15 of the Best Smelling and Fragrant flowers

Fragrance in flowers is such a desirable attribute that it’s a perennial complaint of many gardeners that modern varieties of various plants, particularly roses, lack all or most of the fragrance of the older varieties. This is demonstrably untrue of many varieties, of course, yet there is a good deal of truth in the generalization. Some varieties are certainly much less fragrant than the ‘old-fashioned’ roses and a few seem to lack detectable fragrance, but, on the whole, a good modern variety will number fragrance among its qualities. Much depends, of course, upon the individual sense of smell, coupled with the ‘scent memory’ which all of us possess to some degree. It is, in fact, usually well developed and most of us are readily and instantaneously reminded by present scents of past incidents, places, and persons, and although the actual vocabulary of scent is limited, it is usually possible for us to describe a scent fairly accurately by comparing it with another. Thus it is quite usual for us to say that a flower has a lily-like fragrance, or that it smells like new-mown hay.

In general, it is true to say that, although the modern roses may be fragrant, the fragrance is lighter than that associated with the ‘old-fashioned’ varieties, which have returned to popularity in recent years, partly because of the rich, heavy fragrance of their blooms, Few gardens are too small to accommodate one or two of these; they may not have the perfectly-shaped blooms associated with the present-day hybrid tea varieties, but around midsummer, and with some kinds, until late in the season, they will fill the garden with the true rose scent which, like all scents, is difficult to describe precisely, but is unmistakable when it is found.

J