Fragrant perennials are the joy of my gardening life. For example, to get in my front door at the nursery,  you had to run a gauntlet of potted lavender plants.  And even in my new garden, there are two lavenders strategically placed at corners of our entrance walk.

And given that Lavender is reputed to haven aphrodisiac properties, you can draw your own conclusions to why it's been one of the most popular herbs in human history and a major one in creating perfumes.

No More Difficult To Grow

My three favorite plants are no more difficult to grow than other kinds of perennials.  I've given  you my  favorites but I've also included a list of generally fragrant perennials for your own research. :-)

Lavender

lavender
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A lavender hybrid - tender but lovely

Lavender is a classic perennial plant with species for northern and southern climates.  Some of the fancier hybrids can be "miffy" (in other words, they don't live over winter and are fussy about where they do live)  here in a USDA 4/5  

But generally if you have a well-drained soil, you can grow this plant. 

Sorry - those of you with heavy clay soils might have some difficulty with winter dieoff.  Holding too much water around the roots will rot them.

Do check out the linked article above for info and videos on how to grow lavender.

peony

Itoh peony 'Barzella'
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Peony - Itoh 'Bartrzella'

What can I say about the peony  that I haven't said in this article.  It's a classic plant and the new Itoh hybrids (one pictured above) are simply stunning in the garden.  Peonies make excellent cut flowers, are fragrant and with a bit of creative staking (which disappears into the background) can be an excellent bloomer in the early summer. 

thyme

Thymus citriodora
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Thymus citriodora

Strangely enough, I've not written an article about Thyme yet as a perennial flower.  I have written about growing it as an herb along with recommended varieties here.

The key to success with this plant is to have excellent drainage in the full sun.  Do this and your success is almost guaranteed.  Give it too much water or shade and you might want to enjoy it the year you plant it because it's not likely to be a long-term plant for you.

a list of fragrant perennials

In case you don't like my choice of fragrant perennials, I give you a much bigger list to pick from. 

Whatever you do in your garden, do try to get as many fragrant perennials into it as possible.

Achillea

Acorus
Actinidia
Agastache

Arabis
Artemisia
Asclepias
Aurinia
Buddleia

Calamintha
Campanula
Cardiocrinum
Caryopteris
Centaurea

Centranthus
Chamaemelum
Cimicifuga
Clematis
Convallaria

Corydalis
Cyclamen
Dianthus or are great little rock garden plants as well as good border plants.
Dictamnus

Erodium
Erysimum
Eupatorium
Euphorbia
Fallopia

Geraniumare quite hardy and easy to grow

Hemerocallis
Hesperis
Hierochloe
Hosta belong in your shade garden

Houttuynia
Iris
Lavandula is the fragrant lavender plant
Lonicera

Malva
Melissa
Mentha
Monarda or beebalm has marvellously fragrant leaves.
Myrrhis

Nepeta or catnip belongs in every garden
Origanum
Paeonia are garden classics.
Perovskia or Russian Sage is good for dryland and hot sun gardening.
Phlox

Polemonium or or Jacob's Ladder belongs in your shade garden.
Polygala
Polygonatum
Primula
Pycnanthemum

Santolina
Silene
Rosmarinus
Salvia
Tanacetum

Thymus
Tiarella
Viola

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