Hyssop (Agastache) - Flowers and leaves both have a heavenly scent. Bees, hummingbirds and butterflies absolutely love the flowers. It is a perennial, hardy at least to zone 5, so it comes back year after year, bigger and fuller each year.
Scented Geraniums (Pelargoniums) - There is a wide variety of scented geraniums and they smell and look so different. The Lemon Rose, which smells exactly as its name implies, is a beautiful plant with small, insignificant flowers. It's all in the leaves. It is a tender perennial and has to come into the house for the cold months in zone 7 or lower. In warmer climates it can be planted in the ground, where it can get quite large and may need pruning back to maintain a certain size. If you do prune it back, put the clippings in a basket somewhere in your house for potpourri. You can put the clippings in water and root them to get more
Pelargoniums. There are a lot of scents to choose from in the Scented Geraniums. There's coconut, lemon, apricot, rose, citronella, and many more. The coconut is really nice but the plant isn't quite so pretty.
Tarragon- Even though this is a culinary herb, it could easily be used for its scent alone. It's a beautiful plant that smells so good and it taste as good as it smells. It's not only good for cooking but makes a really good herbal tea, hot or cold. It's a perennial that's hardy at least to zone 5 with protection.
Lavender - All parts of this plant smell wonderful. French Lavender (Spanish Lavender), which is common in France and grown for its oil content, is easy to grow and blooms in the spring and again later in the summer. I like to cut the blossoms and tie them in bundles and hang them upside down to dry, but cut fresh and used in small bouquets is the best. It's hardy at least to zone 5.
Variegated Plectranthus - This beautiful plant has the smell of fine, old antique wood, with a hint of citrus. It grows fast and is beautiful trailing in hanging baskets. This is a tender plant and can be a houseplant for the winter. Your house will smell so good.
Mint - Mint has such a refreshing smell and is extremely easy to grow. So easy in fact, that it really should only be grown in containers or in a confined area or you will be pulling mint out of every flower bed in your entire yard before you know it. There, the warning came first. Now, about the wonderful smell. One of the best smelling of the mints is the Chocolate Mint. It smells just like a Peppermint Patty. Then there's apple mint, spearmint, peppermint, orange mint etc. etc. Some of them you really have to use your imagination to smell the "apple" or "orange" but they still smell good. A hardy perennial, it will pop up again next spring.
Wormwood (Artemesia) - This is a silvery, lacy plant. The leaves smell like a potpourri that doesn't have a floral base. I think it is actually used in potpourri. It has a very pleasant, clean scent. Artemesia is a hardy perennial that sometimes gets a little too big, but can easily be cut back.
Helichrysum - This plant has a beautiful scent like fresh straw and some sort of fruit. It has green leaves that look frosty. It's a trailing plant that works good in pots or hanging baskets. It will have to come in for the winter but can go back out in the spring.
When planning your garden design, consider some of these great plants. Your garden might as well smell good as look good. Right?
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