The Best Fragrant Flowers for Your Garden

The blooms of the quintessential cottage flower, dianthus, has a fringed look as if someone took pinking shears to its edges. This family of old-fashioned favorites is grown for its pink, white, or red, spicy, clove-like scented flowers and its often-evergreen clumps or mats of gray-blue, grassy leaves. Taller types such as the large-flowered carnations are excellent for cutting and often supply the florist trade.

Name: Dianthus selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun in evenly moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 1 foot tall

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Dianthus ($25, Amazon)

Among the most famous fragrances in the garden world, gardenias bear a heavy scent and lovely white flowers. Fall or spring is the best time to plant it in warmer climates. This plant also makes a great fragrant flower for pots. Container plants can be placed outdoors during the summer months and returned to moderate indoor temperatures in the fall.

Name: Gardenia jasminoides

Growing Conditions: Light to moderate shade in well-drained, acidic soil

Size: Up to 6 feet tall

Zones: 8-11

Buy It: Gardenia ($14, The Home Depot)

Look for old-fashioned varieties of nicotiana to fill your garden with a strong, sweet fragrance. Plant it near your patio or bedroom window for a moon garden as the scent is most pronounced at night. A relative of true tobacco, flowering tobacco plants are grown for their blooms, which come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.

Name: Nicotiana alata

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 5 feet tall

Zones: 10-11

Buy It: Tobacco Plant ($14, Etsy)

Powerfully fragrant and stunningly gorgeous, Oriental lilies such as the famous 'Star Gazer' can perfume an entire garden. Oriental lilies bloom in mid- to late summer in shades of white, pink, and yellow. Whether you add this showy flower to your perennial border or container garden, it will provide long-lasting color and make a wonderful cut flower.

Name: Lilium selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 4 feet tall

Zones: 5-9

Buy It: Stargazer Oriental Lily ($27, The Home Depot)

One of summer's showstopping flowers, phlox bears big clusters of candy-colored blooms on tall stems from mid- to late summer. These blooms bear a sweet fragrance that's most apparent on warm, sunny days. This perennial border staple provides long summer bloom and is attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies.

Name: Phlox paniculata

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in evenly moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 4 feet tall

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: Garden Phlox ($23, Amazon)

Earning its place as America's favorite flower is the rose. Its blooms are beautiful, perfect for cutting, and many are wonderfully fragrant. The flowers come in a wide range of colors, from dark reddish black to pure white.

Test Garden Tip: Do a sniff test on roses before you buy them. Some are powerfully fragrant and others bear no scent at all. Plus, their fragrance varies as much as their color—some smell citrusy, others smell floral, musky, or like fruit.

Name: Rosa selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in evenly moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 3 feet tall

Zones: 5-9

Buy It: At Last Rose Live Shrub ($31, The Home Depot)

Prized for their intensely fragrant flowers, sweet peas are a bushy or climbing annual that blooms from spring to early summer. As a vine, it will climb up to 8 feet in a single season. Without support, it will grow in a bushy mound up to 30 inches tall. Their flowers appear in nearly every shade, plus stunning bicolors.

Name: Lathyrus odoratus

Growing Conditions: Full sun in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 8 feet tall

Zones: 2-11

Buy It: Sweet Pea Seeds ($12, Amazon)

Don't let this little beauty fool you—though it's small, lily of the valley packs a big fragrance in its nodding white or pink bell-shaped flowers. It's a tough, low-care groundcover you can practically plant and forget in shady spots. Keep this plant out of children's reach because all part of the plant, including its red berries contain numerous cardiac glycosides, which slow down the heart and cause irregular heart rhythm.

Name: Convallaria majalis

Growing Conditions: Full shade to part shade in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 1 foot tall

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: Lily of the Valley ($32, Amazon)

For early spring perfume in the garden, nothing beats hyacinths. Plant them in fall in well-drained soil to enjoy their powerful scent the following spring. Flower colors range from purple to pink, red, white, and yellow. It's a great scented plant for paths, borders, and rock gardens. You can even force its bulbs to enjoy indoor winter flowers.

Name: Hyacinthus orientalis

Growing Conditions: Full sun in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 1 foot tall

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Hyacinths Jan Bos Bulbs ($20, The Home Depot)

Adorning spring gardens with its color and perfume is the bearded iris. Available in almost every color of the rainbow, iris flowers have a range of fragrances, from anise to floral to fruity. 'Dusky Challenger' with its chocolate scent and dark purple color raises the standards of dark iris to a new level. The large heavily ruffled flowers and sweet fragrance of  'Belgian Princess' has an engaging appeal. The scented purple flowers with yellow beards of 'Variegata' are reminiscent of grape soda.

Name: Iris pallida

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in evenly moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 3 feet tall

Zones: 4-9

Buy It: Bearded Iris ($26, The Home Depot)

Among the most recognizable spring flowering shrubs are lilacs. If you miss their large cone-shaped flower trusses, you can't avoid lilac's intense scent and color. Lilacs are durable and able to put up with almost any growing condition except shade. They've also carried symbolic meaning in many cultures for centuries.

Name: Syringa 

Growing Conditions: Full sun in dry to medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 12 feet tall

Zones: 3-7

Buy It: 'Angel White' Lilac ($46, Amazon)

Fragrant springtime blooms and jewel-like fruit make crabapple trees beautiful additions to the landscape. These small to mid-size trees are available in the most colorful varieties including those that are low mound, upright, column-shape, or weeping specimens. In spring, they are covered with fragrant white, pink, or red flowers, and in fall with small yellow, orange, or red apples that attract birds. Some of the most fragrant crabapple trees are Malus coronaria 'Charlottae', Malus 'Brandywine', and Malus ioensis 'Prince Georges'.

