Maybe low impact gardening then? No smelling or touching.
Favorite Fragrant Plants
i have manymany flowers that i love. i just don't want smelly ones.
i like the smell of lavender a lot. i like dianthus. i love rosemary. i have black peppermint that smells fantastic - like peppermint candy. i love my sweetgrass. if i could find flowering tobacco that has a nice tobacco flower fragrance, i'd love it, but the nicotiana i find in nurseries never seems to have much scent.
sorry I don't know the name of this lily... but man what a wonderful fragrance... it was calling me across the yard to come closer... I also love the smell of the white 6' tall lily I just had to buy because it called me in the nursery.. don't have photos of that one yet... and I love the smell of the petunias on a hot summer morning.... and lemon verbena (use those leaves to flavor water)
Allison
Just reading about what Amy does and doesn't like is fun and Victor with his rotting flesh plant is another breakfast joy! I agree with Amy about marigolds! Too many plants border on stench and not fragrance. While I like roses like Mr. Lincoln I can't take the smell of cloves in roses - sort of like a nasty trick by some grower.
Chocolate mint is another nice one, Amy. At least we can sniff before we buy.
Allison - your lily is beautiful and might be 'Shocking' or a relative of it.
My irises have a heavenly scent. I never noticed much of a scent from nicotiana unless I got up real close, but they are a favorite of mine just the same. I like this one - http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&SearchText=1384&mainPage=textsearchresults&RequestType=NewRequest . T&M have a nice selection too http://www.tmseeds.com/search.html?sterm=nicotiana .
Allison, that lily looks like pirl said 'Shocking' or could be 'Touching' they are very similar. Both smell nice!
Amy, I have the fragrant nicotiana, and I will never be without it! I originally got my seeds from Select Seeds. Nice selection.
Sue, was it the candelabra type, 'sylvestris'?
I have the Alata, and 'Perfect Mix', x sanderae. They're both heavenly! I did the 'sylvestris' or Woodland the year before last. They didn't reseed last year, so I'm starting more this year.
Why is it that the ones we'd like to have self-seed never do it?
and the ones we don't proliferate!
Murphy's garden law.
that does look pretty close Pirl... thanks
oh you guys... now you want me to check out the nicotiana.... YOU ARE GOING TO GET ME IN MORE TROUBLE FOR BUYING MORE SEEDS
:)
he just shakes his head when a package arrives
i do have a few marked off already that i don't have and would like... you guys are a bad influence on me (but I love ya)
And I shake my head at DH's $86.00 seed order, which is so minor compared to all I've ordered yet we know many seeds will end up being plants to get in the ground at the end of May.
Pirl...thanks for the heads up on what the nicotinia i bought from Value Seeds will look like.
This is an odd area. Hidden away but a spot everyone goes by everyday.
Last year I had Jimmy Nardello pepper plants there in an EarthBox. Not because I planned it but because I had other things to do and by the time the EB should have been moved, the plants were too big to be moved.
Perhaps I'll put Charentais melons in an EarthBox there. Bought seeds from Sandhill Presevation already (and a hybrid version from Johnny's Seeds). Sandhill says of Charentais:
Quoting:
When ripened during warm, dry weather the fruits are so strong flavored you can smell them several hundred feet away in the garden as they get ripe
Great review on that melon. Is it honeydew, cantaloupe? I'd certainly be interested in trying it.
Allison, I'll send you some Nicotiana seeds if you'd like. Are you in the address exchange?
Sue
Are they big melons David?
I did look them up on seedsavers, Victor, and they aren't huge. Rave reviews about them.
Might give it a try. Never planted melons. Do they take lots of space?
Yes! Train them upward on a piece of wire fencing and still they'll sprawl so keep hoisting them upwards.
Victor!
I have successfully grown the very small Israeli melon 'Galia' in years past - they take about 70 days, and are very easy to grow as long as the summer is hot. This is a challenge in the Seattle area - 'hot' is 80°! This year I am trying a new one called 'Lil Loupe'; another short season. Hope we get hotter than last summer.
