I like the way that some scents are able to turn off and on. Take Sweet Woodruff for example. When the leaves are green and growing there appears to be no scent, but after cutting or after a frost, the earthy smell of vanilla is present. Temperature plays a part in scents too, as with Witch Hazel. When the flowers bloom in late winter the smell is very sweet, but the scent disappears when the temperature nose-dives.

I have lots of different varieties of mint planted. Pineapple mint, Lemon mint and Chocolate mint are a few. All seem to me to have a very definite scent. But ask any two of my neighbors or family, and they will swear they don’t smell what I smell. This is what is so wonderful about gardening with fragrance. Everyone smells something different. I plant paperwhite narcissus, bending to sniff as I pass by only to turn and see my husband holding his nose is disgust. He loves the scent of marigolds and I abhor it!

I cherish the trees with fragrant flowers in my yard and garden. And even though it takes a tree years to reach maturity, the one thing it will supply you with are blooms as young trees, sometimes the year after planting.

Black locust is one of the most fragrant trees with drooping clusters of white pealike blossoms in late spring. Hardy Orange has fragrant white flowers in the spring and fruit in the fall. Mimosa is a fast growing tree with fluffy pink flowers that is fragrant at night.

Vines are a good source of fragrance too. Jasmine, a vine with a strong scent, climbs by twining around a support and grows quickly. When pruned in early summer it is easy to keep in bounds. Wisteria is a fragrant vine that ranges from mild to strong in smell. A wisteria vine needs a strong support and climb at least 30 feet (and can be trained into a small tree). Typically, wisteria take a few years to establish and start blooming, so be patient. Large flowered Clematis, the cultivars not the hybrids, have a pleasant vanilla scent.

The evenings that my husband and I spent outside in our garden this past summer were flooded with the scents of the night-scented flowers. Evening Primrose had large flowers that were only fragrant at night. This is a self-seeding plant and from year to year, I never know where it will pop up. We noticed that the hosta’s scents were much stronger at night than during the day and bloomed from mid to late summer giving us a treat all summer long. Our newest daughter-in-law brought us a Moonflower. This was a delight in more ways than one. It opened at night with big showy white blooms and smelled heavenly when a breeze hit it. Flowering tobaccos were another surprise. But only the white ones. And in the end, I am willing to overlook the gangly leaves for the sake of the perfume.

Nothing, but nothing though is as fragrant as the herbs I grow. I love to rub against the rosemary as I walk by, just to smell it. Basil, catnip, dill, fennel, sage, and thyme; some of my favorites. I can not pass a patch of dill without thinking of the home-canned pickles that we used to make. And at a recent Master Gardener meeting, our host gave out dried bundles of sage. Oh, what a delight! I walk by the bundle and rub the leaves just to smell it! AHHHHHH…Heaven!