Seems like so many of the fragrants are tropical...we have lilacs, lily of the valley, and butterfly bushes - can we grow any other fantastic smelling perennials or shrubs?
Any for zone 5?
Hey Shelley!!! Gosh I wish I could help you out here - but you're a zone and a half colder then I. I'm not sure how many of us here are in zone 5 or colder. Maybe Sunny/SunnyBorders will notice this thread and provide some helpful suggestions for you. I'll dmail here with this thread.
I don't have that many fragrant's in my outdoor garden, but I have a large clethra which smells wonderful, a few different bee balms, an assortment of scented day Lillis, peonys, pinks, apple blossoms are one of my faves, roses, lavender ....I'm sure I have more but its hard to remember what's out there when its under 2 feet of snow, lol! I also grow lots of annuals...4 o clocks, nicotinas, corkscrew vines, sweet pea
Oh and don't forget the many fragrant lilium varieties...trumpets, Ots, and oriental lilies. Many colors to suit any color palate.
I forgot honeysuckle! and apparently some hostas are very fragrant but I've yet to find one ;-)
We have quite a thread going over in Mid-Atlantic on fragrant plants in our gardens worth taking a look.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/939331/
I am in zone 5 and hang with that group a lot.
Batflower, look for "Honeybells" Hosta it smells wonderful.
Oriental lilies are the best!
!!Chris!! Silly me...I should've dmailed YOU too!!! Gracious we've got a great bunch, dont' we?!!!
great thread lady,
thanks for sharing. I forgot all about spring bulbs,fragrant tulips, dafodils, hyacinths ...Muscari Golden Fragrance is my favorite. can't wait for spring!
Crab apple in full bloom
This message was edited Jan 12, 2009 10:09 AM
my daughter buried in lilacs
that pic was taken 2 springs ago. Last summer, she made the largest of our lilacs into a little "fort" this is a tea party in the lilac fort
What utterly adorable pics!!!
Hostas, I have hosta "fragrant bouquet" -- a delicious fragrance. Day lily hybrids, orienpet lilies, some irises, roses, heptacodium miconoides (seven sons bush), mock orange (mmmmmmmm), sweet peas, hyacinth bean, nicotiana, lavender, sweet woodruff, datura metel (HUGE white flowers, very fragrant), some azaleas and rhododendrons (Northern Lights series), honeysuckles, witch hazel, tree lilacs, thymes, phlox, oenothera (sun drops), wisteria, hardy kiwi, chocolate vine, cinnamon vine, silver lace vine, peonies, autumn clematis.
Go to a nursery like http://www.bigdipperfarm.com/ that categorizes plants broadly. Look through their fragrant plants. Look at the zone ratings. You will find plenty of fragrant plants for zone 5. :)
If you look around your property for microclimates, you may be able to stick in a zone six or even zone seven plant (with protection). :)
-Joe
Chantell ... BOO!
:P
-Joe
Hmmm should've definitely thought you you, my fellow fragrance freak...not to mention you're the king of zone pushing...LOL (my brick front has become my gardenia's best friend)
This message was edited Jan 12, 2009 11:16 AM
Brian and Hikaro_takayama are the kings. Henry10 is up there too. I am but a simple student.
-Joe
Hmmm I'll need to "find" them and learn - she says after dumping FIVE bags of mulch over copious amts of coffee grounds on her front yard
I know what I know, but bwilliams, hikaro, and henry have been at this a lot longer than me. :) Those coffee grounds should do WONDERS for your gardenias. :)
-Joe
Yes Starbucks has become a close friend!! Yard smells pretty good too....ok, Shelly promise I'm done hijacking your poor thread now...
Back on topic, hardy water lilies and lotuses, clethra (summersweets), some daphnes and abelias, carolina allspice, magnolias, some coneflowers.
In the annuals there are lots of wonderful flowers with delightful fragrance. Just follow your nose through the nursery flats. :)
For something really exotic, if you have an attached garage try keeping a smaller potted gardenia like Kleim's Hardy or Chuck Hayes. Take it outside in the spring, bring it in when temps go below the teens in the fall. Water minimally (allow to dry almost completely) in the garage.
