A scent or aroma garden is a treat for all the senses. There are some fragrant and strong-smelling plants. A small list of some aromatic plants should help you with the selection.

Fragrance and aroma garden

In such gardens, the focus is on the different scents and aromas of the individual aromatic plants. In such plants, in addition to the flowers, the leaves or bark can also exude special aromas. A scent or aroma garden is not only a sensual experience, it also attracts many insects such as butterflies, bees and bumblebees. Fragrant and intensely smelling flowers should not only be placed near seating areas, but planted throughout the garden. There are many fragrant plants that bloom at different times of the year and day. Below we have listed some intensely smelling aromatic plants .

Note: When planting a wide variety of scented plants, the range and strength of the scents emitted by the individual plants should always be taken into account.

Fragrant shrubs & trees

Trees and shrubs can emit scents through their flowers, leaves and bark.

Chinese Winterblüte (Chimonanthus praecox)

  • Growth: Small shrub, upright, sparse
  • Growth height: 200 to 300 cm
  • Flowering period: January to March and November to December
  • Flowers: Yellow, cup-shaped single flowers, 2.5 cm long, strongly scented with vanilla
  • Leaves: elliptic to ovate or lanceolate, small bristles on the surface, green

Echtes Geißblatt, Jelängerjelieber (Lonicera caprifolium)

  • Growth: upright, twining
  • Growth height: 300 to 600 cm
  • Flowering period: May to June
  • Flowers: cylindrical, yellowish-white inside, reddish outside, fragrant in the evening hours
  • Leaves: elliptic to broadly ovate, 10 cm, dark green, deciduous
  • Special feature: requires climbing aid , suitable for tubs, insect-friendly

Gardenie (Gardenia jasminoides)

  • Growth: bushy, small shrub
  • Growth height: 50 to 60 cm
  • Flowering period: July to October
  • Flowers: Creamy white, slightly double cup-shaped flowers, 10 to 12 cm in size, strongly scented
  • Leaves: oval, leathery, 6 to 7 cm, glossy dark green, evergreen
  • Special feature: Use as a house and container plant, outdoors in summer

Jasmin (Jasminum)

  • Growth: Shrub or climber, loose, upright
  • Growth height: 150 to 250 cm
  • Flowering period: December to April (winter jasmine), May to August (real jasmine)
  • Flowers: white, yellow or pink, strongly scented
  • Leaves: medium green, deciduous or evergreen, pinnate, tripartite or single

Common lilac (Syringa vulgaris)

  • Habit: Large shrub, upright, densely branched
  • Growth height: 400 to 600 cm
  • Flowering period: May to June
  • Flowers: blue-violet, in panicles, up to 20 cm long, strongly scented
  • Leaves: Broadly ovate, 12 cm long, fresh green, deciduous
  • Special feature: There are some cultivated forms in different colors.

Cider gum (Eucalyptus gunnii)

  • Habit: shrub, sometimes small trees, upright, multi-stemmed
  • Growth height: 200 to 500 cm
  • Flowering period: December to February
  • flowers: inconspicuous, white, ball-shaped, in clusters
  • Leaves: Roundish to lanceolate, silver-blue to blue-green, evergreen, fragrant

Rose (Pink)

  • Growth: Shrub, climbing plant, standard stem, stem and twigs with thorns
  • Growth height: 20 to 400 cm depending on the variety
  • Flowering period: May to September
  • Flowers: Single flowers or clusters of flowers, shape, size, colors vary depending on the variety
  • Leaves: fivefold, pinnate, deciduous
  • Special feature: There are dwarf roses, bush and bed roses, shrub roses, hybrid tea roses, climbing roses , historical roses, wild roses.

Nice smelling perennials

There are also some perennials whose flowers develop fine fragrances, not only during the day, but also in the evening and at night.

Burning Bush, Diptam (Dictamnus albus)

  • Growth: clump-forming, woody base, upright
  • Growth height: 60 to 100 cm
  • Flowering period: June to July
  • Flowers: terminal in racemes, white, pink, wonderful lemon aroma
  • Leaves: Pinnate, ovate to lanceolate, green
Note: The plant contains volatile, fragrant, essential oils. When there is no wind, these can easily be ignited without harming the plants.

