Fenius,

You can't ask us without first posting yours! ;)
This is a tough one that will require thought (which is always hard and time consuming. laugh) but I'll try to come up with one.
This is almost as hard as coming up with your top 10 songs. :)

-Robert

Ok then I'll give it a try...here we go..
mmm......technically it's not my fault, it was musaboru who inspired me!!

ok seriously now

Gardenia tahitensis
Gardenia 'vietnam'
Plumeria celadine
Jasminum polyanthum
Stephanotis floribunda
honeysuckle
orange flowers
Magnolia grandiflora
violets
jasminum sambac 'arabian nights'

..Based on my experiences (long past and some quite recent)...I still have dozens of fragrants in my new collection that have not bloomed yet so I'll have to update this list often.
and if I could include parts of plants other than flowers I definitely have to add aloysia triphylla and cinnamomum zeylanicum.

It is hard to come up a top 10. I seem fall in love with any plants that have decent scent.

When I think of scent, I like:

M. Alba
Jasmine sambac
Sweet Olive
Daphne ordora
Gardenia
Honeysuckle
Citrus aurantium daidai and other citrus flower
Chloranthus spicatus
Sweet mockorange (philadelphus coronatius)
Stephanotis

Iris, Heliotrope, old fashion Petunia. If orchids count, my favorite is "Sharry baby" and some scented
Cymbidium

This is way too hard and I am including scents from plants other than their flowers! Of course some of these I love due to the memory associations and I'm not necessarily growing all of these plants right now.

Okay. Here goes in no particular order and I will be changing my mind as soon as I'm done typing!

1. Jasminum sambac 'Belle of India' (jasmine) Really most sambacs will do. I remember the scent of Maid of Orleans filling up the backyard in the evenings so many years ago. Always magical.
2. Citrus blossoms (I'm not picky and I adore most from lemons to oranges to limes...if I see a tree blooming I'm going to sniff it!)
3. Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary) I find it extremely difficult to NOT run my hands over a branch when I'm walking past a rosemary bush! I've always wanted to fill a bath tub with rosemary branches just to bathe in the scent.
4. Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender both flowers and leaves) I remember buying Crabtree and Evelyn lavender glycerin soap at the mall as a young boy and adoring the scent.
5. Lonicera (Honeysuckle) I love J. japonica and Gold Flame to name a few. Who didn't suck the nectar from their blooms as children?
6. Citrus � limon fruit (fresh cut lemons) I love digging my finger nails into the rind to release the fragrant oils.
7. Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi' (Angel Trumpet) This one has a lovely lemony/lily scent. Sad to say I might not be able to successfully grow this genus for much longer if our summers continue to be so extremely hot. They fry in the heat and stop blooming (which is the whole point of growing these magnificent plants!).
8. Aglaia odorata (Chinese Perfume Plant) Yes the scent is light and sometimes hard to detect but when the conditions are right the scent will knock your socks off! So clean and light and sparkling.
9. Magnolia grandiflora (Southern Magnolia) Who doesn't love this one? Wish I had the space to grow this giant. So many summer memories of sniffing these beauties. Once we drank 'magnolia wine' from rain caught in the petals.

10. Passiflora x belotii aka P. alatocaerulea. (Passion Flower) My first passion flower and still my fav. Yes it's common and requires a ridiculous amount of real estate for its large vines but to me the scent is amazing. Not that sweet and packs a spicy punch. Sorta reminds me of tea?

i like the strong fragrances that drift for some distance from the source.
of the ones i have "access" to around here, i like these the best:
osmanthus fragrans
magnolia figo
gardenia
nicotiana
daphne odora is very nice but one that stays close to the plant, probably because of the cold temps during bloom period.

these are some that i like to smell but also hate the nature of the plant itself = exotic invasive. they are so abundant in this area that you might assume they are indigenous but they are actually on a mission to conquer the native flora:
asian wisteria
asian privet (ligustrum)
japanese honeysuckle
elaeagnus

Robert I asked on a plumeriaforum and one member suggested it may be Princess Maya which is some obscure variety available le from a local wholesale nursery (C Stars).

musaboru,

I may or may not be thanking you for this information. Laugh.
I, like many of you, am also growing several fragrant plants including lots of plumeria varieties that have not bloomed yet.
Who knows what's in our collections that might next be our favorite scent? ;)
My 'Phet Pachara' plumie is supposed to smell awesome and my 'Chiang Mai Rainbow' has been described as smelling like Sandalwood! I only hope that mine bloom some day so I can experience them for myself. :)

I'm glad your possible 'Princess Maya' is one of your fav scents.
So are you going to be sharing your top 10 list with us?

-Robert

The reply above was meant for the other thread. OOPS. (I'm writing from my phone.)

My current top ten in no particular order
M. Figo
M. Alba
M. Coco - boom dectectable 5 ft away in arid climate
M. virginiana Moonglow
SWEET CHARiot rose - woodsy scent
Yves Piaget rose - best rose scent imo
Orange blossoms
HARdy water lilies - very sweet scent non-indolic scent
August Beauty gardenia - superior gardenia scent and wafty
And that NoID plumeria I have which smells like coconut gardenia caramel and fruity. What a luscious blend of notes.

OH Robert I feel you on the plumerias I just spent $100+ w/ shipping for a dwarf orange sherbert. And I don't even know how fragrant it will be. I just wanted more compact/dwarf plumerias because I am running out of room

Dang, you're worse off than me! Laugh.

