Best Plant Scents

iboza_leaf

Earlier today I was doing some writing on the book I hope to publish in the near future. One of the sections I was working on was about particularly aromatic plants and I got the sudden urge to invite readers via social media to share their favourite plant smell, whether from foliage, flower, or otherwise. Since I know some of you don’t use social media or follow my accounts, I thought I’d extend the question to you, too. Here in Toronto we’re only just coming out from what I hope is our final snowfall and hard freeze of the season, and I for one am clamouring for some good, earthy smells.

The leaf shown above is Iboza, a South African bush that I have been overwintering in my office. I wrote about it previously. The smell is intoxicating and intense. Even as I write this my hand still smells of the leaf I clipped off and I can’t stop myself from pulling it up to my face to take a whiff every minute or so.

Tell us: What is your favourite plant smell? And since picking favourites is hard, What are you particularly drawn to right now or looking forward to this growing season?

Gayla Trail
Gayla is a writer, photographer, and former graphic designer with a background in the Fine Arts, cultural criticism, and ecology. She is the author, photographer, and designer of best-selling books on gardening, cooking, and preserving.

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47 thoughts on “Best Plant Scents

  1. Tough to pick just one! Right now I am looking forward to tomato season by brushing my tomato seedlings. It is strange because I cannot tolerate perfume or strong fragrance, but among the plant world my favorite scents are the intense florals like lily of the valley, magnolia, moon flower, Acidanthera. Each summer evening my first stop is a moon flower to stick my face in it!

    • my tomatoes are mixed with santolina and artemisia plants. it repels insects and smells awesome. no bug spray necessary. the slugs and snails don’t seem to mind, but they are also distracted by the more durable plants and aren’t as destructive.

  2. I’m in Ontario too. I just picked all the daffodils with a bend in their stem, because I knew they would not recover and stand upright again. I love their fragrance, every time I walk past them I smell spring. It must be arriving soon…..surely!

  3. Tomatoes! Especially at this time in the year. I tend to obsess over the plants I start in spring, especially when the outdoor world is covered in snow.

  4. “Favorite” changes with the smell! But this weekend I went a little south (of PA) and found flowering Rosemary. It was so fresh and alive tears came to my eyes. I forget every single winter that the world smells so good, so the first thing I smell in the spring hits me like a truck.

  5. All citrus blossoms are my favorite. But I do miss the scent of lilacs since they won’t grow in Florida.

  6. Seasonal scents are nice – apple blossoms soon, lilacs, peonies, sweet peas, rugosa rose.

    One of my favorites is Monarda – the spicy/bergamot scent is really distinctive, especially the local native varieties. A scent from Saskatoon berry picking on a hot July day.

    Also old school annual Mignonette – reminds me of raspberry candy. My mom used to grow it. I should try to find some seed for this year.

    Lavender is great. Fresh Spearmint too.

    I just had a pot of Apeldoorn Elite tulips in the house – an amazing vanilla/violet scent. Usually tulips smell like dandelions to me.

    Cheers,
    Jake

  7. All the native California salvias are wonderful, and quite different.

    Cleveland sage, my favorite, has an intoxicating fresh scent.

    Hummingbird sage has a very different aroma, fruity and resinous.

    White sage is more pungent.

  8. There is, to me, no better plant smell than that of a tulip flower. I also enjoy daffodil and iris scents.

    Also:
    Tomato leaves!
    Apricot blossoms!
    Celery!

  9. One of my favourites is nasturtium. I love the peppery smell of the leaves and stems and then the sweet surprise of the scented flowers.

  10. So many wonderful, evocative scents that it’s hard to narrow down! But the Viburnum carlesii has to be one of my most favorite and just says Spring so beautifully. And then of course, there is lavender….aaahhh!

  11. we have honeysuckle that grows like weeds here on Haida Gwaii. The smell is intense and pleasant enough. And the exact opposite of the spectrum is Geraniums – i LOVE the smell of these….not the flowers (although i am sure they smell just fine) but the leaves are kind of like a tomatoey/carroty leaf. Best spring scent is the Lunaria or Honesty bi-annuals.

  12. The scent that makes my eyes roll back in my head every year is blooming citrus groves. So, so sweet. I also love jasmine and the scent of rich loamy earth deep in the woods.

  13. My favorite flower smell at the moment is Alyssum – I missed smelling it when it died off during the winter, and I’m looking forward to putting it in as a bed border again this year.

  14. I love lilly of the valley, as many of your other readers seem to. When I was a young child, I was admiring a person’s yard as she gardened. She gave me one of the little lillies that had spread under her pavers,– and it absolutely delighted me, to the point where I remember it still, over twenty years later. The smell of the flowers now always remind me of the importance of little acts of kindness-even something insubstantial to you may make a big difference to someone else.

    I believe the scent of lilly of the valley, like sweet peas and many other flowers, cannot be distilled from the plant itself, but must be artificially simulated in a lab for perfumery and fragrances. It means that the real scents are limited to the precious few weeks when the plant blooms.

  15. I love the scent of Lemon Verbena, just brushing by it in the garden makes this gorgeous cloud of lemon. Also Jasmine Nicotiana – in the evenings it literally fills the backyard and anywhere nearby with the most amazing smell

  16. You have a book going to publish soon? wow that’s a good news! Haven’t seen or even smell Iboza but based on your description, I’m pretty sure it could cure certain disease too. For my favorite plant smell, I’ll go for Jasmine for its gentle, soothing effect on the body and mind. It’s also been shown to reduce anxiety levels, leading to a greater quality of sleep.

