A fragrant, flowering all summer shrub?

[Vodkacranberryplease]

Ever since I got my garden I've wanted to fill it with fragrant plants. I bought several philadelphus from Poundland which turned out to be deutzia, have honeysuckle and jasmine (not doing that well in pots).

Can anyone recommend anything that flowers all summer and smells lovely? That doesn't need full sun? I've taken a small but useless fruit tree out so have a not too bad spot in my border. Nothing huge though please!

Lavender

Oh gosh I've got tons of lavender including one called eidelweiss alba (I think) with white flowers on tall stalks.

I was thinking something taller - around 5 ft or so.

There's a big lavender in that corner so it's got to sit above it. Pref not purple as there's big Bowles mauve wallflowers on the other side!

Nemesia, especially vanilla but there’s many types all with beautiful flowers and stunning scent.

Honeysuckle! Such a lovely scent.

I'd get an actual philadelphus. One of mine smells of bubblegum (which sounds horrible but it isn't). Then a lilac. Maybe some heavily scented roses.

I tend to find perennial flowers better for scent than shrubs. Best scent in my garden at the moment is from Phlox and then I always sow stocks since they smell amazing.

You know I'm actually thinking roses. They seem to flower for ages - well other people's do. My climbing rose and one in the opposite border don't.

Or a Philadelphus. I've got loads of Phlox anc they don't have much scent though.

And a big honeysuckle tree (about 5 ft) which flowered like crazy and now appears to have given up and has berries. It got killed by aphids last year. Bah.

It's a very long narrow garden with two large trees and this spot gets maybe 4-6 hours of sun about an hour in the morning and the rest in the afternoon, definitely not full sun.

That border gets about 3 hours of beating hot sun in the afternoon at the front which doesn't actually work out that well!

Tree lilies - the flowers this year have lasted about 4 weeks and they smell amazing, and come back every year.

If you can get hold of a perennial Stock Matthiola Incana, they’ve got a fantastic perfume. I got mine from an open garden plant sale years ago and have successfully ( easily) grown more from the seed. I’m trying to populate our village with them and have given loads away
It’s now rather leggy, but it’s offspring are doing well.

You know I'm actually thinking roses. They seem to flower for ages - well other people's do. My climbing rose and one in the opposite border don't.

You need David Austin roses for repeat flowering and scent. I can't remember the names of any of mine as I git them 25 years ago, but there's probably new varieties since then anyway.

I think my lack of sun might preclude me from growing roses well. I've got two that get morning sun (the only place I can grow cosmos) and it's not that great. And a climbing one in a lot. Both David Austin and neither going that well!

I’ve got a salvia microphylla ‘pink blush’ flowers from May through to October, is very spready but tolerates being hacked back to about 10 inches each winter. It’s in terrible rocky soil and has the sun for half the day and in shade the rest. Isn’t fragrant from a distance but very fragrant when you brush against it.

I’ve got Coca Cola scented geraniums....not shrubs I know but I just thought I’d tell you all!!

No idea how they get them scented. You can also get them in rose scent

This flowers all summer and much of the rest of the year. Not massively fragrant but the bees love it!

Ah good old Bowles mauve.. yes that's in the spot next to it. Literally never stops flowering.

Coca-Cola and rose scented geranium sounds interesting. My neighbour has a climbing one by her front door, red, it's stunning.

My other border has some fab salvias plus I've loads in pots, they just flower and flower. All great recs! Bullet proof plants.

I guess I was thinking small tree kind of shrub. I've got plants that were shaded by the fruit tree not enjoying the sun so I've got a spot for something taller, but not too spread out as there's a big bears breeches. But I do think that tree type plants don't flower for very long.

David Austin’s Gertrude Jekyll 👌 Flowers continuously, strong fragrance, hardy, not fussed on full sun.

Wollerton Old Hall is similar (but even more vigorous and grows like a beast even in shade), the scent is more aniseed than cassis though x

The only thing that flowers all summer in my garden are pink hardy geraniums. And some of the blue ones.
Or roses.
I have a tree peony which flowers v early but has an attractive leaf and doesn't get too big, a yellow flowering one at about 6 ft and a small red flowering one (possibly paeony Delayvia) with bluish leaves.

I've just put in a daphne cross called 'eternal fragrance' (Blafra) Slow growing so won't reach a bigger size for a while, but will grow in part shade and flowers all summer.

I've grown night scented stocks from seed before and loved them, didnt have luck luck this year. And evening primrose is pretty robust and will smells amazing in the evenings at the moment.

I remember Alan Titchmarsh suggesting a monthly visit to a garden centre to buy a plant in flower, as a way of ensuring that every month has something in flower...

How important is fragrance? Some shrubs have beautiful flowers that bees/pollinators love, such as Ceanothus, but the flowers don't smell great (to my nose anyway). It's still worth having because its appearance and usefulness mitigate the lack of nice scent. I have a Philadelphus "Innocence" which is variegated, so less vigorous than regular green varieties (important if space is an factor) but the orange blossom scent mentioned by a PP is fabulous.

Some phloxes are marvellously scented, others less so. You could look for a variety you like with good scent here. Fragrance is really important to me too and a lot of my garden plants have been selected for that reason, although some are just because they look attractive or attract bees and butterflies

Filling in gaps with Oriental trumpet lilies would be great, and as already suggested, pots of annuals such as stocks, night scented stock, heliotrope, petunias and nemesia will top up scent into autumn, brilliant when the weather's nice enough to sit out!

(Your Jasmine might thrive better in the ground rather than a pot. Being in a pot restricts root growth, which can have an impact on the top growth. If it's possible to stick them in the ground, I would. Some plants do manage very well in pots, but ones that are inclined to get reasonably big will tend to struggle more and perhaps be more susceptible to diseases/pests etc)

Some roses are more fragrant than others, too. I have a yellow rose called Arthur Bell, from an Irish breeder, and the scent is incredible- much stronger and lovelier than the two English roses here

Thinking about scents in my garden, buddleia smells lovely, has a long flowering season (especially if deadheaded) and of course is brilliant for butterflies. It needs pruning to keep in check, and I don't know how it would fare in the shade.

@ErrolTheDragon you beat me to it! Buddleia is my absolute favourite thing I have in my garden, the smell is wonderful. It's just outside our window and the gorgeous smell wafts inside. You mentioned the butterflies too and loads of bees. I just love it 😍

How about Choisya Ternata? (Mexican Orange Blossom). Doesn’t flower ALL summer, but decent flowering season and incredibly strong scented - both leaves and flowers. Very low maintenance- I’m about to buy some for my front garden.

I have loads of buddleia in woodland and they are fine in shade (although better in sun)