Smell’s belles

SNIFF out the finest earlyflowering shrubs and fill your garden with scent, colour and wildlife.

Lilac is one of the first to bloom and puts on a reliable show through May and up to mid to late June.

Delightfully fragrant, the blooms of Syringa vulgaris bring in buzzing bees and beautiful butterflies, which get tipsy on their sweet nectar.

Varieties come in mauve and pale blue as well as deep shades of purple and vibrant white and cream.

To maintain a perfectly shaped lilac bush, clothed with heart- shaped leaves, prune every year. Remove all spent blooms straight after flowering. Then cut suckers at ground level and trim out old wood from the centre of the bush to improve ventilation. Trim off wayward branches at any time.

Mock orange also has fragrant flowers around now, which act as natural air fresheners as they pump out their jasmine-like scent.

Delicious

Plant so their delicious fragrance wafts through the garden and into the house through open windows.

Philadelphus Belle Etoile is the most popular, followed by Aureus, which has golden leaves in spring that turn yellow-green in summer.

They thrive in a sunny spot with fertile, well-draining soil. Get the best blooms by giving these hungry plants a tonic feed in growing season. Honeysuckles are already lacing the country air with a sweet honey scent – you sniff them before you see them.

Find some room for Lonicera periclymenum Serotina in the garden. A warm, south or west-facing wall is best because it will go on producing scent for a few hours more each night.

Blooms are a magnet to bees. In autumn they bring in birds to feed on the bright red berries.

Pruning is essential to keep these rampant climbers under control. And you may need to cut back the most t r oublesome t wining s t ems immediately after flowering.

In wild areas of the garden it is best to leave the dense canopy to scramble over a tree stump so it can be used as a nesting place for birds.