Name: Malus selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 20 feet tall

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Brandywine Crabapple Tree ($36, The Home Depot)

Gather some friends around heliotrope in bloom and ask what it smells like. Some say cherry pie, others say vanilla, and yet others say grapes. No matter what you think it smells like, you're sure to love the sweet, rich fragrance that emanates from the lovely clusters of purple, blue, or white flowers.

Name: Heliotropium arborescens

Growing Conditions: Full sun in evenly moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 18 inches tall

Zones: 10-11

Buy It: Heliotrope 'Fragrant Delight' ($39, Etsy)

Transport your nose to Provence by growing lavender in your garden. The flowers and foliage of this herb produce aromatic perfumes that permeate the countryside of southern France in mid-summer. In your own garden, try growing it in a perennial border, rock garden, herb garden or scented garden. If you plant it next to a walkway, you'll catch a whiff every time you pass by.

Name: Lavandula selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun in dry to medium, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 3 feet tall

Zones: 5-8

Buy It: Lavender ($11, The Home Depot)

Known for its carpet of lightly fragrant flowers in white, rose, lavender, or purple, sweet alyssum is an easy-to-grow, low-maintenance cool-season annual. Plant them in masses to create an abundance of its light honey fragrance to edgings, flower beds, rock gardens, hanging baskets, and window boxes.

Name: Lobularia maritima

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 9 inches tall

Zones: 5-9

Buy It: Sweet Alyssum Seeds ($7, Amazon)

The old-fashioned, fuss-free peony can thrive for years with no special care at all. The petal-packed blooms are perfect cut flowers, but not all are fragrant. The double, white and pink peonies tend to be the most fragrant. Display bowls of its pink, red, white, or yellow petals year-round by learning how to dry peonies.

Name: Paeonia selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 3 feet tall

Zones: 3-8

Buy It: Sarah Bernhardt Peony ($45, The Home Depot)

As its name suggests, many varieties of moonflower open only at night. Like flowering tobacco, this annual is perfect for a moon garden since the big, pure white trumpet-shaped flowers are the most fragrant as the sun goes down. The gray-green tropical-looking leaves are another attractive feature of this plant, however the leaves have a pungent odor when crushed. As beautiful as this plant may be, it is deadly if ingested, so plant it in a spot out of reach of children and pets.

Name: Datura selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun in evenly moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 4 feet tall

Zones: 9-10

Buy It: Moonflower ($5, Etsy)

Among the most majestic plants grown in the South, Southern Magnolia is widely planted for its beautifully fragrant, creamy-to-white spring flowers. Its large, shiny, evergreen leaves with a fuzzy underside and red fruit in the fall add to its popularity. This large tree is one of the most stunning additions to any ornamental garden landscape. Be sure you know when to prune your magnolias so they'll look beautiful year-round without sacrificing any blooms. Dwarf magnolias are also available.

Name: Magnolia grandiflora

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 80 feet tall

Zones: 7-9

Buy It: Little Gem Southern Magnolia Tree ($35, The Home Depot)

Adding tons of sweet fragrance to the garden, mock orange is grown primarily for its very fragrant white flowers. Its four-petaled flowers resemble the shape of an orange blossom. This deciduous shrubs' strong scent keeps deer away and its height adds privacy to any yard. Prune mock orange as needed immediately after flowering.

Name: Philadelphus selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 12 feet tall

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Mock Orange ($25, Amazon)

Commonly called purple anise, Florida anise tree, is an aromatic, evergreen shrub that can be seen in Southern landscapes. Unlike most other fragrant plants, this shrub's scent actually comes from its foliage. Its smooth, glossy, dark olive-green leaves emit an anise-like aroma when crushed. The compact shape of Florida anise tree makes it a good hedge plant.

Name: Illicium floridanum

Growing Conditions: Full shade to part shade in moist soil

Size: Up to 10 feet tall

Zones: 7-10

Buy It: Florida Anise ($68, Etsy)

If you want sweet-smelling flowers in your garden and colorful berries in the fall, look to viburnum shrubs. The flowers can be pale pink or white, and berries come in shades of blue, red, and even black. The berries will attract birds to your garden.

Name: Viburnum selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 16 feet tall

Zones: 2-8

Buy It: Korean Spice Viburnum ($29, The Home Depot)

To get the same perfume in the garden as shrub lilacs but with a little more height, plant a lilac tree. You can find varieties with cluster flowers in shades of pink, purple, and white. Lilacs are also pretty drought-tolerant once established.

Name: Syringa selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun in evenly moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 30 feet tall

Zones: 3-7

Buy It: Japanese Lilac Tree ($22, Etsy)

Nothing smells like spring more than a garden full of daffodils. The yellow, orange, and white cup-shape blooms add texture and color to the landscape. If you want to start your fragrant garden early, force the bulbs indoors. Some of the more fragrant daffodil varieties include: Narcissus 'Actaea', Narcissus 'Baby Moon', and Narcissus 'Canaliculatus'.

Name: Narcissus selections

Growing Conditions: Full sun to part shade in medium moist, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 30 inches tall

Zones: 4-8

Buy It: Narcissus 'Actaea' ($20, Amazon)

Colorful blooms and glossy leaves make azalea bushes stand out. If you have a shady place that needs some color, these shrubs can fill the gap. Soil is really important for azaleas—they prefer acidic soil and are happiest in organically rich soil. Some of the more fragrant varieties are: Rhododendron 'Daviesii' (delightful scent), Rhododendron 'Dora Amateis' (spicy scent), and Rhododendron 'Else Frye' (lily-like scent).

Growing Conditions: Part shade in acidic, well-drained soil

Size: Up to 5 feet tall

Zones: 4-9

Buy It: 'Autumn Angel' Azalea ($39, Amazon)