Sweet smelling garden

[MotherOfDragon]

I want my garden to smell delish. Last year I planted honeysuckle, mint, lavender and rosemary but am looking to add to this with something that is fast growing and preferably seeds quickly. Does anyone have any ideas?

Alyssum seeds easily and grows quickly. It has a honey scent.

Oregano spreads like anything in my garden, and seeds very easily. I am on heavy, wet, clay. Thyme spreads easily and seeds fairly quickly.

Lily of the Valley can be invasive if you have the right conditions for it.

Steer clear of lemon balm. That stuff is horribly invasive, I can't get rid of it. It smells of lemon scented furniture polish.

Virginia Stocks are supposed to have a nice scent and grow easily from seed. I grew some and they were defective as they didn't seem to smell at all.

Moonflowers grow very quickly and open at night. Tobacco plants also are fragrant at night.

My favorite scented shrub is Daphne, but I can't grow it here as the soil is too wet and heavy. My mother grows it as she is on sandy soil.

Bergamot spreads quickly. It is good for bees and butterflies.

Plant a fragrant climbing rose.

Ooo I need help too! I want a plant that smells lovely and doesn't doesn't easily. I love flowers but I'm terrible at looking after them.
Ideally a plant that I can get from a garden centre rather than seeds.

Oh also, my lavender plant was pretty neglected over the winter and looks like someones tried to burn it?! I've trimmed most of the dead bits off, but is there anything else I can do to get it looking good again?

For quick scent Sweet peas or nicotiana? Trachleospernum or certain honeysuckle climbing up the fence smell lovely.

Honeysuckle sounds lovely. Please don't laugh, but, how do you get plants to climb up a fence?

I'm very much a beginner

Marking place, need some inspiration too 😊

How about a jasmine?

Lovely scents - perennial stocks (buy as a plant in a pot - these are different from the annual stocks which come as seeds)
also night scented stocks - seeds
lilac - tree or shrub
lily of the valley

Lavender - the top stems always go brown and stick like over the winter. Hopefully there are still some soft grey-ish leaves below them. You can cut the top dry bits off as far as the grey leaves. Below the grey leaves the stems may have gone hard and woody. Don't cut these because they will never sprout leaves again. Basically lavender just isn't a long-lived plant, and you might prefer to replace it.

How to get a plant to climb up a wall; Firstly, it has to be a climbing plant. Sorry if this is stating the obvious, but when I started out I didn't necessarily know there are different kinds. A climbing plant usually has long stems. You plant it about 20cm away from the wall (any closer and it won't get enough rain) and you use a couple of thin bamboo sticks which you push into the soil and lean the other ends against the wall. You tie the plant's long stems gently to the stick. When the plant has got as far as the wall itself, you start tying the stems to something on the wall - for example trellis, or wires, or netting.
Most climbing plants have to be tied in. Some, like clematis, grow by twining so they need something thin to twine around (eg wire netting).

Monty Don shows how to grow fragrant climbers

I'm aiming for this too this year - posting to follow the thread!

oh oh get lilies!

you can buy the bulbs now - plant them in pots - mix a bit of grit into the compost. Amazingly fragrant.

I second roses and sweet peas, although neither self seed. Mahonia and witch hazel are great for scent in spring, as are hyacinths. Wisteria can be highly scented but best to buy one in flower so you can have a good sniff and see that it's flowering before you buy. I'm struggling to think of scented stuff that self-seeds.

Philadelphus.

Agree with pp mahonia also smells lovely.

Some mahonias smell lovely, unfortunately my winter-flowering one really doesn't - so I think I'd try to get specific cultivar recommendations!

Also can I ask those recommending tobacco plant (nicotiana) - I remember sweet- smelling ones in the evening when I was growing up, but for years I've only seen short ones, which are open in the daytime but don't smell. Are you growing yours from seed or can you get the scented sort as bedding plants please?

Yy to sweet peas, roses, lillies ( stargazer are fabulous and very easy in pots) , honeysuckle.

Has anyone mentioned wallflowers? Plant them out in autumn at the same sort of time as spring flowering bulbs. The scrotty looking bare-rooted plants from a nursery are cheap and can do really well.

Don't forget the winter scents, because they're some of the best garden fragrances - lonicera x purpurii 'Winter beauty', sarcococca confusa, daphne odora.

And don't forget evenings -plants like nicotiana (look for sylvestris, the most heavily scented type) and night-scented stock smell great late in the day.

The small leafed lilacs smell lovely without having that large, untidy habit.

Old fashioned cottage garden stuff like Phlox and sweet williams

Lilies are lethal to cats. I had no idea until one of mine went from fit as a flea to horribly dead in 60 hours. They get the pollen on their coats, lick it off, and that's their kidneys destroyed.

Yes - my garden is cat central, so I can't have lillies. Do be careful with them if you have felines coming in; they shed pollen really easily and even a small amount can kill a cat.

Thank you traviata

I love lillies but I have a very curious cat it's probably best to give them a miss! Anyone know if Jasmine is cat safe?

A lot of things are toxic to cats if they eat them, but most are not stupid enough to go around chomping the vegetation (my elderly beast being a notably dumb exception). Jasmine, however, is safe I think.

The danger with lillies is that - as anyone who has ever dealt with a bunch in a light-coloured top will know! - the pollen transfers to anything that brushes against it. Therefore it's especially easy for cats to ingest if they get it on their fur.

shove do you know if you can grow s.confusa in a container, against a north facing wall? Id love to have it next to the frit door, for the scent but don't have any beds there.
Love this thread, thanks op, has reminded me to plant stocks and nicotiana

I wanted to know that about sarcococca too. I suspect confusa is too big for containers, but does anyone know if the dwarf kinds smell as good?

I just sowed nicotiana this morning.

Yes, I think you could contented. I have some in a pot in semi-shade, and it's fine, but it doesn't grow as abundantly as it would in soil.