You can also use this technique with confederate jasmine and several species of palms.
-Joe
Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions.
Carnations/dianthus/sweet william, cleome ...
There really are lots. :)
Thank you. :)
-Joe
Batflower, what a darling little girl you have, I bet she will be a gardener too, I just loved to play in the flowers and hide in the tall ones when I was little.
I have been tempted to order some Muscari Golden Fragrance but never got around to it, I may have to this fall on your recommendation LOL
Joe, what an impressive list!
Another one for spring is the Honey Locust Trees, they are messy, and always picking up broken branches in the yard, but the scent is wonderful!
Shelley
Am in zone 5A. Only really winter hardy roses here are shrub roses. Some are very fragrant. I read: Jens Monk, Cuthbert Grant, Therese Bugnet and Frau Dagmar Hastrup are very fragrant. You're better off in 5B. The Canadian Rose Society says the most fragrant roses for zones 5-6 are: Fragrant Cloud, Double Delight, Evelyn, Graham Thomas and Mr Lincoln.
I don't know much re. shrubs, but have seen Daphne (D. burkwoodi, D. cneorum and D. mezereum doing well here), as well as Viburnum juddii. V.carlesii should also be OK and is also fragrant.
Grow a number of fragrant perennials including: carnations, pinks and sweet william, hybrid Arabis, evening primrose, perennial honesty, medium and large phlox and, of course, lavender. Have grown: Hesperis and sweet valerian, also fragrant, but Hesperis is a thug and sweet valerian seeds around too much for me. Also for aromatic foliage, I've used hybrid beebalm, Salvia cultivars, yarrow and artemesia.
There is also honeysuckle, some fragrant peonies, a few fragrant clematis and some fragrant iris. I got Iris germanica 'Feedback' last year and it is fragrant.
My friend at Merlin's Hollow, Aurora (zone 5A), also has in the fragrant garden: spring bulbs (e.g. hyacinths, iris damfordii, some daffodils (eg. Trevithian) and puschkinia). I'm still not sure whether puschkinia is too much of a seeder or not. He also has herbs (often need crushing to smell - viz. thyme lawn) and a few very fragrant annuals (e.g Nicotenia Sylvestris, stocks, four-oclocks and heliotrope).
He also made some useful generalizations. These include: most fragrant plants need sunshine. Another is that older varieties of plants tend to be more fragrant than newer ones. Hence, some of the old petunias are fragrant and selection for smaller phlox, for smaller gardens, seems to be reducing fragrance.
Some have noted Lilium re. fragrance. A warning: I read recently a veterinary report: the pollen of lilies has been documented to be very painfully lethal to cats that ingest it from their fur. Cats brushing against easter lily flowers, on tables inside, have been mentioned.
I was eager to read everyone's suggestions to see what I've missed!
I also like the fragrance of many Orienpet and Oriental lily. Not all OT are fragrant IMHO.
Hosta Plantaginea has fragrant but few blooms
No one mentioned a shrub that smells delicious in bloom in spring called ribes odoratum
Variegated bearded iris smell like grape jelly in bloom
Pinks in spring, Sweet Autumn clematis in the fall
Artemisia 'Silver mound' has woodsy scented foliage when touched.
Lemon scented geranium in nice to touch as an inside plant our out in the garden:)
The iris in the picture (perhaps' Immortality') has rebloomed once and smells heavenly.
karen 5a IL
I have hosta "fragrant bouquet". I love it. I get decent flowering, and the heavenly fragrance carries for yards on the evening breeze.
Good call on buffalo currant (ribes odoratum). I would add sambucus nigra "Black Lace", http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56964/ for form, color, and fragrance. I installed two last year. :)
Some aquilegia (columbines), some coneflowers, delphinium, four o'clocks.
Garden stock has wonderful fragrance too, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=Matthiola&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&searcher%5Bgrex%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=with&Search=Search :)
-Joe
Joe - if your hosta produces any babies would you keep me in mind, please...have a perfect place for it