Some of the paniculatas as well as the climber have fragrant flowers. Others are very lightly fragrant. In either case, they are not as powerful as some roses who will scent large areas of the garden or large rooms with just one bloom so, if you can, check them out first before buying... even just to make sure you can detect the scent (some people have a hard time with scents).

Smelling an old, currently blooming specimen on a sunny, warm (70s or low 80s), no-wind, early-to-mid-morning would be the ideal way to test since fragrance is sometimes developed after the plant has bloomed for a few years. Plant age, temperature, humidity, wind and disease can all affect how much fragrance there is on a plant and how much we can detect. Some humity (not rain) can make the oils last longer.

Consider these: H. Paniculata Grandiflora, H. Anomala Petiolaris. Also, I thought I smelled something when I strayed into a large H. paniculata Limelight during a car trip out of town but maybe.... I am not sure now. It is a paniculata so check it out too, just in case.

H. macrophylla varieties usually have no scent but Ayesha is commercially advertised as fragrant. I do not have it but maybe someone who does can chime in; it may be a very light scent.

Of the H. quercifolias (oakleafs), I have seen commercial claims of fragrance for Alice, Snow Queen, Pee Wee. Unfortunately, I have never tried smelling mine.... just never occured to me to check until now.

Let us know how your search goes, sunita_fleuriste.
Luis

H. macrophylla varieties usually have no scent but Ayesha, while not white, is commercially advertised as fragrant. I do not have it but maybe someone who does can chime in; it may be a very light scent.

Agree with Jeff....Once in a blue moon, if you have a good nose and you catch the blooms in the very early stage,(and Venus is aligned with Mars), you may get a whiff of something that smells like a blossom. I have had this experience with Limelight. It was a fleeting moment indeed.

However visually impressive hydrangeas may be, unfortunately none of them are worth planting for scent purposes. If only it were so. Wow, wouldn't that be having your cake and eating it too??.....yg

Yes and that would be a good thing, yellowgirl! Hee hee hee. If someone can increase their fragrance power to the order of roses, man!, he or she would become very wealthy.

Wow...

Thanks everyone for all their suggestions...I saw this shrub when I went up north (northern Ontario). There certainly was a smell...it was planted along a pathway and and you can smell it from several feet away. I m not good at distinguishing smells but my mum said that it smelt like jasmin to her...but perhaps this may be because the individual flowers look a bit like jasmin flowers.

Here s a link to a pic I found...the flowers look just like this! I m thinking it may be this one...though it doesn t mention that there s a fragrance.

I m be going up there again later this month and I will take some pics of the plants and flowers (if it s still in flower). I ll try to get permission to take a few cuttings as well :-)

S

Here is a link that might be useful: Hydrangea Serrata Fujinotaki

More likely it was a viburnum, several species of which can offer flowers that resemble a hydrangea blossom. Many viburnums are very fragant, with an aroma that can carry over quite a distance. Unfortuntely, most viburnums tend to have rather limited bloom seasons, which are probably past by now. You should stil be able to tell from the foliage, which is very matte in appearance compared to the very glossy, almost fleshy (Dirr describes it as a "cabbage leaf") texture and appearance of a hydrangea.

And while flower fragrances are very subjective, I'd have to agree with others that hydrangeas are not known for having any distinct scents and I'd be hardpressed to consider ANY hydrangea as being noted for fragrance.

hello Gardengal,

I think you may be right. I ve googled some images of virburum and they look quite similar to what I thought was the hydrangea. The leaves of most of the virburum I saw were lobed whereas this plant had ovate leaves similar to
the Endless summer hydrangea that I have..But there are some virburum with ovate leaves too.

I guess I ll know for sure if I see berries when I visit next!!(But I think you are correct...and it it did smell lovely).

Sorry...I feel a right idiot!!

This is going to sound funny, but I have a fragrant Hydrangea quercifolia 'Pee Wee' in my yard!!! In the heat of the summer the flowers emit a sort of vanilla like scent!!! The aroma wafts up to my raised deck since it is on one of the corners outside of the deck area. Everyone who visits my house says they never heard of a fragrant hydrangea and this is the first mention of someone saying that their oakleaf hydrangea flowers have a fragrance besides me!!!

I am convinced my limelight has a fragrance. I smell them on the plant and in the room when I take cuttings, Proven Winners told me LimeLight definitely has no fragrance, but my experience tells me different. The plant is a very sunny location, maybe that makes a difference.

