day. Nicotiana sylvestris ‘Only the Lonely’ is 3
feet tall and the fragrance is outstanding. It is great for the garden but too tall for containers unless it’s an oak
barrel.
All annual Sweetpeas are fragrant and make excellent cut flowers. Instead of having the tall climbing
variety, the Bijou mix is only 12” high and can be used in containers or pots. Dianthus (carnations) are usually fragrant and come in a variety of sizes such as ‘Raspberry parfait’ at 8-12” and the ‘Wee Willie’ Series at 6-8” which has multi-colored clusters of single blooms that are reminiscent of the old
sweet Williams. A new Carnation that we carry this year is Dianthus ‘Scent First’ passion. It displays gorgeous rosettes of red flowers that have that cinnamon scent.
Other good choices for the scented garden
include: Phlox, Oriental Lilies, Heliotrope and Stocks. With so much to choose
from, you are sure to make Mum happy this Mother’s Day. Happy
Gardening.
The most familiar scented ones are Roses. They love full sun, good drainage and air circulation. Choose disease resistant hardy varieties such as ‘Sunsprite’ which is a very fragrant, deep yellow floribunda. It forms a lovely bush about 2-2 ½’ and has clusters of cupped shaped 3” blooms that flower repeatedly all summer. ’Wild
Blue Yonder’ is an AARS award winner with very fragrant, large double ruffled petals. The color is a
velvety wine-purple layered onto rich lavender with a fragrance of sweet citrus and rose. It forms a vigorous hardy 3’ bush and is a repeat bloomer. ‘Double Delight’ is an AARS award winning Hybrid Tea. It has gorgeous large, double red and white blooms with red edges; a strong spicy fragrance and is a repeat
bloomer. It makes an excellent cut flower and forms a bush 3-5’ tall. Another unique colored rose is ‘Intrique’ which is a warm royal plum-purple. It forms a 2 ½’ bush which has very fragrant blooms of citrus-rose.
This is also an AARS award winner for its great beauty, form, and garden performance.
Lilacs are also a garden favourite. They are easy to grow, prefer full to part sun and have showy highly scented flowers which attract hummingbirds and butterflies. They can be used as a cut flower and make an excellent hedge. Give them good drainage and air circulation and prune immediately after flowering.
Syringa ‘Miss Kim’ has a wonderful compact habit that forms a 3’ bush making it ideal for most gardens.
‘Katherine Havemeyer’ is an early blooming French lilac with abundant clusters of double lavender-pink fragrant flowers and grows 10-12’ feet and ‘Charles Joly’ grows 8-10 feet with sensational showy lilac colored panicles. The ‘Wedgewood Blue’ has showy fragrant flowers that open lilac pink and become a true blue. It is only 6’ and makes a great hedge. A really unique color is the Syringa ‘Primrose’ which has exceptionally fragrant pastel yellow flowers that become richer in color within 5 years.
For a lovely fragrant white flowered bush, consider Choisya ternata (Mock Orange) which is a medium size evergreen shrub with fragrant star shaped flowers. This award winning plant loves well-drained soil, part sun and is drought resistant.
Lavender is another must in the scented garden. It has a strong fragrance, is loved by the bees and butterflies. It is also great for edging paths and borders or placed in the rock garden. They can be mass planted or used as a specimen and make exceptional dried flowers. When considering lavender, most people think of the English variety. It produces dense spikes of fragrant bluish-purple flowers with slender rosemary like leaves. Two common varieties of Lavandula angustifolia are the compact ‘Munstead’ at 18-24” and the ‘Hidcote’ at 24.” The ‘Provence’ is also English lavender that happens to be grown in France. It has light lavender blue flowers and is grown commercially for its oil and strongly scented thin stems.
The Spanish Lavender has dark purple pineapple-shaped heads and looks stunning in the garden. One of my favourites is the ‘ Silver Anouk ‘. It has fragrant silver grey leaves that form a bushy evergreen mound and is excellent in containers or used as a topiary. Lavenders are all drought tolerant, attract butterflies, and are rabbit and deer resistant.
For the shade garden, the delightful Galium odoratum (Sweet Woodrow) is a fast growing groundcover that has attractive foliage and vanilla fragrant white flowers. They love the moist, well drained soil, and filtered light often found in the woodland garden. Cut them back in the spring. They make wonderful dried
flowers.
Nicotianas are a great choice for containers and are one of the best plants for evening fragrance when you are sitting on your deck or in your garden at the end of the day. Nicotiana sylvestris ‘Only the Lonely’ is 3
feet tall and the fragrance is outstanding. It is great for the garden but too tall for containers unless it’s an oak
barrel.
All annual Sweetpeas are fragrant and make excellent cut flowers. Instead of having the tall climbing
variety, the Bijou mix is only 12” high and can be used in containers or pots. Dianthus (carnations) are usually fragrant and come in a variety of sizes such as ‘Raspberry parfait’ at 8-12” and the ‘Wee Willie’ Series at 6-8” which has multi-colored clusters of single blooms that are reminiscent of the old
sweet Williams. A new Carnation that we carry this year is Dianthus ‘Scent First’ passion. It displays gorgeous rosettes of red flowers that have that cinnamon scent.
Other good choices for the scented garden
include: Phlox, Oriental Lilies, Heliotrope and Stocks. With so much to choose
from, you are sure to make Mum happy this Mother’s Day. Happy
Gardening.
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