27 Most Fragrant Flowers for Your Garden (by Region)

Unfortunately, many of today’s flowers have lost their original fragrance as breeders have worked to emphasize longevity, color, or other features. Floral scenes are very important to gardening. According to Purdue agricultural experts, almost three-fourths of all crops depend on insect pollinators attracted by floral scents. Honey bees alone pollinate one-third of U.S. crops.

Further, researchers have found that floral scents can reduce anxiety, improve mood, and increase physical performance. 
 

Fragrant Flowers by Region

How do you choose? Ask professional growers. We reached out to garden experts across North America and asked them to name their favorite fragrant plants.

Northeast

Lee Reich is a “farmdener” (more than a gardener, less than a farmer) in upstate New York and author of numerous topical gardening books.

My favorite fragrant plants are sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina), a small shrub with spicy aromatic leaves; clove currant (Ribes odoratum), a tall shrub with yellow flowers that smell like cloves; and the goumi berry (Elaeagnus multiflora), an edible-fruit-bearing shrub with small, fragrant (lilac-like) yellow flowers in spring.

All three are relatively low-maintenance. Sweet fern is native in the Northeast, while clove currant is native to the Midwest.

North

Kate Harris, a lifelong gardener in Simcoe County, Ontario, is a Master Naturalist and member of the North American Native Plant Society.

Common boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) has showy clusters of fragrant white flowers. This native blooms from July to October and is an excellent pollinator plant. Grow it near a path to enjoy the scent. (The common name derives from the stem’s early use as a splint to set broken bones.)

Wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata) is an underappreciated native vine with fragrant frothy-white flowers in August, followed by interesting prickly seedpods. It can be invasive, but spread is easily controlled by pulling out the squashlike seedlings in spring.

Midwest

Ed Lyon is the director of Reiman Gardens in Ames, Iowa. He has been a contributor to many garden magazines and is the author of the book Growing the Midwest Garden.

I guess that you might call me a lily enthusiast. I have probably somewhere around 2,000 in my standard-size city lot. Not all lilies are scented; breeding has taken that away in favor of other traits. But the ones that are-especially oriental lilies-are intoxicating, they are some of the best smelling flowers.

My other favorite plant is the Koreanspice viburnum (Viburnum carlesii)-a shrub that is so fragrant that you can smell it at considerable distances. The white flowers are truly aromatic; you don’t have to shove your nose in them and inhale deeply to get it!

Mid-Atlantic

Theresa Augustin, vice president of education at Norfolk Botanical Garden in Norfolk, Virginia, has a passion for the natural world with particular interest in native plants.

I enjoy discovering a plant by catching a fragrance in the air and following it to the source. In spring, I’m drawn to the gentle, lilac-y fragrance of the American (White) fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus). In the heat of summer, it’s the knock-your-socks-off rose or clove fragrance from sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia). Both plants have white flowers and are native to the coastal plain of Virginia. In fall, it’s the intriguing, licorice-like scent from the lavender blooms of the climbing aster (Ampelaster carolinianus).

Here’s a special shout-out to native azaleas, specifically the dwarf coastal azalea (Rhododendron atlanticum). In early spring, its delicate, honeysuckle-shape flowers produce a delightfully sweet scent.

South

Gary R. Bachman is an Extension/research professor of horticulture at Mississippi State University. He is the author of the book Southern Gardening All Year Long.

Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides) is a classic must-have flowering shrub for the Deep South, even though it originated in southern China and Japan. Its thick and waxy white flowers release an aroma that has been described as intoxicating. On calm spring mornings or evenings, it can envelop an entire garden in its spicy aroma.

The native southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) produces pure white blooms, which have a powerful lemony aroma and are so big that you can almost put your entire face into an open flower.

Fragrant olive (Osmanthus fragrans), which is native to Asia, is one of my garden favorites. During the fall and early winter, this evergreen shrub with orange flowers completely infuses the landscape with its fragrance of rich vanilla and citrus, especially after a rain, when the humidity is high.

Pacific Northwest

Erin Benzakein is the founder of Floret Flower Farm in Mount Vernon, Washington.

Carnations (Dianthus) are the most fragrant flowers that we grow here at Floret-they bloom all summer long from an early sowing. The tufted blooms smell like sugar and cloves and remind me of my childhood. Even a single stem of blooms will fill the entire room with a nostalgic fragrance.

Eileen Stark is an ecological landscape designer, consultant, author, and photographer in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of Real Gardens Grow Natives: Design, Plant, and Enjoy a Healthy Northwest Garden.

