Have you got a nose for a fragrant garden?
Fragrances play a key role in our summer garden. They emanate from a diversity of plant types, flowering shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals and herbs.
Some are flamboyantly generous, casting their offering into the morning and evening air, others are more retiring, waiting for the knowing gardener’s approach to reveal their secret. The joy they all bring is inestimable.
We have a trio of a shrubby Osmanthus burkwoodii. They were trained as standards, now 2.5 metres tall, evergreen and currently covered in white scented flowers. I raised them from softwood stem cuttings taken in summer two decades ago and cannot resist propagating more – reference the half dozen or so bushy specimens barely 30 centimetres tall in different parts of the garden.
One of the life-size specimens stopped the window cleaner in his tracks last week. I saw him imbibing the aroma and mouthing ‘What’s it called?’
Several of the summer viburnums are flowering now.
They are sweetly scented and our V. juddii never fails to please. The rounded blooms of tennis ball proportion have just appeared. Nearby, the fragrance of an evergreen Mexican orange blossom (Choisya ternata) is also attracting our attention.
It’s such a good value for money shrub that blooms in late spring then again as autumn approaches. We also enjoy the golden-leaved cultivar ‘Sundance.’ which was planted in a sunny position because shade turns the leaves into a pale green. This variety has a reputation for failing to flower but it performs regularly for us in the full light.
Before too long the lilac (syringa), mock orange (philadelphus), honeysuckle (lonicera) and other trusty shrubs will be making their contribution to the scented summer air, and you too could be enjoying a bit of this action.
Secure the pot-grown specimen of your choice at the local garden centre and there’s an option to plant in the open or transfer it to a special container where, with care, it will last for years.
Roses play a huge part in our summer displays, and fragrance, form, vigour, continuity of bloom are high amongst my criteria when selecting from the countless cultivars available. This said, we’ve just bought another ‘Chandos Beauty’ (fully double, pale pink flowers) which comes in bush, climbing or standard form. Why so? Because it’s gorgeous, delivering on all fronts.