Top 20 Fragrant Plants

Landscaping Tips

Creating A Fragrant Garden

Fragrant plants in the garden are beneficial for several reasons. If you have a high traffic area at your home, such as an entryway or patio, a fragrant plant can be nice for you and your guests without having to cut the flowers.

If you enjoy making your own cut flower arrangements, fragrant flowers are a fantastic addition and can make your entire home smell wonderful.

Another great location for a fragrant garden is in hanging baskets, containers, or even growing a large shrub by a window that you open frequently, like a kitchen window.

Top Fragrant Plants at a Glance

Use this chart to compare fragrant shrubs, perennials, annuals, and vines by plant type, growing zone, and best feature.

Most Fragrant Shrubs

1. Lilacs

These spring blooming shrubs have extremely strong fragrance and bloom before most every other plant. These flowers are also great for cut flower bouquets to bring the fragrance indoors.

Bonus, the shrubs are very easy to care for once established.

2. Shrub Roses

The most famous plant in the world, roses are grown for their long blooming seasons and their fragrance. These popular shrubs come in all different sizes and flower colors.

All of them create beautiful fragrant flowers.

3. Gardenia

This is a bush that grows in warmer climates in southern states. The shrubs produce tiny white flowers that are very fragrant.

An added bonus is that these are also evergreen and provide 4-season interest in the garden. Create a natural evergreen hedge that also produces great smelling flowers with gardenia.

4. Viburnum

Viburnum are native shrubs that can withstand very extreme cold and hot weather. The shrubs produce fragrant white flowers during the summer, which also attract pollinators.

Because these are mostly native to the United States, the shrubs are also easy to care for.

5. Mock Orange

Intoxicatingly sweet perfumed white flowers bloom on Mock Orange in the spring and early summer.

If you want something that is not commonly grown everywhere, try a Mock Orange to add something different to the neighborhood.

6. Summersweet

Most plants with the word “sweet” in the name will have wonderful fragrance, and Summersweet shrubs are no different.

These summer flowering shrubs attract pollinators and are mostly deer resistant as an added bonus.

7. Honeysuckle Bushes

Also known as Diervilla, honeysuckle bushes have bright yellow flowers that smell wonderful and attract pollinators in the summer.

These bushes will also produce pretty red foliage in the fall for even more interest throughout the growing season. Plant these instead of burning bushes and get a shrub that produces fragrant flowers and is not invasive like burning bushes can sometimes be.

Most Fragrant Perennials

8. Bee Balm

This flowering perennial is also called hummingbird mint because of the fragrance of the foliage and flowers. It also attracts pollinators.

As an added bonus, this plant will slowly spread throughout the garden, fill in empty spots, and stay easy to care for. We recommend every gardener tries to grow bee balm. It comes in several different flower colors.

9. Dianthus

This drought-tolerant perennial, sometimes grown as an annual, has very fragrant flowers that start to bloom in springtime.

These also go great in garden planters, which can be used in high traffic areas so you and your guests can smell the flowers as you walk by.

10. Phlox

This spring-blooming plant can be grown as an annual or perennial. You will notice this throughout the neighborhood in early spring because it is one of the first plants to bloom.

It comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and growth habits, so it is easy to find the perfect phlox for your space.

11. Salvia & Sage

Salvia is the largest genus in the mint family, with more than 900 species known worldwide.

The plants are typically drought tolerant and produce fragrant purple flowers that pollinators love. Sage, Russian sage, and rosemary are all part of this family as well.

Most Fragrant Annuals

12. Alyssum

These flowering annuals are perfect for hanging baskets, planters, and small rock gardens.

The flowers are one of the most fragrant annuals you can buy and will definitely be noticed by guests when they walk by the plants.

13. Petunias

One of the most well-known annuals, petunias are widely grown in garden planters and garden beds across the country.

Most gardeners grow them for the prolific blooms. The fragrance is very nice too, and something many gardeners do not realize until they start growing petunias at home.

14. Heliotrope

This is a hard-to-find annual that is heat tolerant and perfect for containers, borders, and landscapes.

Use heliotrope as a filler in combination garden planters to add color and fragrance to the mix.

Fragrant Flowering Vines

15. Climbing Roses

Plant these on an arbor for beautiful flowers that provide fragrance and color throughout the summer.

These vigorous climbing plants look fantastic growing up a trellis, fence, or arbor.

16. Clematis

There is a huge variety of clematis you can grow, but some varieties are more fragrant than others.

Some of the most fragrant clematis are Sweet Summer Love Clematis and Sweet Autumn Clematis. See, the word “sweet” in the name is a good indication of great smelling flowers.

17. Honeysuckle Vine

This vine can also be grown as a groundcover. Sometimes these can be invasive depending on where you live, so be careful about which honeysuckle vine you plant in your yard.

The lovely fragrance of the flowers produced by this plant is second to none, and the vines are very easy to care for and grow.

18. Jasmine Vine

Most jasmine plants have very fragrant flowers, but this is star jasmine of our favorites, especially for southern gardens. This fast-growing vine has small white fragrant flowers in spring and summer.

19. Mandevilla

These tropical climbing plants are both beautiful and have great smelling flowers.

We love growing these up a trellis next to the patio for added privacy and beauty. You can also plant them on a fence or deck posts. Most of the time these are grown as annuals, but in hotter climates they can be grown as perennials.

Most Fragrant Plants For Southern Gardens

Typically a southern garden is considered growing zones 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. The summers can be extremely hot, humid, and dry, and can be tough on some plants.

However, there are still plenty of plants to choose from for southern gardens. Some of our favorites are gardenia, carolina jessamine, star jasmine vine, red creeping thyme, and bee balm.

Another very popular fragrant plant to grow in the South is rosemary. The plants will typically come back every year in zones 7 and above, and provide great fragrance in the garden. Bonus, you get to use the rosemary in cooking, which is a great benefit too.

Most Fragrant Plants For Northern Gardens

Northern gardens, typically zones 3, 4, 5, and 6, will have very different requirements compared to southern states. Some great plants for northern gardens include roses, lilacs, iris, clematis, dianthus, and viburnum.

If you do not like any of those choices or like to change up your garden from year to year, you could plant fragrant annuals and not have to worry about growing zones.

Best Smelling Plants For Your Garden

If your goal is to have a fragrant garden or home, then grow these plants and you will not be disappointed. We recommend growing fragrant plants that bloom at different times of the year for great smelling flowers through the whole growing season.