Favorite Fragrant Flowers for me have 2 categories: those that I have grown over the years, and those that I haven't but still will stop to smell if I come across them. These are in no particular order, just listing as I think of them.
Everyone knows that roses smell wonderful, but do you know that some have almost NO scent? I've found that most flower shop roses have almost no scent. It's the heirloom/old roses that smell the best, and it's a good thing I like purple and all shades thereof, cuz I've found that the purple/lavender shades smell the best. (Did you ever think that a color could have a specific smell!) I've had red, orange, pink and purple/lavender roses. My old lavender
rose had double flowers, which means, for those who haven't advanced this far into nomenclature, means that the petals are twice as many, so it looks much fuller. It was heaven smelling those roses. You must try them, even just at the nursery if you have no inclination or space for growing your own.
As an aside, I have propagated roses from cuttings. I did a yellow variety, taking cuttings from a work location. They all seemed to mutate the flowers so that it looked like the flower was going to sprout more flowers from it's center. I didn't like it and killed them all or passed them on to my eldest daughter. Link to what they looked like
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-parade-rose-dwarf-type-with-flowers-showing-genetic-mutation-known-73160128.html
I moved into a place when I was much younger that had a lilac bush in the back, and it was the pale lavender color, and they smelled wonderful. I would collect the stems full of just flowering blossoms and hang them in the garage to dry to make potpourri with. I went through a major potpourri phase, collecting all sorts of goodies to put into my mixes, by the barrel full if I could get that much on my foraging expeditions!
Plumeria is one I've never grown, or at least not long
enough to get flowers. They all fail in my care. But Lordy how I love their scent. I look for it when hunting for a girly body spray, when I even do that.
Citrus blossoms ALWAYS smell fantastic. I have a small lemon tree and a tangerine that I cozy up to when they are in flower. If I didn't value the fruit as much I might add those to potpourris. I have, when I had access to larger
trees that were completely covered! My nose is sniffing as we speak, looking for these aromas as I write about them!!
My grandmother introduced me to Night Blooming Jasmine, the shrub, not vine. I was only about 5 or 6 when she would take me out with her to pluck just a stem or 3 to bring inside. To this day, nearly every house I've lived in I've planted one of these bushes in memory and honor of her and my time with her. Right now I have one that I purchased when we moved into this place planted outside our bedroom window. It was tiny when I got it and now, 8 years later, it's a monster that requires trimming back each year after the frosts we get kill it down a few feet. It always comes back with vigor. I'm currently in between zones 9a and 9b. The lines on the zone map are literally only about a block away.
Then there is the 2nd one I have grown from a cutting I took about 4 years ago, now planted at the front of the house (both are on the south-facing side of the house), it has become equally a monster, already as tall as the roof and as wide as a full window. Both are helping to block some of the hot summer sun in Inland Southern California. And both smell just heavenly when in bloom.
Grandma also introduced me to hyacinth. And stock. I prefer the smell of the stock. It's a wonderfully spicy in a sweet way sort of scent. I've grown both, but not currently.
There are also the Pink Ladies (as I know them), or Naked Ladies of Amaryllis Belladonna that smell gorgeous. These are a bulb flower and unusual in that they send up their leaves long before the flowers. The leaves actually die down before the flower stalk appears. I'm guessing that is the nature of the NAKED part of the common name. These for me are a Momma thing, and I have collected bulbs from abandoned locations where there used to be a home. I have them currently growing in 2 locations on this small property (think tiny
yard in a mobile home park). One is always shady and they do just fine there; the other is sunny for more than half the day in a hot, almost desert, climate.
Sweet Alyssum can be smelled from yards away, and it reseeds itself so easily that it seems
perennial. Of
course, loving all things purple, I choose those over the white almost every time I plant any. I don't currently have any in the yard.
Honeysuckle can be very invasive, and will easily take over the
fence you plant it by, and the trees near that
fence, and will climb right over any sheds or outbuildings you plant it by. But oh how I love the smell of the blossoms. My one honeysuckle was brought to me by Mom, who had paid 50 cents for the 3 cuttings in a small pot that looked so sad she had to bring it to me to save. And save it I did. I planted it in an out-of-the-way corner, in semi-shade, beside a chain link fence. It's survival seemed rather iffy the whole first year. Besides giving it
water and keeping other weeds away, I just left it to it's own devices. After 2 years there was no question about it's survival as it had begun it's conquest of the immediate area. Mom was happy and almost didn't recognize it for the sickly looking thing she had brought me.
The paper wasps we have loved making their nest in the deep shade of it's thickest parts, so I had to be careful around it. It seemed I had more paper wasps doing the pollination in my yard than
bees, so I let them do the job, mostly unmolested! We left each other alone, but only the nests that were not close to the house. Any attached to the underside of the eaves were eradicated and nests removed.
Butterfly bush is also a wonderful scent, and the things can also become quite the monsters of the yard. I had 2 at that honeysuckle house. One was an apology offering from Mom, within a week or 2 of getting one for myself. Both went into the area that became the
chicken yard, and they used the shade below in the sandy soil as their dust bath. Again, lavender and purple were the colors. I cut them back each year to keep the flowers coming and the overall size manageable.
I spent a few years in the desert of Yucca Valley/Joshua Tree California and while the scent isn't from a flower, the scent of the greasewoods in the presence of moisture (the infrequent rains) is a sweet smell that you will never forget. I live in the Hemet/San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, and the closest greasewoods (larrea tridentata) are out on the I-10 freeway heading to Palm Springs. My reason for giving my location is to say that I can smell them in this valley when the conditions are right; and I breathe in the scent deeply! When I drive out that way I try to stop and collect a few branches to bring home. It's a clean smell, and not like a bleach clean. I once read about a location that was proven to have only 1 plant covering many hundreds of square feet, though the surface looked like many hundreds of individual plants. Apparently larrea tridentata can and does propagate not only by seed, but by sending out
underground shoots. Amazing!
There are many kinds of lavender to grow. I prefer the English and French varieties, far above the Spanish. It's the esthetic of the flower form for me. I've planted 2 or 3 at nearly every house since becoming an adult. I currently have none, as the wicked gophers came and ate the
roots of the last ones and I've planted a black locust tree and the 2nd night blooming jasmine where they used to be, up next to the house. For the shade. In an area that sees many days of 100 degrees F or better during the long summer.
This encourages me to also speak about the scented leaves I tend to plant, also towards that scented yard. Rose-scented geranium, here and there, to brush against as you pass. The mints for tea.
I actually tend to plant for a highly scented yard. I love being able to sit outside in the late afternoons and early evenings and smell all the wonderful flowers. It makes a bad day better. It makes a good day a great one. What would we do without the pleasures of our sense of smell in a sweetly fragrant yard?
I'm sure I've forgotten several that I love, have or have not grown. I'm currently smelling the
coffee that is beckoning to me! And the bacon!! Yum. Until next we meet!
Thanks for the fruit! You know who you are