Fragrant Gardens

Sunday Morning: Early in the morning, still in your bathrobe, you pour yourself a cup of freshly brewed coffee and step out onto your patio to take it all in. Before sitting down to your warm drink you stand in front of your garden for a brief moment and breathe deeply. As the freshness of the clean crisp air and fragrant essence of an assortment of flowers fills you, you realize you have just been energized more than a cup of coffee ever could.

Beyond the colourful and structural beauty of flowers, they have many fragrances to offer. Instead of purchasing air fresheners in the Country Garden scent to perfume your home, we suggest filling you garden with a variety of fragrant flora and then…open your windows and enjoy.

Our recommended addition to any garden:

Dwarf Korean Lilac (Syringa Meyeri)
Lilac is a glorious fragrance loved by many. This smaller version is perfect for gardens with its small violet flowers that will appear even before the leaves do. This shrub prefers slightly acidic soil with good drainage, and can be grown in full sun or partial shade. Pruning is essential after it flowers to ensure it remains neat, leafy and full of blooms and is a perfect plant for use as a shrub border.

Korean Spice Viburnum (Viburnum Carlesii)
This is a slow growing dense and rounded shrub with stiff upright spreading branches. The foliage tend to be dark or dull green, with pink buds that will open to a heavily scented white flower cluster starting in mid-May. This shrub prefers slightly acidic soil with good drainage, and can be grown in full sun or partial shade. Pruning is essential after it flowers to ensure it remains neat, leafy and full of blooms. To fully enjoy the fragrance of the flowers in you home, it is recommended to plant it close to the patio or windows of your home.

Rose Daphne (Daphne Cneorum)
The Rose Daphne’s rosy-pink fragrant flowers surpass the foliage in April and May. It is best planted in spring in full sun or very light shade and should be pruned annually it flowers. In preparation for the winter season it is best to cover with mulch. This is a perfect addition to a rock garden.

Butterfly Bush (Buddleia Davidii)
If you are interested in attracting they whimsy of butterflies to your garden, consider the Butterfly bush. This large, arching shrub has grey to blue-green foliage and fragrant long panicles of lilac/purple/white flowers which come through in August-September. It prefers full sun and well drained fertile soil. Pruning in the early spring will promote full luscious growth and larger flowers.

Henry’s Garnet Sweetspire (Itea Virginica)
This lightly fragranced upright shrub with clustered branches contain bright green leaves, which will change to a scarlet colour in the fall. The flowers on this mid-sized shrub will come through in June and July and prefer moist fertile soil in full sun or shade. This unique shrub is valued for its ability to retain its leaves well into the autumn, an makes a good container plant or it can be used in wet areas of the garden.

Summersweet (Clethra Alnifolia)
This upright, rounded, dense and leafy mid-sized shrub flowers in July and August and prefers moist, acidic soils, and can handle either shade or full sun. Pruning is recommended in early spring and this plant is excellent for shrub borders.

More Scented Options:
Silverberry (Elaeagnus commutata)
Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus)
Witch hazel (Hammamelis), many varieties
Drooping laurel (Leucothoe fontanesiana)
Common privet (Ligustrum vulgare)
Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima)
Magnolia, many varieties
Oregon grape holly (Mahonia aquifolium)
Flowering crab (Malus), many varieties
Mock orange (Philadelphus), many varieties
Japanese Pieris, at left (Pieris japonica)
Cherry (Prunus), many varieties
Golden currant (Ribes aureum)
Rose acacia (Robinia hispida)
Japanese pagoda tree (Sophora japonica ‘Regent’)
Lilac (Syringa), most varieties
Basswood (Tilia americana)
Littleleaf linden (Tilia cordata)
Silver linden (Tilia tomentosa)
Viburnum, many varieties
Allegheny serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis)
Fountain butterfly bush (Buddleia alternifolia)
Carolina allspice, at left (Calycanthus floridus)
Blue mist (Caryopteris x clandonensis)
White fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)
Yellowwood (Cladrastis lutea)
Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia)
Pink summersweet (Clethra alnifolia ‘Pink Spires’)
Washington hawthorne (Crataegus phaenopyrum)
Nemesia (Nemesia fruticans)
Snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus)
Lavender (Lavendula species)
Dianthus (Dianthus species)
Helitrope (Helitrope arbroescens)