What is the most fragrant flower in your plantings?

Hi,

Mandevilla laxa and Vigna caracalla. Brugs for nighttime fragrance.
However, I won't plant any of them too close to my bedroom window. The fragrance on all of them is very strong. Mine is planted towards the upper part of my garden (about 20 feet from the veranda), and it has never been too intoxicating...

Elsa

Crinums, moonflower, honeysuckle, english lavender, basil, agastaches, lemon balm, daffodils, trumpet and oriental lilies, sweet violets (viola sp), ginger lily, chocolate daisy, bouncing bet (soapwort). And some I've forgotten at the moment. :)

yes the fragrance of Saponaria (Bouncing Bet is wonderful, peppery but sweet).
Some others that I just love Hemerocalis flava (lemon lily), Lily of the Valley, German Bearded Iris, my wild Roses, Trumpet Lilies, and Peonies...yum!!!

Bouncing Bet is invasive here - but it attract butterflies, too.

Yes, same in TN but already here in large numbers. Not much to do about it but enjoy the fragrance.

When we decided to raise honeybees, the hardest part for my blind wife was giving up some of her favorite fragrant plants. Fragrant azaleas, Carolina jessamine, fragrant oleander varieties, Texas mountain laurel and brugmansias...We are still searching out replacements. This thread is a wonderful place to get ideas. I love watching hummingbirds so agastache is my personal favorite fragrant plant. Followed by lavender, thyme and rosemary. It may be a guy thing, but I like the scent of Vitex negundo. (Chinese chaste tree). It smells sort of like lemon pepper.
Among fragrant blooms, my Spring favorite is jonquils. My summer favorite is an unidentified red rose. The blooms have the classic old rose scent, but, what I especially like is that the foliage has a sort of green apple scent. Autumn clematis would be my favorite fall bloomer, if it weren't so aggressive in this area. Since we can't grow autumn clematis, #1 position for fall bloom is a toss-up between fragrant goldenrod (Solidago odora) and deep sea crinum. (The crinum blooms first in summer, but gets lost in a scent-scape of magnolias, honeysuckle and gardenias. It has the stage to itself, however, when it blooms again in October. Witch hazel is my favorite winter bloom, but others here would vote for the tea olive. It usually blooms in Jan. or Feb. in our garden. There are some unexpectedly fragrant camellias, as well.
I would add the cool season annual mignonette and sweet box to the list of fragrant plants we seem to be creating. They keep a nose happy in the off-season.
High summer is a tough season in our scent-scape. 'Fragrant Angel' Echinacea sounds promising. Has anyone gotten a whiff of that one? (Jim)

Photo of the mystery rose.

Amargia - Why did you have to get rid of the plants you mentioned? Do they affect the bees, or do the affect the honey? I had heard that some types of Buckeye are toxic to bees - but I hadn't hear anything about any others.

Jim, my daughter is getting us a beehive started next month. I have been working on getting more flowering plants started for the bees. Have you found any good lists of good bee honey plants and obviously I am concerned about bad plants for making honey too. The only one your "bad" list I have so far are Brugs, and I can't say I've been all that successful with them anyway. I don't have oleander but the neighbors do so that could be a concern. Thanks for your help.
Domehome

I'd like to know as well. ^_^

Not sure but I'd bet it affects the 'taste' of the honey. I know the bee keepers in this area will market certain flavors of honey.

In fragrant bloom right now, Carolina jessamine. It is on the breeze and catches my attention while working out in the yard... wonderful!

We are playing it very safe. My observations are that bees will avoid blooms that are toxic or adversely affect the taste of honey. The trick is to make certain there is something blooming they especially like at the same time the less desirable plant is in bloom. My wife gave up her 'Pride of Augusta', but there is still a wild form of Carolina jessamine growing in the nearby woods. We just make sure there are crocus and clover blooming for the bees at the same time the jessamine is blooming. There is a old beekeeping tale about how a village avoided conquest by the Roman legion by giving the soldiers honey to eat that came from bees that had fed almost exclusively on oleander. The soldiers all became violently ill and the legion withdrew. But, the bees consumed the oleander because it was a seaside village and there simply wasn't anything else for the honeybees to forage on at that time of year. My wife developed her fascination with fragrant oleanders while living in Galveston so I gather oleanders can thrive in seaside conditions. They aren't particularly fragrant, but sunflowers are a good way to keep bees from taking any interest in oleander or any of the other toxic blooms of high summer. Fragrant perennials in bloom at that time would probably include many fragrant Mediterranean herbs and catnip.
If your neighbor's oleander still worries you, you can try the method we've used with my wife. Offer her a replacement plant. We bribed my DW with fragrant and tea camellias. lol.
Here's a link to a list of good bee plants that has links to other list, including one that focuses on ornamental gardens, if I'm remembering things right.
http://themelissagarden.com/plants.html
If you do a search on "bee plants" combined with your state name or broader geographical area you can probably find list that are more exact. I've actually seen jessamine on one online list of recommended bee forage plant list for the deep south. My opinion is that if a bloom is poisonous to people directly, it is a bloom I would rather the honeybees stay away from and I've heard of one case of a child dying because she mistook jessamine for honeysuckle and drank the nectar.
The list of fragrant plants that adversely affect bees and make bad honey are relatively small. In fact, some of the most sought after honeys come from very fragrant plants. Keeping bees has changed the choices, but I think it has actually expanded our palette of fragrances in the garden. (Jim)