By the way - they are easy to grow vertically - the developing melons can be supported by a variety of things, such as netting bags (for onions, etc..), old pantyhose, bras....lol - how appropriate.
Victor can have his own "Secret Garden" with his melons and assorted melon holders.
And I'll keep it secret, cross my heart.
Oh, Victor!
I am not in the NE but I just have to add this: concord grapes left on the vine attract birds (and bugs) and smell like grape jelly from a great distance. This was an accident but one I will never forget. I did not pick them because they got really buggy that year.
I am not sure if I have a problem with scent, but I cannot smell violets, lily of the valley, or moonvine. If moonvine smells like cloves I should have been able to smell that - I can smell dianthus and viburnum.
In the past I planted many lilies and found I could not stand to be outside with them - the trumpets and orientals. When they bloomed it was like a million tuberoses- ackkkkk. I only have asiatics here (but I did plant some new mix that might smell - if bad, I will rip it out).
I do plant for scent when possible. I have viburnum carlesii, mock orange, old fashioned roses, old fashioned iris (grape scent), peony, dianthus, and annual tobacco (several kinds - need to try them all). These I can smell. I tried mignonette (disappointed in smell) and night phlox (nice but was hard for me to grow).
I really want to locate a source for jasmine or something similar that smells heavenly. I will keep it in a pot and baby it. Thanks for all your info.
Thanks for posting, Carol, and drop in any time! I have jasmine in a pot and the scent is wonderful. Gardenia also. I too find oriental lilies way to strong. Interesting about the grapes.
Victor, my jasmine (winter jasmine) won't bloom. I don't think it gets cold enough for it. What do you do?
Has any not mentioned my personal favorite, I'm offended...lol.
I know I'm going to butcher the spelling...
The daffodil commonly called 'Pheasents Eye' think...'Actaea' might be the name of it.
They have completely naturalized in a small nook where side walk meets sidewalk...walk going from the front porch to the streetside side walk...right in the corner, everyone has to walk by it to come into the house...and the smell is heavenly.
Also...My butterfly bush, 'Midnight....'something or another, it smells...like medicine or an ointment...something like that.
I always love the smell of petunias...they have this light spicey scent to them...love it.
That's pretty much it...My allergies usually kick in when something is to strong, lilacs, some clematis, honeysuckles...
Least favorite smells...and I love the flowers...hyacinths, and paperwhites...pu pu pu...pu. lol.
I've had Actaea for 16 years and never noticed a scent. I do love hyacinths and love their scent but not Eucomis or paperwhites.
I like hyacinth from a distance. It gets too powerful if I bring it inside.
I love hyacinth scent - heavenly to me! I also love the scented daffs. My allergies kick in with the lilacs and hydrangea trees, but I don't care!
Hey, does anyone know the name of the native tree that has pale yellow, honeysuckle-like flowers on it? Small tree, spring bloomer, honey scented. I have a few, see them growing wild in places, never knew the name. Will take a pic this spring if no one knows.
I don't think this is native here but I have one and it resembles what you described.
Scotch Broom?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/36944/
"'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
They called me the hyacinth girl.'
—Yet when we came back, late, from the hyacinth garden,
your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
speak, and my eyes failed"
Thom, I have some daffs that smell heavenly. Don't know their varieties... "Fragrant Mixture" from John Scheeper's.
What's that from Amy?
Narcissus 'Winston Churchill' has a wonderful scent.
I'm in the minority here, I think. I like paperwhites indoors. Ya gotta chuck them fast when they start to turn though.
"And many a mystic flower
Of the wildwood I have known,
But Pionia Arnoldi
Hath a transport all her own.
For Peony, my Peony,
Hath strength to make me whole,--
She gives her heart of beauty
For the healing of my soul."
Bliss
I love peonies!