Heaven scent

Best plants for perfume

COLOUR has the wow factor but the best plants to stimulate all the senses at this time of year are ones with moodenhancing fragrances.

Scented camomile or thyme release amazing perfumes when walked on.

Lift the odd paving slab on paths and replace with gravel planted with the non- flowering apple- scented camomile Chamaemelum nobile Treneague and lemon-scented thyme.

They release their delicious fragrance at the touch of a foot.

Other great “happy” plants are shrubby honeysuckles, an excellent choice for borders or near gates, paths and seats where their sweet fragrance can be enjoyed as you pass by.

Witch hazel’s delicate flowers also have a powerful spicy-sweet fragrance.

Hamamelis mollis and t he intermedia hybrids are the most strongly scented and have lustrous green leaves throughout the summer, and rich autumn colour.

As it’s a slow-growing shrub, it’s ideal for containers and perfect for decorating your doorstep, as their memorable fragrance will give you a welcome homecoming.

Choice

The fragrant ground-hugging plant winter box, or Sarcococca confusa, has pure-white flowers that pump out their vanilla perfume right through until March.

As the plant copes well with dry shade and urban pollution it’s a good choice for roadside gardens.

Ideal for framing your doors and windows is the lightly scented Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica.

It produces pendant cream-yellow flowers with light maroon-red spots against a backdrop of ferny leaves.

Try planting Freckles, which is more intensely marked, partnered with Jingle Bells, which has creamy yellow buds that fade to cream to white with age. A great combo over a pergola or arch to straddle a path to create a scented corridor.

The fragrant mahonia Charity loves shade and has a strong architectural shape. Throughout January it produces a fountain of scented yellow flowers on top of each branch. It looks better still with a pool of winter aconites and snowdrops at its feet.