Thanks for sharing your list.
You sure do like your michelias! Wish they weren't evergreen or I'd give them a try. Most of my fragrant plants are deciduous since I don't have the space inside for them but I can shove the ones that go dormant down into the basement and pretend I don't have a problem. ;)

-Robert

I love this thread already! I'll now attempt to write down my top-10 before checking everyone's list just so I don't get influenced by all of your wonderful suggestions. (Lol).

1. Lotus. There's no flower in this world that smells as uplifting and as pure as a Lotus. I'm probably being biased but waa, I love that scent!

2. Tuberose. So fragrant too

3. Aglaia odorata & its best friend Chloranthus spicatus

4. Winter daphne. Another super fragrant plant day or night.

5. Jasminum sambac. I'm so fond of this species especially Moo. Great childhood memories.

6. Michelia Alba

7. Gardenia. The first time I sniffed a gardenia it didn't blow me away. But I sniffed and sniffed and sniffed and now I love it as much as any of my 1-6 : )

8. Plumeria

9. Michelia figo

10. Wintersweet chimonanthus praecox

But let me also squeeze in brunfelsia, roses, lavender, sweet olive & freesia and the many other wonderful fragrant flowers I've yet to have the opportunity to sniff! : )

Kemistry,

You totally went over the 10 limit! Laugh.
I'd love to throw in Brunfelsia gigantea (even though mine hasn't bloomed for months now but I guess I'm to blame for cutting it back) and old-fashioned vining petunias (talk about childhood memories! Those and marigolds were the first flowers I grew as a kid).
And yes...tuberoses will probably come and go on my ever changing list.
I love the scent of lotus as well. We just need a giant pool/pond, right? ;)

-Robert

Funny many people say marigolds stink but I love the smell of marigolds. (And chrysanthemum too even thought its scentless. Chrysanthemum and marigold remind me of the childhood years. Love them!)

In no particular order,

1. Trechelospermum jasminoides; really reminds me of my CA days.

2. Mandavilla laxa; great when full.

3. Sinningia tubiflora; delicate and sweet.

4. Cypripedium montanum, (californicum and parviflorum). Sweet and spicy.

5. Viburnum Korean Spice; reminds me of childhood.

6. US Native Azaleas; Rhododendron occidentale, alabamense, prinophyllum, austrinum, etc... they're all excellent!

6. A bunch of other nice Rhodies! If I had to pick one, it would probably be some hybrid with leucogigas, konori and jasminiflorum as parents: blooms in winter are to die for.

7. Gardenia 'Frostproof', if I just had to have 1.

8. Brunfelsia lactea. If only they would bloom more often.

9. Sarcococca; gotta have fragrance in February.

10. Lilium washingtonianum. Other lilies (especially those huge steroidal tetraploid hybrids) have more fragrance volume, but I like the details of this species.

Runner up: Edgeworthia.

Runners up Rhodies: Rhododendron King George Loderi, Rhododendron edgeworthii, Rhododendron decorum, Rhododendron madenii, Rhododendron fortunei,...

Kemistry, I agree with you, Lotus has the mesmerizing power and brings good memories. Simple flower held above water, graceful and powerful wrapped together like a queen!

Fenius, this is a good thought with the hidden danger of addiction.I find myself reading this post often and adding plants to my list and it needs to stop.

While there are many fragrant i would like to grow, a lack of space & brutal winters let me have only these few.

I rated my fragrant list with ease of growing (with my brown thumb).

1.Tuberose - Wafting, increases at night, most enchanting for me as it brings sweet childhood memories. Never demanding, so rewarding!

2.Jasmines -
Maid - Plenty of flowers and it even blooms indoors in winter and a sweet strong fragrance;
Belle - not too powerful yet a sweet fragrance;
Grandiflorum - Soft fragrance,very pleasant and wafts very well.
Nitidum - Clean & sweet, but as Robert mentioned, I wish it were stronger.
Molle - Strong Gardenia like fragrance .

4. Roses -
Autumn Damask -Wicked thorns but Great Fragrance;

Fragrant cloud, Chryler Imperial, Sunsprite,Blue Moon, Just joey ,Angel face ,Mr.Lincoln

new this year for me - Double delight - Strong fragrance + Beautiful colour

5.Herbs - Lavender, Holy Basil,Plectaranthus ambonicus, artemisia, marjoram

6. Eucharis Amazonica - Does not waft but a simple and elegant fragrance, It gives me a grand feeling to be able to grow this plant, such beautiful shiny GREEN hosta like leaves and needs very little care and has even bloomed twice for me in once year and does not need repotting often.

7.Aglaia - FRESH lemon scent but only if it wafts.

8. Oleander - I like the fragrance and it needs little care but takes much space during the winter.

9. Stephanotis -Nice jasmine like fragrance

10. Brunfelsia Americana - If it flowers which is not too often for me (my luck) but such a nice intoxicating, clove fragrance.

Not on my top ten because:

Murraya Exotica -easy to grow but too strong & fruity for my nose, like it because it brings some winter cheer.

Gardenias -Absolutely love the fragrance but has been a PAIN to grow with truck loads of disappointments.

Cestrum - I am done with it for life. Just an awful fragrance to my nose............... Felt so bad since it was so less demanding and flowering profusely.

Wrightia - has been two years and No bloom in sight.