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Designing A Fragrant Flower Garden

Imagine stepping out the door and smelling your garden before you even see it. The multi-sensory joy that a fragrant flower garden offers to the gardener is unparalleled in the landscape. The key to having plenty of fragrant blooms – enough to bring inside by the armful to enjoy in vases – is making sure you’ve planned your fragrant flower garden to bloom from spring all the way into fall. Read on for recommendations for some of our favorite fragrant varieties for blooms all season long, garden design ideas, and tips for keeping your wonderful-smelling cut flowers last longer once you bring them indoors.

 

Fragrant Blooms All Season Long

If you want to enjoy that spectacular scent of fragrant blooms all season long, you’ll want to make sure to add early, mid and late-season blooming varieties to your garden. This way you’ll not only have sweet fragrance, but color and interest in your garden from spring all the way into fall. Planning for season-long blooms is also the key to attracting pollinators to your fragrant garden. (Dual-purpose!)

Favorite Fragrant Flowers:

Designing A Fragrant Flower Garden

When designing your garden, plant taller, larger varieties towards the back of the garden when planting up against your home or a fence. Plant taller varities in the center for island or circular garden beds.

Varieties that need deadheading to promote longer-lasting blooms (like Bee Balm) should be planted in an area that is easy to access, or have a path to access them. Before planting your perennials in the garden, make sure to measure the space needed between each plant so they have space to fill in and mature.

Our garden experts have designed a fragrant flower garden for you! Our Fragrant Flower Pre-Planned Garden is a collection of 26 fragrant perennials that create an easy, show-stopping statement in 72 sq feet. Pre-Planned Gardens come with planting and care instructions, and a custom garden map to make planting simple. Our Pre-Planned Gardens are an easy, affordable way to bring professional design to your home.

Plant Wildflowers For An Easy-To-Grow Fragrant Flower Garden

If you’re looking for an even easier way to get color and fragrance all season long, our Fragrant Wildflower Seed Mix is the perfect choice! Our wildflower seed mixes are designed with a broad range of flowers to provide color from spring through fall. This mix features 16 colorful flower species. The annual wildflowers will burst with scented flowers in the first season, and the perennial flowers will bring color and fragrance for years to come. You’ll have plenty of blooms to cut and bring indoors for fragrant bouquets. Plus, you can enjoy a parade of pollinators to your garden or meadow all season.

Favorite Fragrant Flower Combinations

fragrant flower garden: grape hyacinths and daffodils

Grape Hyacinths and Daffodils are a fantastic spring fragrant combination. Fall-planted flower bulbs bloom for a stunning spring display. You can also force bulbs for indoor blooms in early spring!

fragrant flower garden: phlox and echinacea

Phlox and Echinacea make a great summer display. These perennial flowers reach their peak in summer, returning season after season with more flowers each year as they mature.

fragrant flower garden: oriental lilies and russian sage

Plant fragrant spring-planted bulbs such as Oriental Lilies with perennial plants such as Russian Sage and Black Eyed Susan for a winning summer combination.

How To Keep Fragrant Flowers Fresh In A Vase

  • Cut in the early morning or late in the evening. Cooler temperatures make it easier on the cut flower to make the transition from growth to your vase.
  • Choose blooms that are barely open. Flowers will open once put into water, so to ensure you’ll enjoy long-lasting color, cut flowers that have just opened or are about to open.
  • Clean water. This is important! Clean, fresh water is important to keep your cut flowers lasting longer. Change the water every day if possible.
  • The right temperature. Place your gorgeous bouquet in a cool area where it will last longer. Keep flowers away from hot windows or vents in the summer months.

Favorite fragrant flowers to cut and bring indoors are PeoniesOriental LiliesFreesia and Hyacinths. These varieties all tend to last long in a vase.

fragrant flower garden: peony bouquet

Peonies are a classic cut flower. While the plants mature slowly, these gorgeous spring blooms are the highlight of the perennial garden.

fragrant flower garden: sweet pea

Sweet Peas are a delicate cut flower, and they're gaining popularity in flower arrangements with their lovely texture and fragrance. Grow from seed.

fragrant flower garden: phlox

Phlox is a fantastically fragrant cut flower and an easy-to-grow perennial that will attract plenty of pollinators to your garden with summer blooms.

After you've planted your favorite varieties in your garden, you get to the best part: enjoying your fragrant flower garden! Sit and drink a cup of coffee or a cocktail, letting the colors and fragrance take over your senses. Read a good book on a blanket in the summer months or enjoy a warm drink on a bench by your garden in the fall. With a long-lasting, colorful and fragrant garden, the possibilities for enjoyment are endless.

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