THE fragrant garden is one of the most beautiful spaces when it comes to a place of tranquility.
In choosing to set aside an area where you can go to simply enjoy the scents of nature at their finest, you can do so knowing there are so many beautiful trees, bushes and plants that release their fragrances into the air at any time of the day or in some cases, year.
So what are the best plants? For me, the standouts are two – the star jasmine and the magnificent gardenia.
Star jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides, is in the same family as a few plants you might be familiar with: oleander, plumeria, adenium, and vinca.
It flowers heavily in late spring and early summer and then intermittently right through until mid-autumn.
Its gorgeous scent is well worth planting and it is versatile in that it can be trained as a hedge, can be a container plant, or be trained up a wall or over a trellis. It’s drought and frost-resistant and is best when lightly pruned back after flowering.
Gardenia is not quite so easy to grow, but the lovely waxy flowers with the heavenly scent will be produced with well-drained, humus-rich, acidic soil in a sunny or partly shaded position. Although gardenias can tolerate dry conditions, they need watering weekly, and even more in extreme heat.
They are gross feeders, so fertilising often is needed, remembering an acid rich soil is what they prefer to get the best from them.
Dogwoods, and the joy perfume tree (a magnolia) are trees along with the balsam fir and lilacs that will give your garden structure with tree backdrops, along with bushes like roses, lemon myrtle, daphne, lavender, and frangipani. Perennials such as lilies, freesias, daffodils, carnations or dianthus, sweet alyssum are also great choices when in season.
Finally, don’t forget the herbs – these can be anything from those you walk on such as chamomile and thyme, through to rosemary and sage as examples.
And the added benefit is, almost all of these are beloved by bees – the must haves for all of our gardens.
