Your favourite flowers for scent? Not roses, lavender or sweetpeas

[Koulibiak]

I’m looking for recommendations for scented flowers for my garden, beyond the usual roses, lavender and sweetpeas. Last year I sowed nicotianas, which smelled divine of an evening. Can anything top that? Or would provide similar scent but in the morning? Ideally something I can grow from seed, but I am open minded. I already have star Jasmine, brugmansias, a daphne, sweetpeas and scented leaf pelargoniums. Thank you 🙏

Wisteria
Gardenia

Dianthus, night-scented phlox and chamomile. Also scented-leaf pelargoniums/geraniums.

Oh yes, chamomile is fabulous, I have a little border next to our seating area and I have an early scented clematis and a jasmine in it with chamomile below them. It's my mini chamomile lawn (about 30cm x 50cm).

Geraniums!

Lily of the valley. Honeysuckle

Stocks and freesias

Something a little different perhaps but we have a few sweet box hedges (Sarcococca confusa) and they smell gorgeous at different times of the year, including winter. If you can fit a small shrub in,I would highly recommend!

It's just the tender geraniums that have a fragrance I think? I don't think hardy geraniums do.

Choysia (not sure of the spelling) another wonderfully fragrant shrug, with the added benefit that it’s evergreen and the leaves also give out fragrance when they are cut or disturbed, so you can have almost year-round fragrance.

My garden smells of my peonies, 'Duchesse de Nemours'. Also Magnolia grandiflora.

American Currant smells lovely, and gives a burst of colour before everything else wakes up for spring.

I love violets.
I read a paper once that said men react very strongly to Lily of the Valley and that it’s basically pheromone central. So for those looking for love or a night in the hay, Lily of the Valley is for you!

Also Elder (sambuccus Nigra), especially the dark-leaved cultivars. Bonus that you can infuse the flowers into a lovely summer syrup and make the berries into juice/wine.

Don't underestimate the Winter Honeysuckle. Even if you don't go out in the winter, the fragrance is absoluely superb when nothing else is around and it gives well needed nectar for the bees all winter long, if they are out and about they love it.

Sweet rocket/dames rocket is smelling lovely here of an evening - and best part is it grows and seeds itself like a weed!

Daphne gets my vote!

And the pink flowers from the black varieties (e.g. black beauty) make a beautiful pink drink as opposed to the very pale yellow from wild elder.

Honeysuckle but not just any one, it needs to be Honeysuckle 'Halliana'

I love honeysuckle and nemesia. mine isn't the vanilla Wisley variety - I had a good sniff of that in the garden centre, and didn't like it much. I bought a different one (would have to go downstairs to check which) and it's absolutely gorgeous!

Daphnes are gorgeous, but don’t do a lot for much of the year. I have a v small back garden and the scent from the Daphne is glorious earlier in the year, but 8 doresent the space it takes up the rest of the year a bit.

I know you said you don’t have room for a large philadelpus, but I’ve got a small one in a pot. Bought from Lidl last year, and it’s flowered for the first time recently. Still a bit small and spindly, but the few flowers it did give me had a lovely scent.

For winter/early spring, hyacinths are lovely. For late summer, Russian sage (perovskia) is frost and drought proof, and has a lovely scent when brushed against. Very popular here in town bedding.

I bought this last year and they’re still small and have not flowered.

Hoping they’ll get going soon!

@Maggiethecat I love the scent so much. It’s so distinctive that now I can always recognise it when walking my dog before I see it. Hopefully yours flowers big and beautiful.

I have some scented geraniums indoors on my kitchen windowsill.

Mimosa!