Thanks for all the information. I have so many poisonous plants in my yard as I have deer. I'll have to really take a look at what could be a problem. There are lots of plants that bloom pretty nonstop here in California. It shouldn't be too hard to keep a good supply of pollen plants blooming for the bees.

Has anyone ever grown flor de loroco? It's a vine that bloom all summer in my zone. I've had mine for 3 years and it's sprouting new growth right now. When it bloom it scent the whole yard. I plant it next to my porch so I can breathe its fragrance while relaxing after work. I would pick some of the flowers and laid them on my night stand at night. The scent is sweet and heavenly and intoxicating. It will died back but is root hardy. Just cover it with mulch in winter. I can't wait for mine to bloom again. It loves the heat and thank goodness we have plenty of that here. I highly recomend this wonderful vine for anyone wanting something different, totally pest free, very fragrant and bloom all summer.

yt - I would love to read about this vine but google is not being helpful... Does it go by another name or can you share a link re this vine please? I'm drooling here while reading your description.

I'm not yt, but here is more info... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernaldia_pandurata

I absolutely LOVE the intoxicating scent of lilac - which, sadly, will not grow and bloom at all well in my area. Very, very sad.

Probably the most fragrant plant in my garden is confederate jasmine: Trachelospermum jasminoides
It thrives on the privacy fence in my backyard. The aroma is so strong as to be clearly 'heard' on the far side of the garden and even out in the street in front of my house. Numerous people walking by on the sidewalk have stopped to inquire about the source of that heavenly aroma. They always want to tie it to one of the many flowers in the frontyard and are always shocked to learn that such a strong fragrance is actually emanating from the backyard.

Other highly fragrant flowers in my yard include:

tea olive (shrubs) - blooms almost year round, although blooms seem more fragrant at certain times
Magnolia virginiana
some lilies
privet shrubs - Pretty sure this is Ligustrum japonica. They were here when I bought the place and are very common in this area
certain roses - such as Double Delight & Mr Lincoln


That's all I can think of at the moment, although I have the strong sense that I may be forgetting something. I'll post again if I think of something else.

Thanks for your help, Cville Gardner. A friend of mine whose grandmother's from El Salvador and she brought the flowers here on a visit, said she use them to make a dish like back home. I was at a nursery near my area that specializes in exotic and a wonderful scent lead me to the plant. I bought it and fell in love with it ever since. I took some cuttings last year and they rooted quite easily. Anyone who comes to my yard during bloom time always beg for a cuttings and usually come away with one, plus chicken eggs and whatever's ready from the garden. :)

You're welcome. I wish I could grow it in my climate zone. :/ I have visited El Salvador and had pupusas made from the flour. Very versatile plant!

Where did the name Cut and Shoot come from? :)

Only a Texan would gave a place such a name. I think it was named after a land dispute and cutting and shooting was involved! I don't know, only guessing. I actually live & work in Conroe. My older sister live in your zone, NE Arkansas, she got a plant from me and it's thriving in her greenhouse. She work from home so when it bloom she would work from her greenhouse so she can enjoy its scent.

Without a doubt, mine is Brunfelsia - it is a huge shrub in my yard and perfumes the whole block!

KayJones ~ I agree on the Brunfelsia. The fragrance is wonderful. The sad thing is mine has a short bloom time.

Does yours bloom throughout the summer? I have two different cultivars, one is blooming right now. The other blooms later in spring.

Don't forget old fashioned sweet peas, they're blooming right now on my tomatoes trellises. I planted those back in November. The smell of sweet peas is one of life's many simple joy. Definitely some of my favorites.

I forgot to add wisteria to my list. Some 8yrs or so ago I started training a wisteria 'tree' (forcing it to grow as a short tree rather than a vine). It's in full bloom now, and the sweet aroma was heavy when I walked outside today. There are sections of our highways, including one interstate, that are lined with wisteria vines. They are not good for the trees upon which they grow, but the blooms are gorgeous. It's as though the highways are lined with lavender wallpaper, and the intense aroma even permeates our cars as we drive by.

About 30 years ago, I used to have a shirt-tail relative that grew Citrus in Texas. I ended up with a quart of strong Orange Blossom honey that wasn't salable - and no-one else wanted it, & it finally gotted passed on to me. It was a very dark honey and the Orange Blossom smell & taste were too strong for most uses - but I managed to use it all up by thinking of things that would usually use orange extract.

