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cweathersby

What fragrances 'waft' for you?

cweathersby
19 years ago

Looking through the FAQ, many of the plants that are listed do not have a fragrance that wafts, at least not to me.

My favorite thing about gardening is having fragrant plants that I can smell from a distance. I'd like to get as many of these plants as I can.

So what wafts for you? I need to make a shopping list!

In my yard the following fragrances have caught me from afar:

Banana shrub

Sweet olive

Eleagnus

There are others that are fragrant, but you have to stick your nose in them to smell. Although I get a lot of joy from them, they do not waft:

Pittosporum

Mahonia

Roses

Sweet shrub

Winter honeysuckle

What plants, that even if they don't waft, are absolutely must haves? What plant brings you the most joy?

Thanks a bundle,

Carrie

Comments (20)

  • cweathersby
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Oops I guess I left out a whole bunch of other fragrant plants in my garden. I'd better fix that before they get their feelings hurt and refuse to bloom ;)
    Wafts:
    Gardenia
    purple leaved honeysuckle
    Styrax japonica (sometimes if the wind hits right)
    Doesn't waft:
    "Little Gem" magnolia
    daffodils
    wysteria
    abelia
    Isn't fragrant:
    Dianthus
    Mock orange

  • kasiec
    19 years ago

    Hi Carrie - My top most fragrant plant is Michelia Alba. This plant smells great at any time of day or night. This is the reason why I have (3) M. Alba plants. Banana shrub and Sweet olive I can detect wonderful scent only on warm days.

    Kasie

  • risingpower1
    19 years ago

    Cosmos atrosanguineus or berlandiera lyrata(not sure which it was but was very strong a few ft away, smelt like freshly baked cookies), a DEFINITE must have, both of them
    Gardenias
    Some heliotrope varieties(tends to be the queen)(takes a large quantity to waft any distance and very hot dry conditions)
    The lonicera fragrantissima does waft, but not far and it has to be relatively warm after the plant has soaked up a fair bit of water.
    Dictamnus albus
    Clethras are very strongly scented but don't generally waft
    Hedychiums waft a longish distance too

    Other must haves if I could find one here is the rhododendron veitchianum(smells fantastic but requires a conservatory), azalea arborescens, michelia alba, rosa benjamin britten. I'm sure there are others I haven't thought of that I'd recommend.

  • longriver
    19 years ago

    I can only give you the idea. Maybe " JimShy " can support the idea. I in deed appreciate many new fragrant camellia seedling flowers, fragrant camellia species, many kinds of gardenia, many M. alba or champaca, ....etc. But the best quality fragrance for me was by far the smell of a Chinese Orchid( flowers about 1/2 inch long)at West Lake in Hangzhou Nusery, Zhejiang, China. It was two weeks ago.

    This reminds me a story at pioneer days. East cost people heard the story that the tree found in California was so huge. Most people were just laughing, " sure! the lie is much bigger than that tree"

  • angelsmell
    19 years ago

    My very favorites are in order
    Michelia Alba
    Angel trumpet (brugmansia)
    Sweet Olive
    White Heliotrope
    chinese perfume plant
    strong smelling roses
    honeysuckle
    Sambac
    Michelia figo (banana shrub)
    night blooming jasmine
    plumeria
    asylum
    nastrusium

  • mare2
    19 years ago

    These are the plants that (much to the horror of my children) make me want to sing and dance:

    -Right now hyacinths and daffodils and saucer magnolias are all in bloom at the same time. The combined colors and perfume could just make a person swoon.
    -Lilacs. 'Nuff said there.
    -Jasmine sambac (mine is currently 'Maid of Orleans'). Every winter it threatens suicide by losing almost every leaf right around the winter solstice, but it always says "Just kidding," rebounds, blooms indoors fairly often, and wafts its scent-of-the-gods outdoors all summer. For a container plant, it has the most bang for the buck ever.
    -Lilies, clethra, passiflora 'Incense,' masses of dianthus 'Rainbow Lovliness,' and a truly fragrant sweet autumn clematis, which I haven't been able to find since two moves ago.

    P.S. Some of the things you said aren't very fragrant for you may be in a bad spot (as far as not taking advantage of wind direction or the right temperature), not big enough, not massed enough, or a less fragrant cultivar or clone. Hope the ones I left off don't get their feelings hurt like you said, but the above are my top favorites for quality and quantity of scent...till I think of more later.... ;)

  • Toba
    19 years ago

    I planted sweet autumn clematis, telosoma cordata and jasmine sambac by my trash cans. When the plants are in bloom, thats all I smell.

  • kasiec
    19 years ago

    How about Tuberose? That smell gives me headache. But I still love it though...from a distance that is.

