With dozens of beautiful blossoms strutting their stuff to lure the best pollinators, standing out in a crowd takes more than flash and a bit of ruffles.
To beat the competition, you need a dash of color, a touch of allure and a rich, heavenly perfume.
Scented plants are darlings of the garden, beloved by humans and insects alike. What lures pollinators to blossom after blossom is also what captures human hearts, imprinting them with memories. A garden, after all, is more than flowers and foliage — and the nose knows the power of a bloom.
Designing for fragrance
To make the most of your scented garden, lend an eye to designing for your nose by placing fragrant plants where you can enjoy them. Fragrant shrubs, earthy pines and sweet scented vines coax visitors down pathways and along borders. Strolling a garden filled with scent is a perfect way to doff the day’s stress.
To avoid sensory overload, plan a path that winds into different scented areas to avoid sensory overload. Add surprises that punctuate each area instead of overwhelming them.
Use warm south- or west-facing walls and fences to best advantage by placing scented plants nearby. The warmth the barriers release as the evening cools will waft aromas from flowers and leaves.
Where borders meet sidewalk, pop in low-growing annuals like sweet alyssum or dianthus to treat passers-by to their honey perfume — or add taller showstoppers, like phlox or scented iris, nearby.
Arches covered in vines are a perfect transition from patio to garden. Roses, clematis, honeysuckle or wisteria that wind overhead will shower fragrance and hint at the garden beyond. The more vigorous climbers get large, so be sure the arch is strong and firmly secured to the ground.
A touch of realism
Though a floral fragrance is intriguing on a gentle summer breeze, in Colorado that breeze is usually at least 35 mph and blowing all the way to Kansas. To make the most of a few scented plants, create an intimate seating area out of the wind.
Small shrubs such as Carol Mackie Daphne, David Austin series roses, climbing vines and perennials can turn an outdoor sitting area into an oasis. Give them a bit of help from containers of scented plants like jasmine, night-scented stock, scented geraniums or flowering tobacco.
Entryways are one place where scent has an immediate impact, giving visitors a lift before they enter your home. If your entryway is wind-sheltered, you’ve got a perfect scent grotto. Pop in hyacinths, daffodils and lilacs for spring; mix with roses, phlox, and monarda for summer.
Shrubs planted near windows will double as air fresheners when breezes float the perfume indoors. Citrusy mockorange with its orangey notes is a delight. Lilac offers a traditional touch. And planted in a slightly protected eastern exposure, burkwood viburnums (Viburnum x. burkwoodii) give off an intoxicating scent.
The star of scents
Not all plants are highly perfumed; many have lost their scent to hybridizing. But these will get you started.
Though lavender is lovely and butterflies love monarda, the king of the scented garden is the rose.
“Roses are ancient — they’ve been used for scent since Cleopatra’s time,” says Carol Macon, consulting Rosarian with the Denver Rose Society. “So they have a mystique. But they’re the king for other reasons too. Very few plants bloom all season, but some varieties of the rose will bloom off and on all summer.”
Even old garden roses that might bloom just once per year make a big impact with scent, says Macon, who has grown them for more than 40 years. “Rosa damascena — the damask rose — will just knock your socks off in bloom.”
Modern hybrids like the Austin series give old garden roses a fresh look but keep the perfume. For the most fragrant of the scented roses, nothing beats Evelyn, named for the Crabtree & Evelyn company, makers of fine perfumes, lotions and soaps. The peachy-pink blossoms capture your heart.
Though not many climbing roses that thrive in Colorado have scent, Macon suggests using the larger shrub roses on arbors. Graham Thomas gets very big, with sweet yellow blooms that give off a spicy perfume. Or try Darlowe’s Enigma, a hybrid covered with petite white blooms with a sweet scent.
Supporting cast
No fragrant garden is complete without lavender, a staple of the scented scene. Hardy English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) offers hundreds of varieties to choose from and thrives in Colorado, blooming twice a season. Lavandin, a hybrid cross, is also hardy here, is larger and blooms late in the season.
Fragrant honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) climbs readily, and the sprays of yellow, orange or orange-red blossoms provide a sweet, honey spice to the air. The vine gets large, so give it support and room to roam. (Not all honeysuckles have scent; look for Hall’s or Goldflame.)
The small, white blooms of Sweet Autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora) are richly perfumed with a spicy-sweet scent. But don’t let the diminutive flowers fool you into thinking this will be a petite plant; Sweet Autumn grows rampantly. Crown seating areas with an arbor of this clematis.
Shrubs get in on the act, with mockorange, butterfly bush, curry plant and viburnums giving shows that delight the senses. Carol Mackie Daphne has a clove-like fragrance on a mound of variegated leaves.
Summer’s heat brings out the best in perennials like agastache, with licorice and bubblegum scents. Plant the chocolate-scented bloomers, like chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata) with their brownie-like odor, then pop in nepeta, monarda, lilies or santolina around garden beds.
Read Carol O’Meara on her blog .
