Nick Bailey picks his favourite scented superstars for the summer
These scented superstars will fill the air with heady perfume this summer
Our gardens are sensory havens bursting with light, sound, movement, creatures and colour. But, arguably, the most evocative sensorial experience we have in the garden is scent.
Somehow, unlike the other senses, our olfactory systems have a transportive capacity that can whisk us back to a place, person, time or memory. Equally, floral scents can create a mood or feeling quite unlike the way colour or sound can affect us.
There are plenty of tried and tested garden stalwarts, such as lilac, honeysuckle, rose and jasmine, which remain in the garden year-round and fill it with scent in certain seasons, but to truly load the air with perfume from May to October I rely on scented annuals. They can all be ordered now, ready for a March sowing and by June or July they’ll be wafting exotic aromas around your garden.
My favourite plant scent of all comes from Zaluzianskya capensis. Despite its complex name, this li le night-scented annual is easy to grow. It hails from South Africa and displays a quirky li le habit. During the day it folds its red-backed petals into a tight ball, giving the appearance of berries, then at night it unfurls, revealing the glowing white on the reverse, not to mention its heady scent. It sits somewhere between Parma violet sweets and vanilla pods, with a bit of exoticism thrown in for good measure. Its habit is a bit scrappy so it’s best grown in small containers where it can be slo ed into beds or placed on the supper table. A true treasure.
Be er known to most is
Ma hiola bicornis, the night scented stock. It, too, has a scrappy habit so is best established around the base of roses or perennials. The delicate flowers are white and pink with a clean, sweet, soapy scent. Sow it outdoors in full sun to dappled shade where its scent can run free. Of course, the poster child for scented annuals is Lathyrus odoratus, otherwise known as sweet peas. I’ve grown many colours, forms and strains over the years but the one I always return to is ‘Matucana’. It’s a blue and purple-red bicolour with what I think is the best scent of any sweet pea. Its genetically and aesthetically closely related to ‘Cupani', one of the original sweet peas to arrive in the UK from Sicily all those centuries ago.
However, if you’re looking for an annual scented climber with a difference try Vigna caracalla. It’s a twining vine with curled purple and white flowers reminiscent of a snail, leading to its common name of snail vine. It’s fairly fast to grow so can be sown in April and will reach 1.8m (6ft) by mid-summer. The scent has hyacinth notes, something a li le sweet and spicy and just a hint of lily.