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Fragrant front gardens

What could be better to welcome you home than a front garden bursting with scented plants? Here’s a selection to lift your spirits all year round

Gardens and gardening have an incredible power to make us feel better. The sight and scent of flowers in full bloom can brighten even the darkest day – and where better to grow these flowers than in your front garden, where you're guaranteed to pass them most often.

An evening welcome

The delightful scent of night phlox is sometimes likened to fresh washing
 Night phlox (Zaluzianskya ovata) is a cute little plant that has to be smelled to be believed. Making a neat mound of mid-green leaves, it's perfect to grow alongside a driveway, and is covered with pretty white whirligig flowers in summer. These are made all the prettier by the maroon staining on the backs of the petals.

But its real glory is the scent – described by some people as vanilla, others say it’s like fresh washing. The flowers' fragrance is strongest in the evening, after around 7pm – perfect to welcome you home after a long day. Give it a warm, sunny spot and well-drained soil. Grows to about 20cm / 8in height and spread.

A wall plant that gives you months of scent

Coronilla is a great plant for bringing colour and scent to the darker months
 An utterly lovely plant with some hilariously awful names – Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Citrina’ – is known in English as bastard senna or scorpion vetch. Most gardeners simply call it coronilla and love it to bits for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it flowers right through the darkest, dankest months of the year, starting in October and carrying on until May.

The flowers themselves are a delightful primrose yellow and have the most wonderful scent, sometimes likened to hyacinths but fresher and less overpowering. Grow it as a small-ish shrub of 1m (3ft) height and spread or train it up a wall or fence as a climber. Recommended for a sunny, south-facing wall but can thrive in other situations too. Can grow to 1.8m (6ft) or more but is easily controlled by pruning after flowering.
 

Perfect for pots by the front door

This pelargonium has fruity-scented leaves that simply demand to be stroked
 Pelargonium ‘Pink Capricorn’ (also known as ‘Pink Capitatum) is a wonderfully giving plant. One of the most free-flowering of the scented leaf geraniums (pelargoniums) it bears large clusters of vibrant pink flowers for months on end. Its real glory, however is its delightfully fragrant leaves which simply demand to be touched.

Place a couple of plants in pots either side of your front door and you’ll get a fragrant greeting every time you brush past them. The scent is warm, fruity and guaranteed to lift your mood. This variety grows to about 45cm (18in) height and spread so give it a generous-sized container. It's tender so bring your plants inside a porch or conservatory during the winter months if you'd like to keep them from one year to the next.
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A colourful, fragrant wallflower for beds and borders

The warm, spicy scent of 'Winter Orchid' perfectly matches its colouring
 ‘Winter Orchid’ is a perennial wallflower that will knock your socks off. Its flowers are the most fantastic combination of colours – including reds, purples and oranges, which change colour as they age. They’re scented too, with that wonderful warm wallflower scent, honey with overtones of coconut and spice. Give this one a sheltered, sunny spot and it will flower almost all year round, but especially in late winter and early spring when its fragrance and warm colouring will be all the more welcome. Grows well in poor chalky soil and can reach around 30 x 30cm (12 x 12in).
 

A tiny daffodil that’s perfect for pots and garden beds

Small, neat and scented, 'Hawera' is a very useful daffodil
 ‘Hawera’ is an all-round gorgeous miniature daffodil. What it lacks in size it more than makes up for in flower power, with its profuse heads of clear, light yellow flowers held well above narrow grassy leaves. The flowers have a honey scent and are great for cutting too – like most daffodils they last a long time in a vase. Being small in size they tolerate bad weather well, and they’re easy to grow in most situations. You can buy them potted in spring or, preferably as dry bulbs in autumn (look for the biggest bulbs you can find).
 
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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.