One of the most fragrant flowering shrubs is the mock orange. The native western mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii) is a favorite. In late spring or early summer, its white blossoms emit a lovely fruity fragrance. The scent attracts bees, nocturnal moths, and butterflies.

Native western wallflower (Erysimum capitatum) is sweetly fragrant. It’s quite easy to grow from seeds in pots or outdoor beds and blooms with clusters of bright yellow to deep orange flowers from late April to July.

Cynthia Sayre is curator of collections at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has a master of science degree in botany from the University of British Columbia.

Near the top of my list are the exquisitely scented Loderi hybrid rhododendrons. When these larger-than-life rhodies bloom in spring, they are covered in clusters of lily-size blossoms in shades of pale pink and white. Their scent is a mix of vanilla and burned sugar, with a hint of mint.

Southwest

Gregory Pongetti is the living collections curator at the Fullerton Arboretum on the California State University–Fullerton campus.

My favorite scented plants are sages. Aromas Cleveland sage (Salvia clevelandii ‘Aromas’) is a native with a fantastic, mellow, sweet sage scent. It flowers profusely with violet/blue blooms on gray-green foliage in spring and summer and attracts a lot of pollinators.

Native hummingbird sage (S. spathacea) has a lovely fruity odor, most of which emanates from its foliage. The pink-to-maroon flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies in spring and summer. It is a great shade plant.

Fragrant pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans) is a fruity-scented shrub, with large white-to-lavender flowers that attract bumblebees. It blooms from spring through October-but only in portions of southern California.

Night Scents

American garden writer Louise Beebe Wilder (1878-1938) writes in her book The Fragrant Path (Hartley & Marks, 1932/1996): “It is a curious fact that many sweet-scented flowers withhold their fragrance during the day and pour it out at night.”

In truth, flowers usually have their strongest scent when they are ready for pollination. Plants pollinated by moths will have their greatest fragrance after sunset. Here are a few:

• Moonflower (Ipomoea alba), hardy in Zones 10 to 12 and treated as an annual elsewhere, blooms from late afternoon onward; its large, trumpet-shape flowers remain open until the Sun rises. Its blooms give off a sweet lemony fragrance.
• Night Phlox (Zaluzianskya capensis), hardy in Zones 9 to 11 and treated as an annual elsewhere, is a low-growing perennial with numerous white blooms that open at night. Its fragrance is reminiscent of a blend of honey, almonds, and vanilla.
• Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana alata), hardy in Zones 10 and 11 and treated as an annual elsewhere, comes in many colors of trumpet-shape blossoms that open at night. Its sweet fragrance is reminiscent of jasmine.

Wafting Whiffs (Fragrant Blooms In Containers)

For a succession of scents, choose sweet-smelling perennials or shrubs that bloom at different times throughout the season. Place scented plants where you will easily enjoy them: close to a garden path, near a front door, or outside a window. Many varieties grow well in containers that can be placed on a patio, deck, or balcony.

Thoughtfully chosen and strategically placed pots of perfumed plants will bring immeasurable pleasure to your environment. Here are some of the best heaven-scent possibilities you should consider:

• The sweet fragrance emitted by the large (6 to 7 inches wide), lush blooms of Begonia ‘Angelique’ is simply heavenly. When grown in a hanging basket, the plant’s dazzling double flowers are white with a pink blush drape elegantly from its mounded form over the edge, beginning in late spring and lasting through fall. For large, early flowers, start indoors (place each tuber knobby side up, round side down, just at or below soil level) in light but rich soil with humus.
• The old-fashioned vining petunia (Petunia multiflora) may be one of the best-scented garden secrets. Common a century ago in the Midwest, this annual heirloom produces 2-to 3-foot-long trailing stems of trumpet-shape blooms in white, pink, lavender, or purple. Their sweet fragrance can be enjoyed throughout the summer and well into fall. Choose from more than 200 varieties, bearing scents from apple to coconut to lemon, mint to nutmeg to rose. The fragrance is in the foliage; the flowers are lovely but almost too tiny to notice. Plant in a hanging basket or allow to spill out of a pot, then inhale deeply after brushing a hand against it or grabbing some leaves and crushing them in your fingers.
• Luscious, honey-scent ‘Peaches and Cream’ honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum ‘Inov 86’) is a sweet and colorful climber. In spring, dark maroon buds burst to bring forth trumpet-shaped clusters of pink, yellow, and pale peach flowers. Red/purple berries, a favorite of songbirds, follow in late summer. Set in a suitably large container, this woody dwarf variety will twine around a fence, lamppost, or trellis (its average height is 5 to 6 feet) but not take over the garden.