The sweet smell of blooming success
Sweet-smelling roses and honeysuckle, the summer fragrance of frangipani and citrus trees and soothing aroma of lavender are often used in gardens not only to impress visually but to also create a fragrant feast for the senses.
But don't be limited by common perfumes because there is an extensive list of native and introduced plants of all shapes and sizes offering a variety of heavenly scents to lift the mood around your home.
With a few helpful planning tips and careful plant selection, you can create an aromatic display to suit your garden, that is colourful and fragrant all year.
DESIGNING A PERFUMED GARDEN *
Planning is the key to success when planting a perfumed garden because placing too many strongly scented plants close together can be overpowering.
Waldecks Garden Centres group retail manager Hilton Blake recommends planning a garden with a feature fragrance at different times of the year rather than too much at once.
He also suggests interspersing strongly scented plants with non-scented plants and selecting varieties so the flowering season is staggered all year.
Origin Landscapes owner and designer Justin Bajada says to avoid mixing two strong sweetly fragranced plants together because they would probably clash. "However, with careful selection, a sweet and savoury or sweet and sour combination can be great, for example peppery viburnum and subtle sweet camellias or citrus and gardenias," he said.
"I like to think at times of what fragrances you enjoy in food and translate that to the garden."
PLANT SELECTION *
Although we think of colour and scent as coming from the flowers of a plant, this isn't always the case.
Mr Bajada says aromas can also come from the timber, roots, bark or fruit so think outside the box when making your selection.
Strongly scented plants can be enticing to some and repulsive to others, so keep that in mind when planting heavy scented plants near entrances and windows because you don't want your guests running for nasal cover.
Mr Blake says if there is a member of the family with allergies, it is best to avoid fragrant flowers.
His top picks for fragrant plants include roses, especially 'Double Delight', 'Fragrant Cloud' and 'Mr Lincoln', and gardenias with their fragrant white flowers through the warmer months.
He also favours flowering bulbs such as daffodils, jonquils, hyacinths and freesias, which add interest with bright colour as well as perfume, and murraya, a popular hedge that explodes into masses of white, long-lasting walls of fragrance.
Mr Bajada's favourite fragrant plants that are best suited to our climate are Chinese star jasmine, because it flowers prolifically over a long period and has a soft and fruity scent, orange jessamine for its exotic scent, frangipani for its tropical scent and attractive flowers, and lemon-scented gum, a grand and beautiful tree that is wholly Australian.
Roses were very specific to a particular style of garden but no genus had as wide a variety of scents.
POSITIONING PLANTS *
To appreciate the benefits of fragrant flowers, you need to integrate them into daily life.
When planning the garden, position your lightly scented plants near popular meeting hubs like the barbecue and patio and near entrances, windows and along pathways. Placing scented plants in pots is an easy way to shift plants in flower to these areas.
Some flowers smell stronger at night, so they are best planted near windows and where you are most likely to be sitting in the early evening.
Consider prevailing winds because the scent will move in the direction of the wind, and remember reflected heat from a wall can intensify the scent of many plants.
