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What are the strongest scented flowers in your yard?

 
steward & bricolagier
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The title sums it up... I just walked by flowers sent to my mom that came from a florist. Zero scent.
What are your strongest scented flowers? I need to plant some that smell much better than the vase on the table.

botanic-gardens-may20-12-1222.jpg
Real flowers!!
Real flowers!!
 
pollinator
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Lilies-of-the-valley; such a big scent from such tiny flowers!

And peonies also, though the flower size matches the scent for those.
 
pollinator
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Lilac.  I just love the smell of them this time of year when I'm walking around.
 
pollinator
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One of the natives that we have everywhere smells amazing, particularly at dawn and dusk. Common name buck brush, botanical name ceanothus cuneatus. One that I plant is nicotiana, amazing smells in the evening.
 
steward
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Right now we have Lilacs, Lily Of The Valley, and Narcissus.

Here’s a Narcissus picture.

narcissus.jpeg
narcissus
narcissus
 
gardener
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Night-blooming jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) is one of my favorites, I’ve tried to plant them alongside all of our pathways. Also mirtle (mirtus communis L.) and sweet acacia (Vachellia farnesiana) which we also use as drop and mulch and even perfume! My all time favorite is palo santo (Bursera graveolens) which is a big tree and when in bloom the whole place smells other worldly but the oily wood gives a constant smell, and when burnt!! We gather fallen sticks and branches whenever we can.
 
pollinator
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hyacinth, peony, lily of the valley, lilac...
also, some of the hostas and daylilies (one of the night-blooming ones for sure).
 
steward and tree herder
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We have lots of native dog violets here; zero scent.  Last year I gave in and bought some viola odorata and they have flowered for me this year - so gorgeous!  It's usually too windy to appreciate the scents of flowers until you get really close. Rosa rugosa is heavenly. Mine are white because I prefer the colour, but I think the pink ones have stronger scent.  They are often planted here near sceptic tanks....
 
master pollinator
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Wild roses
Moonflower, of the datura family. The only thing I introduced to my place that only has the use of "Pretty!"

https://dengarden.com/gardening/How-to-Grow-Datura
 
master pollinator
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Rosa rugosa, hyancinths, and choisya, Mexican orange blossom. I doubt it's seriously cold hardy, but it does fine here in our UK zone 8 garden. Not much use for anything but forming a dense evergreen hedge about 4' high and the scent, but the scent is heavenly and it has a long flowering period here! Oh, bees love it too! And Wikipedia (where I went to check the spelling!) tells me it could have some herbal uses for reducing pain perception, which I wasn't aware of.
 
gardener
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Do tree flowers count?

Magnolia Figo makes my entire front garden and drive way smell like a flower shop.

 
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Confederate jasmine, gardenia, citrus blossoms

When the citrus and jasmine are blooming together, my whole yard smells like heaven.
 
Nikki Corey
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I forgot yarrow. I think it has a lovely sweet honey scent.
 
pollinator
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Two days ago it was the Arum Dracunculus Vulgaris. Today I'm not sure, may be a bit nose blind:)
 
pollinator
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I have a large jasmine planted along our west property line, they fill the area with a very strong fragrance, just wonderful for about a month now.
In the early months of the year the orange and lemon blossoms have a powerful but lovely fragrance.
Of all the flowers we grow, these are the strongest.
 
pollinator
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We have ceanothus velutinus here and absolutely I love the spicy smell that completely takes over on a sunny day.

Mock orange and hyacinth are some more of my favourites.

Pretty soon the bearded irises will bloom and those always smell nice, too. Not as strong as the mock orange or ceanothus, though.

Every year I buy a few pansies in fun colours to interbreed and naturalize with the wild ones.right now I have so many blooming that they're quite fragrant. And the leaves are one of my favourite early spring edibles.
IMG_20210513_084453202_HDR.jpg
Still pretty close to originals
Still pretty close to originals
IMG_20210513_084406464_HDR.jpg
After a couple generations
After a couple generations
 
gardener
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they’re past now, but goumi has to be up there. so sweet!
 
Jan White
pollinator
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Ah! Let's not forget the permaculture darling, black locust. When our grove blooms almost half a kilometre from the house, we can smell it.

The flowers make a delicious tea, as well. I've used a ginger bug to ferment the tea into a very fancy fizzy drink, too.
 
gardener
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Antique Roses. There are several varieties you can find online, or find someone with a really old farmhouse, and they may have some around. We bought an old farm house and there was a light pink antique rose growing here. It is much looser than modern roses, but the scent is amazing and powerful. A couple small roses will fill a van with fragrance. Modern roses don't smell like anything, but these are incredible.
pt_1593476543216.jpeg
roses
roses
 
pollinator
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howdy,
The fragrance of the Pacific Madrone, flowering this time of the year, is overwhelming.
 
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Korean Spice Viburnum (viburnum carlesii) and Viburnum x Burkwoodii — very similar shrubs that bloom super early & their scent is overwhelming.
 
