Perfume in the Garden

One of the favorite garden flowers for scent is the sweet pea. The vanilla fragrance is sweet and clean and this annual comes in bush or vine types. They make wonderful cut flowers and are available in both single and mixed colors. Sweet peas don’t perform well in hot temperatures. Another annual grown for its fragrant flowers is nicotiana or flowering tobacco. The white flowers are tubular and they open towards evening when they give off their intense, musky fragrance. Nicotiana is especially striking in a night garden.

Don’t overlook herbs as a source of perfume for the garden. Most herbs such as lavender, mint, lemon verbena, rosemary and scented geraniums release their aroma when the leaves are bruised or brushed. This would make them good candidates for patios or doorways where you are more likely to brush against them.

If you want to keep the perfume in your garden, position your containers in a site that is sheltered from the wind. A warm wall is also a good backdrop for containers because warmth encourages scent. And raising your fragrant plants in hanging baskets or growing them on vines will get the scent closer to your nose. Containers are a good way to manage the fragrance in your garden because you can move them to where the scent can be enjoyed.

Filling your garden with plant perfumes can transform even the smallest patio or yard into a garden of scentual delights.

This article is part of the Suite101 "Container Gardening" topic area. For the other Suite101 articles and discussion forums on Container Gardening, see the Welcome Page on Suite101.

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