Noble peonies (Paeonia lactiflora hybrids)

  • Growth: bushy, upright
  • Growth height: 50 to 110 cm
  • Flowering period: May to June
  • Flowers: bowl-shaped, densely filled, white, pink, red, fragrant
  • Leaves: in threes, coarse, glossy, elliptical, dark green

Indianernessel (Monarda)

  • Growth: bushy, upright
  • Growth height: 35 to 100 cm
  • Flowering period: July to August
  • Flowers: ball-shaped, red and violet, strongly scented
  • Leaves: Broadly lanceolate, serrate margin, acuminate, green, finely hairy

Rotstängelige Nachtkerze (Oenothera tetragona)

  • Growth: clump-forming, upright, partly red stalks
  • Growth height: 40 to 50 cm
  • Flowering period: June to August
  • Flowers: cup-shaped, bright yellow, fragrant during the evening hours and at night
  • Leaves: broadly lanceolate, entire, smooth, shiny, dark green

Chocolate Flower, Chocolate Cosmos (Cosmos atrosanguineus)

  • Growth: forming rosettes, upright
  • Growth height: 40 to 60 cm
  • Flowering period: July to October
  • Flowers: Capicules with tubular ray florets, red-brown, strong aroma of dark chocolate
  • Leaves: pinnate, lanceolate, green

Miracle Flower (Mirabilis jalapa)

  • Growth: upright, dense
  • Growth height: 60 to 100 cm
  • Flowering period: June to October
  • Flowers: in panicles, yellow, orange, red and pink, fragrant
  • Leaves: ovate to rounded, pointed, green
Note: The flowers only open in the afternoon and exude a lovely scent. The next morning they are closed again or withered.

Fragrant annual summer flowers

There are also a few annual summer flowers that can enchant the senses with their fragrance.

Sweet pea, sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus)

  • Growth: herbaceous, climbing plant
  • Growth height: 50 to 150 cm
  • Flowering period: June to September
  • Flowers: Butterfly-like single flowers, clustered together, violet, orange, pink, red, white, fragrant
  • Leaves: pinnate, pointed, light green to grey-green
  • Special feature: trellis required

Gartenlevkoje (Matthiola incana)

  • Growth: semi-shrub, taproot, dense, bushy, upright
  • Growth height: 20 to 80 cm
  • Flowering period: June to September
  • Flowers: double or single, in long panicles, white, violet, yellow, red, pink, strong scent of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and vanilla
  • Leaves: lanceolate, entire, green, hairy grey-white
  • Special feature: flowers open in the evening hours

Gartennelke (Dianthus caryophyllus)

  • Growth: upright, bushy
  • Growth height: 20 to 40 cm
  • Flowering period: June to September
  • Flowers: double, white, pink, red, yellow, multicolored, strongly scented
  • leaves: entire, linear to lanceolate, blue-green

Vanilleblume (Heliotropium arborescens)

  • Growth: semi-shrub, upright, bushy
  • Growth height: 20 to 60 cm
  • Flowering period: May to September
  • Flowers: Individual flowers in cymes, violet/blue, strong vanilla scent
  • Leaves: oval, acuminate, green
Note: In this country, these aromatic plants are grown annually. But it can also be overwintered in bright light at 12 to 18 degrees.

Beguiling smelling onion bloomers

Onion bloomers are good companions throughout the garden year and some of them exude an intoxicating scent. Many of the colorful spring flowers get us in the mood for mild temperatures and the start of the gardening season.

Freesien (Freesia x hybrida)

  • Growth: upright, narrow, not hardy
  • Growth height: 25 to 40 cm
  • Flowering period: July to September
  • Flowers: Funnel-shaped single flowers, standing together in nodding spikes, white, red, yellow violet, orange, plant with a strong scent
  • Leaves: grassy, ​​narrow, long smooth-edged, green

Hyazinthen (Hyacinthus)

  • Growth: upright
  • Growth height: 15 to 30 cm
  • Flowering time: April to May
  • Flowers: Bell-shaped single flowers, clustered together, double or single, violet, blue, pink, white, red, yellow
  • Leaves: oblong, narrow, pointed, green

Lilien (Lilium)