    Toba - that is very clever!!

    Kasie

  • Ron_B
    19 years ago

    Clerodendrum trichotomum and Magnolia obovata (M. hypoleuca) carry quite a distance under the right conditions.

  • flowersandthings
    19 years ago

    Tuberose for sure.... one blossom could perfume a garden.... oriental lilies but I think you need a few.... lilacs one bush in bloom could perfume a garden.... hymenocallis only need a few flowers..... a few hyacinths.... quite a few jonquils.... a few feet of honeysuckle.... saponaria.... a few plants is lovely sweet and alyssum.... it has a rather strong scent but you need to grow masses to get a whiff when you walk in the garden....

  • ariel73
    19 years ago

    In no particular order,
    Gardenias
    Halls Honeysuckle - but too rampant/invasive, just ripped mine out
    Lakeview Jasmine
    sweet almond verbana
    Michelia alba
    Night blooming jasmine
    easter lilies
    Citrus
    I know I have others but that is all I can think of off the top of my head.
    Ariel

  • AngelTrumpeteer
    19 years ago

    I'll add Brugmansia. They are wonderful in the evening.

  • birdsnblooms
    19 years ago

    Citrus
    jasmines
    some gardenias
    stargazer lily
    butterfly bush
    coffee tree
    Toni

  • cweathersby
    Original Author
    19 years ago

    Thanks for all of the replies.
    Do you know where I can purchase some of these plants by mail order?

  • risingpower1
    19 years ago

    http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=43884&PrevMainPage=advsearchresults&OfferCode=R1H&scChannel=Plants%20AS

    For the cosmos. You'll have to get seeds for the berlandiera.

    www.rareflora.com has a good selection of some of those more tropical shrubs

    http://www.almostedenplants.com/home.htm possibly too, not sure what they're like.

    If you google for them you'll find plenty of results

  • whitejade
    19 years ago

    I have some *tulips that waft! They came with our home 10 years ago and come up every year - big yellow singles that I kept smelling while outside and yet never even thought to check until this last year by accident. I didn't even know tulips could BE fragrant , so, I just never thought to check them! I was so excited that I researched tulips to find those with fragrance for practically the rest of the summer off and on, finally settling on 5 varieties (for now:) and planting them last fall ... They are just beginning to come up now...

  • Ron_B
    19 years ago

    From tulips to 5? Should be fun, esp. if they are near one another, produce a combined aroma.

  • AgastacheMan
    19 years ago

    Agastache( mint, raspberry, anise, orange-mint, and lemon scents)
    Styrax japonica( obassia sometimes a faint scent here), Chioanthus retusus, Hedychium sp. var., Psoralea pinnata, nepeta sp. Walkers Low and Dropmore, Dianthus Firewitch( definately a knockdown fragrance in a mass planting here), Dianthus Crimson Treasure, Vitex agnus-castus, Buddleja "Pink Perfection", "Lochnich", and "Red Plume"., Hoya Hoya hoya(lots of varieties to name), Corydalis ( again, lots of cultivars to name, on of my favorites), and Hierochloe odorata (vanilla grass).

  • heavenscent
    19 years ago

    Tea olives, 'Pixie' Dianthus, 'Stargazer' lilies, and wild growing wisteria all waft for me.

    Mandy

  • diggerb2
    19 years ago

    I think the wafting part has to do some with the temperature, humidity, wind direction and the mass of the planting.

    my wastington hawthorne until about 2 years ago never
    amounted to much, but then all of a sudden i kept smelling this heavy 'vanilla' scent in the spring. Then when i was cutting the grass, i realized it was the hawthorne tree.
    I guess that must be the 'haw' scent that i've read about.

    next would be my milkweed. Its gets western exposure to the sun in mid august, and the scent can become overwhelming. I
    only let about 10 or 12 stalks grown and pull the rest.

    my sweet autumn clematis has that wonderful fragrance. But
    i have had one that seemed scentless.

    Clethra has a scent, last year i was looking for a shrub to add to my 'fragrant'border. Clethra was highly recommended.
    If you bush is large enough it will scent a large area. For me it has a very musky undertone that tends to turn my stomach.

    I have about 15 hosta plantagina that are divisions- in the first year i had 65 flower stems in a 20x20 foot area. In the august heat and humidity you could smell them 50-75 feet away.

    A neighbor 3 doors away had a group of 3 huge mock orange
    that on sunny afternoons i can smell-- that's about 100-150
    feet.

    Love the scent of black locust

    another area you haven't considered are herbs--the scent is usually localized. but mints & thymes can make a great deal
    of odor when used on a walk way.

    diggerb