Perennials: highly fragrant perennials?, 1 by DrewBklyn

DrewBklyn wrote:
I have a few suggestions to add to these lists:

1) Lilacs! I'm surprised no one else has mentioned them, unless perhaps they mightn't do well in your zone? You can't beat them for fragrance. "Miss Kim" is a small, "traditional" purple lilac that blooms in late May with a great, potent fragrance you can smell from a few feet away, and there are so many more. "Manchurian" is another great fragrant one, with tiny white flowers, if you can find it. But it gets bigger than Miss Kim, so it would depend on what size lilac bush you want, too, as they're not the most exciting bushes when not in bloom.
2) Rosemary would seem a "must", and you can use it for cooking, sachets, etc. as well as enjoying the fragrance in the garden. Lots of fragrant herbs to choose from, but rosemary you can indeed smell as you walk by, whereas many herbs need to be rubbed, crushed or cut.
3) Cytisus (scotch broom). You need to choose your type carefully, as some can get very large and unwieldy (up to 10 ft!) and some types are considered potentially invasive. But I have a small Cytisus ardoinii "Cottage" that makes a nice little upright bush, and is slow-growing to only 2'x3'. In May, it's covered with beautiful,unusual butter-colored flowers that have a very strong and pleasing (if hard to describe!) clean fragrance. The scent is not "floral" in the traditional sense, so you should try to check one out in person to see what you think. I'm attaching a picture of mine shortly after planting in May 2004, so you can see the profuse blooming. After this photo was taken, the green "broom-like" stalks grew up from this plant over the rest of 2004, and I expect a lot more blooms next May.
4) Lantana is another possibility. Technically it's an annual, but you might check to see if it is known to survive the winter where you are; supposedly it fares well year-round in the warmer climates, and it just keeps blooming with multi-colored tiny flowers. The flowers and leaves are actually both fragrant, but as with the scotch broom, you should check one out in person to make sure you enjoy the scent. I love 'em both, and they're something different.
5) In terms of roses, we all have our favorites. I have a small, partly-sunny garden where "Gruss an Aachen" is a repeat bloomer with beautiful flowers that fade from pale apricot to cream, and a strong, elegrant fragrance. The miniature red "Scentsation" is nice, too. You might like an old eglantine bush; I think we had one called "Madame Eglantine" when I was growing up. These tend to grow very tall (eventually 8' or so) and draping over time. On many of the eglantine rose bushes, after a rain, the leaves give off an amazingly strong smell of fresh green apples. It's really refreshing, and I only wish I had room for one in my garden!