  17. Mexican Mint Marigold (Tagetes lucida), which is neither a mint nor a marigold–though related, I think. It smells like licorice anise and is used instead of tarragon here in the South, because that doesn’t grow well in this climate. Nice little plant that gets little golden yellow flowers in the fall. I just like to pinch off a leaf or two when I’m working outside . . . my favorite garden aroma!

  18. jasmine, lemon, lemon balm, any of the mints, rose, garlic, onion, lily of the valley, lilacs, blossoms from fruiting trees, lemon grass, lavender, strawberries, ginger

  19. My current favourite scent is the lemon geranium my wife has been overwintering on the kitchen windowsill. One tiny touch of a leaf, and the scent is so fresh and citrusy.
    Looking forward to the herb garden coming to life with lemon balm, lavender, anise, and mint.

    Looking forward to reading your book. Please let me know if I can help you to promote it. Hope you have an amazing summer.

    David

  20. Lilac is wonderful, dill makes me smile and want to wear it like perfume, but geranium leaves are my all time favorite.

    The Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast recently talked about the power of scent.

  21. There is nothing like the smell of sweet mint.
    Lavender and lemon verbena are also special, but mint is just so evocative!

  22. For me, it’s honeysuckle, basil and rosemary. I think I’d love the smell of lilies too if it were slightly less overwhelming…

  23. Marigold! I was just moving some seedlings around this morning and wondering why I love the smell of marigold so much – something from childhood. They remind me of my grandfather who was a master gardener, and they smell like a flower, but just this side of vegetal. I love it.

  24. I have a rough relationship with plant smells. I’ve *never* liked the smell of most popular flowers grown for their scent – I can’t stand the smell of roses or lilies or pretty much anything that comes from the florist. Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve lost a lot of my sense of smell to allergies and allergy medication. Which, for me, means I can’t smell my favorite scents so much anymore, but all the annoying stuff seems to come through loud and clear. I do remember LOVING the smell of heliotrope though.

  25. I love this topic. Thanks for starting it. I love the scent of petunias. It is hard, sometimes, to find some that still have a noticable scent. Some folks don’t even realize they have one. I’ve noticed that purple and white flowers are the two smelliest, but not all varieties. So I walk around the garden shop sniffing every petunia until I find some that have a scent. Then I bring them home and plant them in a box that I put right next to my back door. Their fragrance is most noticable at dusk on a warm eveing, like moonflowers. I love coming home, tired after a long day at work and, as I walk up my back steps, I am wrapped in their soft, heavenly scent. Like a welcome home hug.

  26. I can’t resist crushing a bit of cedar between my fingers as I walk through the neighborhood – it wakes me up, and it’s everywhere, even in the winter. In the Spring I too love the old-fashioned flowers like lily of the valley and lilac… takes me right back to childhood.

  27. They’re all favorites, especially many listed above, although the blooms on my black currant bush are absolutely my favorite this week and nothing is better than the scent of my Mr. Lincoln rose or my border of irises when they are in full bloom.

  28. Smell has always been a big part of why I garden. I carry a bottle of dried sage from Nevada as part of my childhood memories and once in a while, I’ll open it to smell and think of home. I also have a jar of creosote from Arizona which is a strange plant to love the smell of but after the rain, it’s a wonderful smell. I love all types of herbs and have for years. In Alaska, it was the linden trees in the spring. I’m always drawn to smells in nature and when a particular smell is there, it brings with it memories.

  29. I can’t get enough of Lemon Verbena, Water Mint and the (white with blushing lavender) Sweet Pea “April in Paris”. My 4:00’s used to have a stronger fragrance than they do these days. Perhaps it was a slightly different cultivar, but that Mirabilis fragrance used to epitomize summer for me. I purposely placed it near the patio doors for its evening fragrance wafting into the family room.

    Deeply nostalgic smells include honeysuckle which my Grandfather taught me to sip when we walked along the thick greenery behind his chicken farm. I was 4 years old. I can still feel the heaviness in the humid air and my delight at the time spent alone with an important role model.

  30. This is a great idea! I love the scent of roses, lavender and mint (not in combination though :))) And for the kitchen – rosemary is my favourite.
    I always like to create a little “aroma therapy” corner with herbs and flowers with a stronger scent in my landscape designs. It makes for a great place for relaxation in the garden.

  31. My favourite plant aroma is either lavendar or rosemary but today I walked past a beautiful display in a neighbours front garden , the smell was amazing. It was a purple clematis. I think I’ve discovered a new favourite, and I’ll be planting some very soon.

  32. daffodil ‘Bridal Crown’ is by far my favorite scent for spring and Thymus vulgaris ‘German Winter’.. we have a lot of it growing here in the Swiss Alps..

  33. My favourite smell at the moment is Galium Odoratum. I’m German – all green coloured sweets during my childhood were flavoured with this (or a chemical imitation of it). I was very surprised to learn very much later that in virtually every country except Germany, the “green” flavour in sweets is a rather nasty imitation of apple.

    The leaves are harvested between April and May. They have to wilt or dry to develop their characteristic smell. I bought several pots in the supermarket during the season. Some are still on my desk, and I occasionally pluck a stem and smell the dried herb.

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