Creating a garden that delights all the senses is one of gardening’s greatest pleasures. These ten fragrant flowers will transform your Devon garden into an aromatic haven, offering beautiful blooms alongside captivating scents that will enchant visitors and attract beneficial wildlife throughout the seasons.
1. Sweet Peas: Delicate Blooms with an Intense Sweetness
Sweet peas are climbing wonders that offer a profusion of brightly colored flowers and an incredibly sweet, often described as honey-like, fragrance. These annual climbers produce delicate, butterfly-like blooms in shades of pink, purple, white, and cream. Regular deadheading encourages more blooms and prolongs their delightful perfume. Choose from heritage varieties for the strongest scent, and provide them with cool, moist soil and support for their climbing habit.
2. Stocks: Upright Spikes of Sweetness
Stocks (Matthiola incana) produce upright spikes of beautifully colored flowers with a strong, sweet, clove-like fragrance that intensifies in the evening. These cottage garden favorites come in single and double-flowered forms, displaying blooms in white, pink, purple, and yellow. Night-scented stocks (Matthiola longipetala) are particularly fragrant after dark, making them perfect for evening gardens.
3. Roses: The Timeless Elegance of Fragrance
No list of fragrant flowers is complete without roses. From the classic Damask roses with their intense, sweet perfume to the fruity notes of modern varieties, there’s a rose for every nose. Choose varieties known for their fragrance, such as ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ with its rich, old rose scent, ‘Munstead Wood’ with its fruity fragrance, or ‘Sharifa Asma’ with its delicate, tea-like perfume. Plant in well-drained soil with morning sun for the best fragrance development.
4. Hyacinths: Spring Awakening with Intense Sweetness
These spring bulbs bring a burst of color and an incredibly strong, sweet fragrance to the early garden. Hyacinths produce dense spikes of waxy, star-shaped flowers in vibrant blues, pinks, whites, and yellows. Their powerful perfume can fill entire garden areas, making them ideal for planting near pathways or seating areas. Plant bulbs in autumn for a spectacular spring display.
5. Lavender: The Calming Aroma of the Mediterranean
This quintessential cottage garden plant releases its soothing and distinctive fragrance, especially on warm days. English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) varieties like ‘Hidcote’ and ‘Munstead’ are particularly hardy and well-suited to Devon’s climate. The aromatic oils in both flowers and foliage create a calming atmosphere while attracting bees and butterflies. Plant in well-drained soil and full sun for the strongest fragrance.
6. Narcissus: Spring’s Golden Trumpet
These beloved spring bulbs, including daffodils and jonquils, offer more than just cheerful yellow blooms. Many varieties, particularly the smaller-flowered types like ‘Jonquilla’ and ‘Poeticus’, produce a sweet, intense fragrance that can perfume entire garden areas. Their honey-like scent is strongest on warm spring days, making them perfect for naturalizing in grass or planting in borders and containers.
7. Lilac: The Essence of Spring
Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) produces magnificent panicles of small, tubular flowers that release one of spring’s most beloved fragrances. The sweet, powdery scent varies from variety to variety, with colors ranging from deep purple and pink to white and cream. These hardy shrubs thrive in Devon’s climate and can grow quite large, making them excellent specimen plants or informal hedging.
8. Nicotiana (Flowering Tobacco): Evening Delight
Many varieties of Nicotiana release their strongest fragrance in the evening, attracting moths with their intoxicating perfume. Their trumpet-shaped flowers come in various colors, from white and lime green to pink and crimson. Nicotiana alata and its cultivars are particularly known for their lovely scent, which becomes almost overwhelming on warm summer evenings. Plant near seating areas to enjoy their evening performance.
9. Sweet Rocket: The Cottage Garden Classic
Sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis) produces clusters of four-petaled flowers in shades of purple, pink, and white that release a strong, sweet fragrance, particularly in the evening. This hardy biennial self-seeds readily, creating naturalized drifts in cottage garden settings. The flowers are edible and were traditionally used in salads, while the evening fragrance made them popular in medieval gardens.
10. Honeysuckle: The Climbing Perfume
Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) is a vigorous climbing plant that produces tubular flowers with an intensely sweet, almost intoxicating fragrance that peaks in the evening. The creamy-white and yellow blooms attract moths and other night-flying insects, followed by bright red berries that birds adore. This native climber is perfect for covering fences, arbors, or growing through trees, bringing vertical fragrance to your garden.
Creating Your Fragrant Garden
By incorporating these ten fragrant flowers into your Devon garden, you can create an outdoor space that is not only visually stunning but also a feast for the senses throughout the seasons. Consider planting them near pathways, seating areas, and windows where their delightful perfumes can be best appreciated. Many of these flowers also attract beneficial insects like bees and butterflies, creating a garden that supports local wildlife while providing you with moments of pure olfactory pleasure.
Remember to plant a succession of fragrant flowers to ensure continuous scent from early spring through late autumn, and choose varieties that complement your garden’s existing conditions and style.
