Best 21 low maintenance fragrant garden plants to create a scented sanctuary

Imagine being able to close your front door on work stress, dusty pavements and traffic fumes, then open your back door and… 

Breathe in uplifting scents of the best fragrant garden plants with abundant flowers and foliage. Drop your weary body into a garden chair, take the first sip of your drink, lean back and exhale the stress of the day.

Sounds good? It is. And it’s much easier to achieve than you might think.

By choosing plants from this list, you’ll be at a huge advantage when it comes to creating your own scented sanctuary.

Every single plant here has been grown by me over the years, and has thrived on very little care and attention. They can all be grown in containers, although you will need to water them thoroughly in warm or hot weather. If you have enough space to plant in the ground, they’ll all grow happily in most soil types.

Roses

Well, roses have to come first in a list of the best fragrant garden plants, don’t they? Whatever your garden situation, there will be a rose to suit you. Shady spots – no problem. No garden soil – roses happily grow in large containers. Need one with very few thorns – plenty to choose from. Want to create an intruder-proof barrier – roses are your best friends.

But we’re really here to talk about the most fragrant roses. And there’s an abundance of them, whatever your scent preferences. Discover more about growing roses.

Shrubs

Shrubs are super useful in your garden, especially if it’s a small one. They add structure and shape all year round. There are plenty which work hard to earn their place in this list of the best fragrant garden plants. 

I’ve divided them into deciduous shrubs which lose their leaves in autumn (fall), and evergreen shrubs which are, well, evergreen. Ideally you’d have a combination, but if you live in an urban area with less-than-pretty surroundings, evergreens can form a useful living screen all year round.

Choisya ternata – evergreen

Rich, glossy green leaves reflect the light in the darkest of back yards, making choisya a superb workhouse in most gardens. In a slightly sunnier spot, you’ll likely get more of the sweetly scented star shaped flowers, which appear in spring, then often again in summer.

Viburnum tinus ‘Eve Price’ – evergreen

This particular viburnum starts showing pearly rose trumpet-shaped flowers around October and keeps on going until April. The scent is lightly vanilla like, although I generally recommend it for its astonishingly long flowering season. It also produces dusty blue berries which are much loved by hungry birds. Along with choisya, it is very easy going and will thrive in most gardens.

Osmanthus x Burkwoodii – evergreen

If you’re looking for an evergreen shrub that looks more like a small tree, osmanthus may well be a perfect choice for you. Related to olive, you can see the similarity in the smooth, closely textured bark. Elegantly shaped oval leaves bear dense clusters of delicious apricot/peach scented flowers in spring. Much prized in the world of perfume, why not grow your own osmanthus and breathe in the heady scent on a chilly, grey spring day?

Sarcococca confusa – evergreen

Also known as sweet box, sarcococca will do very well in a shady part of your garden. Starting to flower during the darkest days of midwinter, it’ll fill your nostrils with a captivating scent that’s similar to jasmine. It’s a fabulous plant to clip sprigs off; why not pop one in a vase and imagine yourself somewhere much sunnier, as the hail and sleet whirls around?

Lavender – evergreen

One of the few shrubs here that really needs a sunny, well drained spot to be truly happy, lavender is a great fragrant plant to have in your scented sanctuary. The elegant silvery green spires will keep their fragrance even in the winter, although, obviously, the flowers are what most people really grow it for. Ranging from icy white petals to deepest indigo spears, you could fill your whole garden with different types of lavender. 

Winter flowering honeysuckle – deciduous

A superbly useful fragrant shrub, that’ll delight you in the darkest days of winter. You know, when you have to dash out to the bins, but it’s lashing with rain. But you’ll still be able to smell the delectable spicy and honeyed scent of winter flowering honeysuckle. It sports soft, supple jade green leaves in the summer, making it an ideal backdrop to showier plants, and is definitely one of the best fragrant garden plants.

Philadelphus – deciduous

This fabulous shrub will transport you to much sunnier countries when it flowers in June and July. It seems impossible that a garden plant with such a profoundly glamorous scent can thrive in Britain. And thrive it does. It’s very popular here in South West Scotland, where you can detect its glorious, richly citrus and warmly jasmine-like scent from a few gardens away. It may only flower for a few weeks, but it’s definitely worth a place in your garden.

Viburnum x Bodnantense ‘Dawn’ – deciduous

Another shrub that’ll enchant you with its scent in winter. Rosy pink buds start developing in autumn, alongside the fiery leaves which provide such a great show. As the temperature starts to fall, tiny clusters of blackcurrant scented flowers open at intervals throughout the winter months, sometimes through until spring.

Wintersweet – deciduous

Festooned with spicily fragrant, creamy yellow flowers from December until February, this scented shrub will love a sunny spot in your garden. One of the best fragrant winter flowering garden plants to take a clipping from, and scent a room in your house.  