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The only flowers I even have right now are dandelions and chives lol!
 
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Image by Andrew Waugh Daphne plants, also called winter daphne or fragrant daphne,

Read more at Gardening Know How: Growing Winter Daphne Plants: Care For Winter Daphne https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/winter-daphne/care-for-winter-daphne.htm
 
Joe Grand
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Fragrant Tea Olive Tree
Osmanthus fragrans
184 reviews
SHRUBS & HEDGES
Fragrant Tea Olive TreeFragrant Tea Olive Tree
 
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Everyone can laugh, but I have a horseradish plant covered in clusters of little white flowers. Heavenly, delicate fragrance. They get the prize in my garden right now.
 
Joe Grand
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Fragrant Honeysuckle January Jasmine Sweet Breath Of Spring Sweetest Honeysuckle Winter-flowering Honeysuckle Winter Honeysuckle
The Breath of Spring was the first plant to bloom in Spring & it smelled wonderful after the cold winter.
 
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M James wrote:The only flowers I even have right now are dandelions and chives lol!



Stick your nose into a dandelion that has just reached the perfectly-bloomed stage... they have a lovely scent, if too faint to carry.
 
gardener
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It used to be a California lilac shrub before I accidentally and so sadly killed it by pruning at the wrong time of the year. It had a wonderful sweet but not overpowering scent you could smell throughout the yard AND you could hear it too! That bush constantly sounded like a low hum because of all the bees that visited it. They LOVED it.

Currently the strongest and best smelling flower in my yard are the apple blossoms, especially the tree we grew from seed that has clouds of bright pink blossoms covering it.
 
Jenny Wright
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The chive flowers have a pretty strong scent too but I think the smell actually comes from my children chewing on them all the day long.
 
gardener
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On one side of the house honeysuckle and jasmine smell amazing. On the outside is roses. You don't even have to stop to smell the rose, they are so amazing you can smell them when you're walking by.  They have gardenia bushes I walk by at work always smell so good.  I always wanted to grow one. I had a couple die on me. I finally got one to not only stay alive, but it started to grow.  Then my dad weed wacked it down. 😬 Oops.  I tried again in the same area, a my father in law mowed it down.  At that point I decided I just wasn't meant to have one.  The helpful and we'll meaning father's are both gone now, maybe I should try again.
 
Liv Smith
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This time of the year, Honeysuckle, and very soon, the buds are almost opening, Mock orange, and Rosa Rugosa.

The yard is filled with all these beautiful fragrances.

Here is Honeysuckle in bloom:

honeysuckle.jpeg
honeysuckle
honeysuckle
 
pollinator
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I have a rose that has one of the absolute best "rose" scents of any I've ever encountered. Mme Isaac Pereire (pink), if I moved I would absolutely make sure I had a rooted cutting before I left! The blooms are stunning too. Next best is growing next to it and is Darlow's Enigma (white).
IMG_20210517_154849343_HDR.jpg
[Thumbnail for IMG_20210517_154849343_HDR.jpg]
rose
image.jpeg
[Thumbnail for image.jpeg]
 
Liv Smith
steward
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And here is Rosa Rugosa. Not only beautiful to look at, also wonderfully fragrant.

rosa-rugosa.jpeg
rosa rugosa
rosa rugosa
 
Joe Grand
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I am looking at getting Swamp azalea, witch hazel & wild rose.
 
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Interesting, all the strongest smells so far have been invasives. first autumn olive, then multiflora and now Japanese honeysuckle. There are low native roses blooming now but i only occasionally catch their scent whereas the multifloras were really potent, and pleasant. Of planted flowers, peonies but those are done now and were never --I mean, you have to pick one and sniff it
 
gardener
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For me right now that would be the flowers of my Black Locust trees which are all in full bloom.  Tasty too!

Black-Locust1.JPG
Black Locust tree in full bloom.
Black Locust tree in full bloom.
Black-Locust2.JPG
Close up shot of Black Locust flowers.
Close up shot of Black Locust flowers.
 
gardener
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My sister is very sensitive to flower scents and while our white mist flower blooms she has to avoid that corner of the yard. I like the scent and so do the Monarchs.

I also grow copper canyon daisy which has very strongly scented foliage.  And small yellow flowers in the fall.  

I consider some good greenery to be important in a floral arrangement.  You can always put a few herb stems in to add extra scent.
 
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Honeysuckle , rosa rugosa, and of course lavender!
20220604_074549.jpg
[Thumbnail for 20220604_074549.jpg]
 
gardener
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Joylynn Hardesty wrote:the datura family. The only thing I introduced to my place that only has the use of "Pretty!"



I have a use you might like. I move tomato/tobacco hornworms from my tomatoes, on to other nightshades they can eat. Like datura!

Some people here in the desert SW advocated killing the tomato hornworms to "lower their population".  We've moved them and we had far fewer on the tomatoes the next year.  Our other friends who kill them still complain they get a lot of them.
 
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My gardenia just got its first bloom of the year and it smells incredible!
 
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