I caught my first smell of jasmine floating on the breeze the other day, and my mind immediately left the cold winter morning behind and floated on the breeze with the jasmine to a sultry summers night, surrounded by a symphony of smells.
Fragrance in the garden is so often overlokked when selecting plants, but fragrance brings great depth to an outdoor area.
Some fragraces are heady and overwhelming, like the jasmin if planted too close, and some will make you stop and find where the beautiful fragrance is coming from. There are three plants that will stop me in my tracks every time. I could not put one before the other as they are all different.
My top three must have fragrant plants are:
Sweet osmanthus, with a delicious smell of ripe apricots. This slow growing plant makes an excellent hedge alternative and its small and insignificant flowers blend into and garden style.
Port wine magnolia (michelia figo). This shrub smells like juicy fruit chewing gum. This shrub also make a good hedge but can grow to three metres
And thirdly. My all time favorite aroma is baronia megastigma. Unfortunately this baronia does not do well in Brisbane, but I will always buy it from a nursery when it is in flower and bring it inside to make my house smell delightful.
When planing your garden to make the most of fragrant plants, try to place the plants where the fragrance won't be carried away by strong winds. A gentle breeze near windows will bring the fragrance into the house, or still air around an outdoor entertaining area will have you smiling for months.
Other plants not to be overlooked for their fragrance include
Frangipani, roses, freesia, gardenias, yesterday today tomorrow, scented viburnum, scented geranium, sweet peas, stock, marigolds, melaleucas, scented gums, lemon myrtle, citrus, mint, lemon verbena, and ylang-ylang just to round out my top 20
