Well, in my opinion, you can never have enough oriental lilies - the fragrance will knock you over. I've ordered several and purchased several locally. The new orienpets are also fragrant.

Do you have any bearded iris? They are very fragrant, too. Some of the herbs are very fragrant ornamentals, like lavendar, rosemary, purple basil, the sages, or salvias. Valerian is fragrant along with centranthus or Jupiter's Beard. Passion flower is fragrant, and p. ceurelea is perennial to zone 6 I believe. Carolina jessamine is as well as the hardy gardenias.

SusanLynne

There is a hardy gardenia? I didn't know cetranthrus was hardy.... yes passion flower can be lovely fragrant.... I should get once.... the fragrance is "sort" of but not really slight.... it's a sweet spicey smell.... hard to describe.... perfumey and "incensey" I just smelled one today at the garden center.... not sure whta one it was though it didn't say... annoying... just said passiflora....

Lily-of-the-valley is of the knock-your-socks-off family, provided you plant in a controlled area so you won't be overrun with it. A few LOTV stems in a bouquet with Lilac will help satisfy your urges towards beauty and scent.

I also suggest freesia for a bulb, and agree with more lilies. Is there such a thing as too many lilies? I think not.

Sweet alyssum is great for an annual along walkways or bed borders, or even in pots at the base of larger specimens. And you can just till them under next season.

Not sure how long your growing season is but I have to suggest one of my favorites, a plumeria tree. You could grow it in a large pot with wheels as I do here, if you have room in your garage or basement to overwinter it. I'd be happy to ship you a cutting of a pretty pink cultivar which I don't know the proper name of, but which knocks my socks off annually from May till October in Zone 10/13. If you're interested, let me know! I'm including a link with some plumeria basics for you which I found helpful.

I hope some of these suggestions fire your imagination. Your garden already sounds like an enchanting perfume oasis but like the composer of an unfinished symphony, you can always stuff in a few more notes to round out the whole work!

Here is a link that might be useful: The Plumeria Place

Regarding the passiflora, there is one which is one of the most strongly fragranced called incense. That's the one to buy for hardyness and scent. Lily of the valley, well it's relatively nice, but how about some clethras, they have a very strong sweet scent. That's a bit shrubby though.

There are of course berlandiera lyrata and cosmos atrosanguineus which if you have both together, in summer, the entire garden will be filled with the scent of cookies/hot chocolate. I have to say, those two combined to give the strongest scent last year that went any distance, could have sworn someone was baking cookies nearby, turned out to be the berlandiera and cosmos atrosanguineus.

A must have if you want that kind of smell in summer.

Oops, I forgot, I do have a P. 'Incense', too. Today, I've been out in the garden fertilizing the bulbs, and the scent of the hyacinths is at times almost overwhelming. Yummy!

I haven't been on this board before - usually am on the Oklahoma Gardening board. Do you have any hardy ginger? For me, they bloom in fall and have a marvelous fragrance, too.

SusanLynne

Well, I may have one hardy ginger, not sure whether it is or not but I guess I'll see soon, it's a hedychium assam orange which is supposed to be hardy here.

Don't forget to check out the lists we compiled of fragrants over at the FAQ area.

hosta plantagina?
milk weed?
autumn clematis?
korean spice viburnum?
peonies?
some of the daylilies--but not too intense
butterfly bush?

sorry aboutthe bush suggestions.

Diggerb

I'm not sure of some other people's thoughts, but I am going with soooo many 4 O'clocks this year they'll probably waft down the block. I discovered those last year and couldn't believe the fragrance, especially in the evening hours. Not necessarily after the sun sets but as the afternoon goes along toward evening.
I am working on putting in mostly fragrants this year also and am really anxious to smell the yard :) I hope to have many of those listed by the end of planting season.
Hope this helps :)
Charlene

Well, what have you decided with all these suggestions? I'm eager to hear!

In the bed next to my patio, known as the overwhelming stench garden to some who don't appreciate real fragrance, we have roses, butterfly bushes, lilacs, Korean Spice and Judd Viburnum, phlox and fragrant daylilies. But the most smelly item is the hardy amaryllis. This bulb blooms in mid summer and is so powerful that I can't bring it indoors.