  • Growth: herbaceous, upright
  • Growth height: 30 to 300 cm
  • Flowering period: May to September
  • Flowers: trumpet-shaped or cupped, several flowers in umbels or clusters together, many colors
  • leaves: basal or in whorls on the flower-stem, green

Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis)

  • Growth: herbaceous, upright
  • Growth height: 15 to 30 cm
  • Flowering time: March to June
  • Flowers: small bells in clusters, white, very fragrant
  • Leaves: lanceolate, long, usually two per plant, dark green
  • Special feature: poisonous!
Note: Although lilies of the valley do not have bulbs, but a rhizome, they are usually offered in garden centers as bulb bloomers.

Aromatic smelling herbs

Herbs belong in every aroma garden . Their scent often only really comes into its own when touching or crushing parts of the plant.

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)

  • Habit: semi-shrub, perennial
  • Growth height: 50 to 100 cm
  • Flowering period: May to September
  • Flowers: violet/blue, terminal in false spikes
  • Leaves: lanceolate, entire, needle-shaped, grey-green

Pfefferminze (Mentha x piperita)

  • Growth: herbaceous, persistent
  • Growth height: 30 to 90 cm
  • Flowering period: July to September
  • flowers: pink/purple, terminal in spikes
  • Leaves: elongate to ovate, jagged margin, green

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)

  • Habit: semi-shrub, bushy, upright, heavily branched
  • Growth height: 50 to 200 cm
  • Flowering time: March to April
  • Flowers: tubular lipped flowers, blue, white, pink
  • Leaves: smooth-edged, needle-shaped, glossy green above, grey-felted below, evergreen

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

  • Growth: upright, bushy, clump-forming
  • Growth height: 40 to 80 cm
  • Flowering period: June to August
  • flowers: in elongated false spikes, violet
  • Leaves: elliptic, velvety hairy, grey-green
  • Special feature: Only when the leaves are crushed does an aromatic scent escape.
Kira Bellingham

I'm a homes writer and editor with more than 20 years' experience in publishing. I have worked across many titles, including Ideal Home and, of course, Homes & Gardens. My day job is as Chief Group Sub Editor across the homes and interiors titles in the group. This has given me broad experience in interiors advice on just about every subject. I'm obsessed with interiors and delighted to be part of the Homes & Gardens team.

Similar Posts

Hollyhocks, Alcea rosea – sowing, planting and cutting

ByKira Bellingham

Although their name suggests otherwise, hollyhocks belong to the mallow family. With good care, the biennial, herbaceous plant can grow to a height of 2 to 3 meters and shows a luxuriant splendor of double or single flowers in the second year. During their flowering period, which lasts from July to October, the numerous varieties of hollyhocks…

Cut harlequin willow – when, how often and how !?

ByKira Bellingham

The harlequin willow is a willow and, like all willows, is characterized by powerful growth and growth speed. In the wild, that doesn’t matter because the pioneer plants colonize areas free of vegetation where they can spread without competition. You can certainly imagine the size of this pasture in the Hessian Kirchhain (Marburg-Biedenkopf district) with a trunk…

Bodnant snowball, winter snowball, scented snowball – care

ByKira Bellingham

Overall, this plant family of the Muskwort family is of interest to home gardeners, as it contains four genera with approximately 220 species of plants that are mainly found in the northern hemisphere, from temperate to subtropical latitudes. There are various snowballs that can cope with our climate because they developed under similar climatic conditions. You can…

Montbretien, Crocosmia – plants, care and propagation

ByKira Bellingham

Like so many plants, the Montbretia also have numerous other names, which often cause confusion among hobby gardeners. About 100 years ago, the delicate beauties were traded under the name Montbretia Aura. It was later renamed to the Latin name Crocosmia, which is common today. The old garden plants, which were already very popular in grandmother’s time, belong…

Kalmia latifolia, laurel rose, Kalmia – care

ByKira Bellingham

From the heather family of plants, a genus of flowering shrubs has emerged whose exquisite beauty and charisma is hard to beat. The laurel rose with the botanical name Kalmia latifolia grows very slowly, but in return produces beautiful, delicate flowers, each of which is a gem of nature. They are surrounded by shiny green leaves that…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *