Flowers fill the air with a fragrance. Sweet, heady, exotic, and spicy fragrances perfume the air with their various scents. Fragrance is ever changing, as the flowers come and go, the fragrance is never quite the same.
Romantic fragrance gardens can set the mood for a romantic evening, perfuming the air with lovely aromas. Aromatherapy often uses extractsof flowers to help heal. Seductive perfumes are made from actual flowers. Many of the plants recommended for a fragrance garden also have been used for medicinal purposes in ancient and modern cultures.
For a lovely sensual treat, plant a fragrance garden. The flowers are a treat for the eyes, and the perfumes add another element to delight the senses.
When choosing flower, select plants that are pleasing to you. Pay attention to the flower’s blooming time. Planting flowers that bloom at different times makes for a garden full of variety where the show and the perfumes in the air are ever changing.
August Lily; Hardy perennial plant comes in a variety of colors.
Bearded Iris: Miniature plants are about four inches tall. The more common tall ranges from on and a half to three feet tall. The miniature variety blooms slightly earlier in the spring than the larger flowers do. They work well together, with their slightly different blooming times.
Dames Rocket
Garden Phlox: Large heads with clumps of flowers give off sweet fragrance. Perennial.
Evening Primrose: Plant has a long history of being used for medicinal purposes. Even now evening primrose is recommended for use for a variety of conditions. Variety of sizes and colors. Cup like flowers.
Flowering Tobacco, Nicotiana. There are two varieties of nicotiana. The original plants close up early in the day and open to release their fragrance at night. Another variety was created for daytime blooms, that do not have fragrance.
Four-O-Clock: Tender perennial, grown as annual. Fragrant flowers open in the late afternoon to fragrance the air throughout the night. The flowers close in the morning.
Heliotrope: Old fashioned flower with heads made up of small fragrant flowers.
Hyacinth
Lily-of-the-Valley: Sweet smelling, tiny, bell shaped flowers. Small plants bloom in the spring.
Migonette: Annual that is between one to two feet tall with rounded spikes for yellowish or greenish flowers. The older variety has the greenish flowers and has more fragrance then the newer varieties.
Moonflower: Perennial climber whose blooms open at dusk to release their fragrance.
Oriental Lilies
Peonies: Showy large blossoms. The fragrant blooms have different blooming times depending up the growing area.
Petunia: Saucer shaped flowers with sweet fragrance. Petunias come many colors.
Pinks, Dianthus: Tiny flowers date back in history to 400 AD. Fragrant blooms.
Poet’s Narcissus: Daffodils, spring blooming.
Regal Lily
Stocks: Fragrant flowers with cross like centers have a rich history and have graced may English Gardens.
Sweet Alyssum
Sweet Pea: Sweet peas are annuals with showy flowers. Climber can grow six to eight feet tall.
Sweet Violet: tiny spring flower, ofter purple or white.
Sweet William
Wallflower
Gardeners can bring fragrance to an existing garden, or create a new garden. These plants can be planted with other flowers for a garden with variety and interest. Consulting the local nursery is a good idea, as the staff can offer guidance to the best plants for the local area.
Resources:
Burpee, The Complete Flower Gardener, The Comprehensive Guide to Growing Flowers Organically, by Karan Davis Cutter and Barbara W. Ellis
