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Planting a variety of fragrant plants in your garden can surround you with sweet, comforting smells. These natural scents can improve mood and encourage relaxation, acting as backyard aromatherapy. Additionally, they attract essential pollinators like bees and butterflies, supporting your garden’s ecosystem.
If you’re searching for sweet-smelling flowers for your garden, here are 16 options.
Korean Spice Viburnum
The Korean Spice Viburnum is a striking shrub that enjoys partial to full sun exposure. What sets this shrub apart is its powerful fragrance, which adds a delightful sensory experience to any garden. Zones 4 to 8.
Lavender
Known for its striking purple hue and soothing scent, lavender is a magnet for butterflies and an ideal choice for those seeking low-maintenance beauty. It has the most amazing scent and makes a garden smell wonderful. Thriving in sunlight and requiring minimal water, it’s perfect for easy-care gardens.
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Wisteria
With its stunning drapes of lilac-blue flowers, Wisteria is a fast-growing vine that requires significant support and patience as it takes years to establish.
Azaleas
Azaleas dazzle with spring blooms in vivid shades, some varieties offering foliage that lasts all year. They enjoy slightly acidic, well-drained soil and can brighten both sunny and partially shaded spots.
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Phlox
Known for its clusters of flowers and ability to attract pollinators with its nectar. This sweet-smelling flower is a must-have in any garden.
Butterfly Bush (Buddleja Davidii)
True to its name, this bush attracts butterflies with fragrant flowers from summer to fall. It prospers in full sun and well-drained soil, reaching up to 10 feet tall in zones 5-9.
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Lilac
Well-known for their fragrant and colorful spring blooms, lilacs require full sun and well-drained soil. Regular pruning ensures they bloom beautifully year after year.
Sweet Alyssum
This plant forms blankets of fragrant flowers in shades of white, rose, lavender, or purple. It’s a low-maintenance, cool-season annual, perfect for edgings, flower beds, and containers, thriving in full to partial shade.
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Daffodil
The quintessential sign of spring, daffodils bring vibrant yellow, orange, and white blooms to your garden. They enjoy full to partial shade and well-drained soil, growing up to 30 inches tall.
Moonflower
Opening its large, white, trumpet-shaped flowers at night, the moonflower is ideal for moon gardens, where its fragrance intensifies after dark. It thrives in full sun and moist, well-drained soil.
Peony
This old-fashioned, low-maintenance plant offers densely packed blooms perfect for cutting. Not all varieties are fragrant, but the double, white-and-pink peonies are among the most aromatic.
Honeysuckle
An excellent choice for attracting wildlife, honeysuckle thrives in most conditions, preferring full sun and soil enriched with organic matter.
Rose (Rosa spp.)
Each rose variety has its unique scent, ranging from citrusy to musky. However, not all roses are fragrant; some are bred more for their looks. Checking the plant’s tag or doing a sniff test before purchasing is wise.
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Sweet Pea
Known for their potent fragrance, heirloom varieties like Cupani are especially aromatic, making them a delightful addition to any garden.
Mock Orange
This plant offers a refreshing citrus fragrance without the hassle of caring for fruit trees. Despite its name, the real attraction is its scent, not its color. It thrives in full to partial shade and well-drained soil.
Hyacinth
With care, you’ll enjoy beautiful and fragrant hyacinth blooms in spring. They can be grown indoors by forcing the bulbs or planted outdoors in well-drained soil.
Jasmine (Jasminum spp.)
Jasmine’s star-shaped flowers fill the garden with their sweet fragrance for months. This rapidly growing vine is perfect for covering walls or fences or can be trimmed into a fragrant hedge.