After that, I lived in Italy for a while. Sometimes the smell of Orange Blossoms at night in June was too much. Before that, I never realized that even good smells can be over-whelming.

Usually fragrant flowers are insect pollinated & don't have too much airborn pollen - Wisteria should be that way. But when I lived in Charleston where Wisteria ran wild, something was in bloom at the same time as the Wisteria that really bothered my allergies.

When we moved into our new home some years ago, late in the summer, about the time the sun was going down and the night critters started waking, I started catching this wonderful scent. It always brings memories back of Mom taking us up The Mountain (part of the East River Mountain above Bluefield, Virginia). There she would be, bravely telling the four of us little ones to stomp as hard as we could so the snakes that so terrified her would think it was thundering & stay away, and we would track down the elusive wild grapes for Mom to make her wild grape jelly. The heady scent of those grapes was wonderful! Well, I searched and searched, and finally I discovered the source of that elusive, memory-stirring scent ..... the Kudzu! I wouldn't trade that scent for anything in China, just for the warmth it stirs in my heart alone!

Oh, I love the heady aroma of wisteria, pollengarden!

To me it is a most 'lovely' smell, never too strong. None of the fragrant flowers I listed as being in my garden are so strong as to be unpleasant, although I know what you are talking about as I've experienced that sort of thing with perfume, usually when the wearer has gone quite overboard. I would say the wisteria scent is 2nd to the jasmine in intensity, and even the jasmine is not too strong to be enjoyable.

The jasmine is growing on my backyard privacy fence, on both sides of the fence so that 1/2 of it is on the neighbor's side. Whereas I actually find a bit of wild overgrown charming, they seem more the types to enjoy more precise and manicured plantings. Thus one day I went out there with my hedge trimmer intending to sheer the jasmine from the neighbor's side of the fence. The husband, who was outside at the time, saw me and came rushing over to tell me how much he and his wife enjoy the blooms and to ask me not to cut it back. I left it growing on both sides of the fence ever sense. It gets the most compliments of any of my garden aromas.

Although it's true that many people in Charleston grow lemon and lime trees, and I've even seen the occasional small orange tree here, I've never actually had the opportunity to smell orange blossoms. They sound fabulous, but I can understand how even a good thing can be too much in some cases. As to your allergies, I think the tree pollen is fairly dominant right now (at the time of the wisteria). I was surprised to learn that even something as ubiquitous as oak is a major allergen which adversely effects millions.

Lilacs is one fragrance I miss - can't grow them in Florida, but had several in the yard in Missouri - YUM!

Oh how I wished I could keep Brunfelsia alive. Kevin gave me a couple when Becky and I were able to visit with him while road tripping to FL years ago. When they bloomed - I remember thinking surely heaven smells like this. But they didn't make it. I'm half considering giving it another shot...and attempting to plant it in the ground a couple of feet in front of my house. Between the brick and the south facing - I've managed to keep other things alive that weren't really hardy here.

If anyone knows where I could purchase that flor de loroco at and a good source for a decent sized Brunfelsia please let me know. ^_^

Chantell, I got my flor de loroco at J.R.N 's nursery in Houston. They don't have a website. You should see this place, every tropical edible imagined, lots of orchids, exotics and bonsai. I don't know if they ship either. I just gave away my last cuttings and will make more this summer. I would be more than happy to send you one if you like. Just D mail me to set up or however. I'm new at DG so I not sure how the process work. I'm just thrilled that you want to try this plant.

Chantell, if you get a cutting from ytnpham, and it grows for you, I'd love a cutting of yours!!!

What is ytnpham?

Kay - that's a DGer's name - see post 2 up from your's

Well, DUH on me!

OH puhlez....you've seen MY posts over the years...I'm the queen of duh...seriously

LOL I'm 'blonde', ya know! (ya, right!!!).

I have lots of fragrant flowers, but nothing beats the colony of common milkweed I let grow in my garden. It blooms in the summer, and if you deadhead, will rebloom. I control the population by pulling them outside of the clump I allow.

I do the same. Love it! And it's a butterfly magnet for sure.

What is the best fragrant cultivar of milkweed for a garden?

The common milkweed pictured above, Asclepias syriaca, is one I grow and know to be nicely fragrant. It can be a bit of a thug unless you keep it pulled but I don't find it difficult to pull. Asclepias speciosa is fragrant as well. Many of the others have no fragrance at all. I grow A. curassavica for the Monarch butterfly cats to eat and it has no fragrance. It's lovely and colorful in bloom though.

Do they handle drought ok? Do they need a lot of care? I'm thinking of adding them to my "awful front hill", which is a steep hill, mostly sunny, with fairly poor soil -- and I don't plan to water it much.