Climbers

Honeysuckle

Even if you only have a very small garden, you probably have space to plant a honeysuckle. They’ll happily grow in a small patch of scratchy soil, or in a large container. Ugly fences, ramshackle sheds and rows of bins can easily be screened using a sweetly scented honeysuckle, some trellis and a little ingenuity. 

Trees

Eucalyptus

Beloved by flower arrangers, eucalyptus is an incredibly valuable tree to grow in a large container. The opalescent leaves shimmer somewhere between dusty blue and sage green, overlaid with a lavender bloom which catches the sun. Rubbing the leaves gently between your fingers will release its soft, minty aroma. 

Apple

You can easily grow an apple tree in a large container. There are lots of self-fertile varieties to choose from, so even if you only have space for one tree, you’ll still be able to luxuriate in the deliciously scented blossom in late spring, and maybe enjoy some apples too. 

Hardy perennials

Hardy perennials are plants which grow fast during the spring and summer, then die back and lie dormant under the soil until the next growing season. They’re not dead, just hibernating. Infinitely better, cheaper and more environmentally sound than seasonal bedding plants, they’ll provide you with abundant texture and colour to fill out your garden.  

Geranium

If I could only recommend one type of plant to suit anyone and any garden situation, it would be a hardy geranium. They are absolutely the least fuss and bother of anything you could grow. Their leaves are delicately scented which earns them a spot in my list of the best fragrant garden plants. 

They come in dozens of different colours and forms, so you’ll be able to find one to suit your preferences. But please be sure that you’re buying a hardy geranium when you’re at the garden centre. Not a pelargonium. Don’t get me wrong, I love pelargoniums and my house is full of them, but if you live in a place where the winter temperatures fall below freezing, they will die. Discover the differences between geraniums and pelargoniums.

Hardy geraniums bloom for months on end, gradually clumping up to form weed suppressing mounds and feeding all of your local pollinators. What a workhorse.

Nepeta

An absolute bee magnet, nepeta is a must-have plant for most garden designs. Flowering abundantly for months on end from mid-summer, the delicate blue flowers spill lazily over nearby plants and onto paths, softening any hard lines. The soft foliage has a gorgeous lemon and mint scent, so feel free to crush a sprig as you saunter around your scented sanctuary.

Agastache

Looking beautiful planted next to, or among nepeta, agastache thrusts its indigo spires skywards, offering fluffy bottle brush flowers to hungry bees. It flowers from July onwards, and its foliage has a spicy, lemon/licorice scent. It loves a sunny spot, and is a top recommendation for pollinator friendly planting, as well as being one of the best fragrant garden plants.

Salvia

Another sun loving scented plant, there are salvias in dozens of different colours. They’re a little more high maintenance than most plants in this list, as they can suffer in cold winters. They put on growth very quickly in the spring, and will keep producing spear after spear of sage scented foliage, with delicate bee friendly flowers.

Annuals

Now I know that sowing annuals is not everybody’s idea of hands-off gardening. But these recommendations are the most reliable and speedy germinators, so all you need to do is scatter them in multi-purpose compost, check periodically that they don’t dry out, then enjoy the heady fragrances when they flower.

I buy all my seeds from Chiltern’s Seeds because they are always excellent quality from a very friendly family run business. 

Night scented stock 

The palest of sugared almond lilac flowers, but most people don’t grow this for its visual impact. The scent is heady on warm evenings; spicy and sweet, without being sickly. It’s gorgeous to have near your windows or back door so you catch tantalising wafts all summer.

Night scented phlox

Beautiful, glistening moon white flowers open in the evening to fill your garden with vanilla and honey scents. Their deep burgundy buds hold onto the precious scent during the day, so it’s almost like having two plants for the price of one. They are one of my favourites to grow, because they’re so reliable, and the scent is rapturously delicious—definitely one of the best fragrant garden plants.

Sweet pea

A fabulous and reliable bloomer, even in temperamental British summers. Available in lots of colours, so you’ll be able to find one that fits with your planting scheme. Sweet peas really do benefit from enthusiastic picking, which’ll encourage more buds to develop. So feel free to fill your house with vases of this fabulous fragrant flower.

Nasturtium

Not scented as you might imagine, nasturtiums have a warm, peppery spicy smell. Their leaves smell similar, and you can treat the young ones as salad leaves. The vibrant, velvety flowers are also edible, and will add a jolly flash of colour to your plate.

Even in the smallest spaces, you can create your very own scented sanctuary by filling it with some of the best fragrant garden plants. You’ll feel a sense of increased wellbeing as you nurture your garden, and just think of the deliriously happy pollinators you’ll be helping to feed too. 

Looking for amazing places to buy some fabulously fragrant plants? Here’s my list of favourite garden plant suppliers.