Best smelling plants/flowers/shrubs?

[Cantchoosenickname]

At the moment I have a completely bare garden. I’m a very novice gardener so I don’t know soil type or anything too complex. I want some lots of beautiful colour and aroma in my garden. So far I’m thinking of planting small cherry blossom tree along 2 of the fences, something climbing on the other fence (as it’s actually a brick wall rather than a fence) and then some planters dotted around.

Can anyone who has more knowledge than me help please?

All must be easy to care for and preferably things that will look nice all year round. Is that do-able?

Honeysuckle? There are evergreen ones.

Lilac smells great is bare branches in the autumn and winter.

Roses. This is one of my favourites www.davidaustinroses.com/eu/cecile-brunner-climbing-rose

I love lavender, Rosemary, honeysuckle, jasmine and roses for scents.

Coronilla is excellent. It's scented all year round, little yellow flowers all year, too.

Mahonia and Daphne in winter

Lavender, Sweet peas and Jasmine are my favourites. We also have a huge lilac tree which smells beautiful.

How about Skimmia confusa and Sarcococca?

Also agree with star jasmine (train up a trellis in a fan shape) and honeysuckle

Look out for them in your local garden centre and (if they're in bloom; none of mine are blooming right now though) you can see if the scent works for you

More on Sarcococca here:

www.bethchatto.co.uk/gardens/our-blog/advice/easy-shrubs-for-exquisite-winter-fragrance.htm

Lilies e.g. stargazer in pots - move to where you'll walk by them when they're in flower. Ditto wallflowers (they mix well with tulips and forgetmenots)

I didn't realise till I read it here last year that clematis Montana has a lovely vanilla-like scent... mine is just starting to come out now.

As well as all of the above, there is a Nemesia, called Wisley Vanilla, that smells amazing and does well in pots.

I have a perennial Stock plant that has the most fantastic smell, is evergreen and flowers from May to October. I’m not sure where you’d get one, on line perhaps.
I got mine at a charity plant stall, several years ago. It has loads of seeds so I’m attempting to grow some more! They’ve germinated, so far, so good!

Just looked on line and found one, Matthiola Incana, Perennial Stock from Macplants.
They say it’s short lived, but I’ve had mine for about 6 years and it’s very robust. I grew it in a pot first, but it’s better in the garden.

Viburnum, jasmine, roses, wisteria, stocks, sweet William, scented geraniums,

We could do to know the size of the garden and which way it faces. Eg don't plant a cherry tree on the south side of the garden as it will shade everything to the north of it over time. I've planted clematis on north facing fence, it grew well but all the flowers flopped over the top to next door's garden where the sun was.
If the brick wall gets sun for a large part of the day it will get very hot and can take a more exotic climber.
Shrubs like pyracantha (nice berries in the autumn) will grow up the fence or wall naturally without ties.
I found that Japanese anemones grew well by a shady north facing wall.

Cherry blossom is beautiful but remember your neighbours when putting trees next to a fence. The blossom is only for a short time.
The best wall cover for me would be jasmine. Plant it and train it all the way along the bottom of the fence. DO NOT let it climb up until you have let it travel as far along the bottom as possible. Then you can let it climb, give it help by using wires or strong mesh. This way will give you maximum wall coverage.
You will be rewarded with nice green leaves and hundreds of tiny white flowers giving you the most glorious fragrance, even stronger at night. It will be easy to shape and keep flat to the border and just get more lush every year.
Honeysuckle will do a similar thing but does get very tough and woody, it needs more hard pruning to control it.

Why have I never realised that's how to manage jasmine and honeysuckle before? Thanks!

Ernie, this is genius.

Mock orange is a lovely scented shrub www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/philadelphus-belle-etoile/classid.4184/

Hawthorn is also very scented, much like I'd expect a cherry blossom tree to smell (which from experience usually doesn't).

Lilac is also a lovely scented shrub which can grow to over fence height without losing too much light as its an airy plant.

I also love lavender, rosemary, honesuckle, wallflowers and roses for scent all year around. Even certain daffodils have scent.

There's a row of pink flowering cherries on our road, one of which has a lovely cherryish scent but none of the others do. It looks identical.

Lily of The Valley in a shady moist spot brings fragrance in May.

Am busy googling these ideas, they’re lovely and just what I was looking for! Thank you!

I thought I could have a pretty garden for this summer but now realise that it’s going to take a bit longer than that

One of my favourites is viburnum carlesii.

Some roses are better than others- try David Austen ones or old shrub roses.

Ditto lilies. Lilium regale is lovely but some modern bright ones smell of nothing.

Night scented stock.

Daphne odora, a lovely evergreen and not too large. Flowers early spring.

Also, for annuals try nicotiana and also the purple colour petunias (Some colours don't smell).

You can get some quick pretty stuff for this year. See if your nursery has some sweet pea seedlings, for starters.

Just thought of another lovely smelling annual - alyssum. I always get a tray or two of that just for its honeyed scent.

Watch out for lilies if you have cats though- even the pollen can be fatal.