By Andrew Bunting, PHS VP of Horticulture 

There are many ways to bring fragrance to the garden. Many plants have amazingly fragrant flowers, while others have fragrant foliage and other flower parts. 

Explore a variety of blooms and foliage that will transform your garden into a sensory paradise. 

*Many of the plants mentioned below and marked with an asterisk are part of the PHS Gold Medal Plant Program. Gold Medal Plants are selected for their ease of cultivation, multiple seasons of interest, commercial availability, hardiness in zones 4 to 8 on the USDA’s hardiness zone map, and value to wildlife.

1. Fragrant Magnolias 

Magnolias are considered the “queen of flowering trees.”  This is in part due to the amazing abundance of early spring flowers, but also because many of them have a great fragrance as well. The saucer magnolia, Magnolia x soulangeana reaches 50’ tall and wide at maturity and depending on the part of the country, blooms in early April and even earlier in the southern and western states. The flowers can be pink, white, or shades of purple, and most cultivars have a sweet fragrance. One of the parents of the saucer magnolia is the Yulan magnolia, Magnolia denudata which has upright, white, chalice-shaped flowers and good fragrance. Native to the coastal plains from Massachusetts to Florida, is the sweetbay magnolia, Magnolia virginiana var. australis.* The leaves are narrow and silver on the undersides and resemble the leaves of the bay laurel, Laurus nobilis. In May, and then sporadically through the spring and summer, intensely fragrant, lemony flowers are produced.  

Another native magnolia with equally fragrant flowers is the Southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora.* There perhaps is not a more iconic southern tree than this magnolia. The evergreen leaves are large, elliptic, and glossy on the surface and the undersides can often have an attractive brown “fuzz” (indumentum). In mid-summer large, extremely fragrant, open-faced flowers appear throughout the canopy. 

2. Scented Shrubs 

There are dozens of highly ornamental and fragrant shrubs, including the viburnums. The Korean spice viburnum, Viburnum carlesii, and the closely related Viburnum x juddii are grown for their compact habit and ball-like clusters of pinkish-white flowers in mid-spring. As the name would suggest they have a spicy fragrance. These viburnums are hardy, making a great ornamental shrub through most parts of the East Coast and Midwest. With similar flowers, but larger in stature is the Burkwood viburnum, Viburnum x burkwoodii,* which can reach 10’ tall with an equal spread. It is a great plant to consider for an informal hedge and is covered in white, very fragrant flowers in the spring. 

Abelia mosanensis Sweet Emotion® is a selection of the hardy abelia. This deer-resistant shrub has tubular pink buds that open to pinkish-white flowers that are produced in profusion and have a jasmine-like fragrance. Hardy to USDA zone 4, it is one of the best flowering shrubs for most parts of the United States. 

The tea olives, Osmanthus heterophyllus* are grown for the evergreen, holly-like leaves. They are hardy from USDA zone 6b and higher, making it one of the best broadleaved evergreen shrubs for the Mid-Atlantic and the South. In the fall, inconspicuous white flowers are produced, however, they are exceedingly fragrant. Flowering can occur from September through October. ‘Goshiki’ has white, yellow, and green variegated leaves. ‘Gulftide’ is a more upright form that lends itself to being utilized as a hedge and ‘Sasaba’ has decorative and very spiny leaves and ‘Party Lights’ has cream and pink new foliage. Osmanthus fragrans, sweet osmanthus as the epithet would imply, has very fragrant flowers. Reaching 10-20’ tall and wide at maturity the sweet osmanthus can become a large and stately shrub. ‘Apricot Gold’ and ‘Aurantiacus’ have an abundance of attractive orange flowers while ‘Butter Yellow’ and ‘Conger Yellow’ have yellow flowers. Like Osmanthus heterophyllus, the sweet osmanthus is evergreen, however, it is slightly less hardy with hardiness from USDA zone 7b-10. 

Perhaps no shrub is equal in fragrance to the cape gardenia, Gardenia jasminoides. This evergreen shrub with glossy leaves will produce intensely fragrant flowers throughout the year, especially in the South and West where cold weather is not an issue. ‘Kleim’s Hardy’ and ‘Celestial Star’ are two hardier selections that with some protection, make a small evergreen shrub in zones 7-9 and will be hardy in the Mid-Atlantic states. 

3. Peonies 

One of the most widespread of all the herbaceous perennials are the peonies. They make an exceptional cut flower and are one of the hardiest of the all the perennials thriving throughout the United States, including the upper Midwest, and extending into many parts of the country. There are thousands of peony cultivars to choose from.  

In the last 20 years, one of the standouts in peony selection has been the Itoh peonies, which look very much like tree peonies, but are herbaceous and die to the ground in the fall. Like all peonies, they are fragrant. There are many great introductions including ‘Bartzella,’* with double yellow flowers and an orange center. ‘Julia Rose’ has medium pink flowers and ‘Cora Louise’ has shades of pink and coral. 

4. Hostas 

Hostas worldwide are mostly grown for their large, rounded, and patterned variegated leaves. No other plant is equal in its impact in the shade garden. The August lily, Hosta plantaginea* is noted for its spikes or large, tubular white flowers in late summer with a honeysuckle-like fragrance. ‘Honey Bells’ and ‘Royal Standard’ are just a couple of the dozens of cultivars of hostas that could be considered for adding to the garden for their fragrance alone. 

5. Select Herbs 

Many if not most of the herbs are cultivated and grown for their amazing fragrance and taste. A great garden plant and important in culinary circles is rosemary, Rosmarinus officinalis. In the garden, it is an upright evergreen shrub with fragrant leaves that thrive in well-drained soils. Lavender, Lavandula will grow in similar conditions and is prized for its spikes of very aromatic lavender-purple flowers. And, thyme, Thymus; bay, Laurus nobilis; lemon verbena, Aloysia citrodora; scented geraniums, Pelargonium; savory, Satureja hortensis and basil, Ocimum basilicum are all prized for their fragrant leaves that have played important roles in the culinary arts for centuries. 

Fragrance is a gardening attribute that should always be considered when designing a garden. The beauty of plants is often defined by visual beauty, but fragrant flowers and foliage should always be part of the design equation.