Hydrangea arborescens subsp. radiata is a white lacecap and has a fregrance, which is called "scented hydrangea" in Japan. The spieces could be double flower just like 'Starburst'.
http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/plant2/migoro/1506/150624/921754141.jpg

I have 7 oakleafs (Snow Queen, I think, sorry can't be positive since plant tags didn't indicate) along my backyard edge and they have been particularly fragrant this summer. The fragrance is kind of a lilac-y but citrus-y at the same time. Maybe because there are so many of the flowers this year, I can smell them from at least 20 ft. downwind. Wish I could bottle all the wonderful fragrances of the July garden for those dreary January days.
Aunt Peach in Elgin, IL

Had to bring this thread back today after cutting my limelight for vases. It absolutely has a fragrance. It reminds me of Phlox-David, just not as strong. But still very noticeable. My LL is in its 3rd season, but this is the first time I've noticed a scent????

Now if it would just age pink as the "info" says it should. Mine always turns brown, no pink :(

I just returned from a visit to my daughter's home in Buffalo. She has 2 obviously oakleaf hydrangea's that were incredibly fragrant. I couldn't believe that there's a hydrangea that emits that strong of a scent. However, most catalogs don't mention fragrance in there ads for Oak Leaf Hydrangeas. I'd like to get one for my fragrant garden but am afraid that it may only certain plants.

We moved into our house over 17 years ago and we have a blue hydrangea bush under a big live oak tree that used to smell real strong. The cuttings made my whole house smell great. It no longer smells but still blooms bright blue. We were told to put rusty nails by it and we do along with food for hydrangeas around it. Can't make it smell anymore. We have planted new Endless Blooms hydrangeas all over our yard but they don't smell either. Most are blue, while one is pink and one is purple. Sure wish we could make it smell again.

When we were visiting colleges in the NE-- Swarthmore had oakleaf hydrangeas on the property and they definitely were fragrant and white! Now the child who we were visiting colleges with has graduated college but I'll never forget the Swarthmore campus.

I got this for my mom a couple of years ago all I'm sure of is it's an oak leaf hydrangea and it smells divine. The fragrance is as strong as a similarly sized lilac! Love it. We are zone 5a and I will give pics for easier identification

Boy, does that need water!!!

I have never detected any scent from any oakleaf.......but then smells are very subjective. FWIW, most hdrangeas have little to no scent.

Ye gods. I too concur that it needs water. It is 94 and humid outside over here; if you ask me how do I feel after pulling weeds, I would say like the hydrangea in that picture! LOL!

My nose is not as powerful as y'all so I have not noticed much scent in oakleafs either; I may have to stick my nose close to those blooms but they usually have flying bugs around the blooms so I will stay away for now. ;o))Sorry; I do not get along with bees.

I suppose the bugs may have picked up a scent or like the color of the blooms. Paniculatas usually have a very light scent (for me) and bees like to fly around their blooms so you do not want to put plants that attract bugs/bees near a front entrance.

I have Alice oak leaf and it is very fragrant! The smell is sort of tropical.

I own an oak leaf hydrangea called 'Pee Wee' and every July the white blooms are fragrant in the heat of the summer. 'Pee Wee' is a relative of 'Alice'. And besides water, I would mulch the soil below that oakleaf to prevent water evaporation. Mine is sited on a northeastern exposure.

Great Star / le Vasterival smells pretty good. It's a paniculata. Mine's 8' tall now.

I just purchased a hydrangea called Golden Crane. It has white blooms w yellow centers. It is supposed to have a very strong jasmine like fragrance. We will see once it blooms! The leaves are quite different from all my other hydrangeas. They are narrow & long.

Golden Crane does have a very distinct fragrance, as do all H. angustipetala cultivars. It is the ONLY hydrangea I have been able to detect a distinct aroma from but then scents tend to be enhanced by heat.....which is not very present in the PNW, even in midsummer so I guess it does not surprise me that others in warmer summer climates are detecting more fragrance than I can!

btw, 'angustipetala' means narrow leaf, which is how this species got its name :-)

I have 3 paniculata hydrangeas which are very pleasantly fragrant from several feet away. They attract dozens of bees and monarchs all at once in August. It’s bizarre because they were sold to me by a nursery as “Strawberry Vanilla” but they are not branded as Proven Winners. I also have another 12 Proven Winners Strawberry Vanilla hydrangea Shrubs, all with a fuller bloom and no scent. These “off brand” strawberry vanilla shrubs look very similar to a Pinky Winky shrub I had at my previous house, except it blooms earlier in the season, and has the white-pink ombré effect. The bloom doesn’t look as full as the Proven Winner shrubs because the petals don’t open all at once. Also, so much pollen falls from the “off brand” shrubs I can see it pile up on the surrounding black mulch and rock border. The photo here was from early August before the pink ombré developed on my shrubs.