My patio is springing into life. It’s wonderful to see – and to experience. Indeed, a morning cuppa or evening gin and tonic enjoyed at my patio table takes some beating! But while my patio brings me – and the birds – a lot of joy, I’d be the first to admit that it’s not perfect. One way in which I’d like to improve things this year is by introducing more fragrance to the area. This has got me exploring fragrant plants for patio pots. Here are some plants that already work for me, and some I’m going to try.
Fragrant Plants for Patio Pots – Winter
When thinking about this, it makes most sense to have a year round perspective, as ideally I’d like my patio filled with fragrant loveliness 365 days of the year. So, on this basis what’s on my list for that trickiest period, winter?
Sweet box (Sarcococca confusa)
Few plants can match the Sweet box for scent. It’s utterly intoxicating, and the fact you’re treated to it from December to February makes it all the more delicious.
It’s a winter-flowing evergreen shrub with dark green leaves and pure white flowers that likes shade. That’s a bit of a challenge for me, as it means I can’t put it next to my patio doors and have the fragrance wafting in through them, as they’re in full sun.
But my kitchen window, which looks out on the patio, is a shaded spot. So I’m going to pop a Sweet box in a container next to that window and let the scent into my house from there.
It will reach heights of 2 metres when grown in a border. In a pot I think it will be smaller. But if it gets too big I’ll plant it in my shaded, north facing border.
Winter Honesuckle
If you’ve the space for it, (as it will grow to 1.5 -2 metres tall), winter honeysuckle is well worth growing for winter fragrance.
There are three varieties which do well in the UK, Lonicera Fragrantissima, Lonicera Purpusii and Lonicera Standishii. I think Lonicera Standishii is the one I’ll go for as it’s deciduous to semi-evergreen, whereas a Fragrantissima is definitely deciduous. Standishii will produce delightfully scented white flowers between December and March and it’s easy to grow, (music to my ears) liking full sun or partial shade. I’ll just make sure it’s planted with a good quality loam-based compost as it has lots of growing to do!
Daphne
My list of late winter (Jan & Feb) flowering, heavenly fragrant plants for patio pots wouldn’t be complete without a daphne. As I write this I have a horrid feeling I’ve just managed to kill my gorgeous daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata.’ I didn’t realise how waterlogged her pot had become, I fed her at the wrong time and I left her in direct sunshine! I may as well have taken a chainsaw to her! I feel very guilty about it and have repotted her in the hope that I can rejuvinate her, so fingers crossed! But I’m doubtful.
But don’t let my stupidity put you off. Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ is an absolute patio superstar. She’s evergreen and has beautiful variegated foliage. So all year round she’s a really wonderful addition to the patio. She doesn’t grow too huge (about 0.9m tall max) and has the most deliciously scented flowers which in spring are a deep shade of pink before fading to white.
Fragrant Plants for Patio Pots – Spring
Daffodil Thalia
This aspect of patio planting I really feel I cracked this year with my white Spring containers. The containers looked absolutely wonderful. True, this year I had them either side of our front door rather than on my patio. But next year I’m going to repeat the planting but have more of it, so that I have some of the gorgeously scented containers on my patio too.
On the fragrance-front one of the real hits in the containers was Daffodil Thalia.
Thalia is a lovely vigorous, fragrant, pure white daffodil. She grows 12-14 inchces (30-35cm) tall and produces 3 or 4 flowers per stem. So that’s a lot of scent per stem. I also love the way her petals flare backward and bend down at the neck. This shows off the trumpet part of the flower really dramatically but it also gives her the look of a more delicate flower than a daffodil.
Hyacinth Carnegie
I’ve become something of a hyacinth convert thanks to Carnegie. It’s a such a beautiful white hyacinth. It bears its 12 inch tall, pure white flowers on stout stems. This is really good news as I find the big draw-back with hyacinths is that their weighty flowerheads can make the stems flop over. However, as with all hyacinths, the stand out aspect of this plant is the scent. All I can say is wow! The fragrance wafting through our front door from the all white containers was sensational. So if I can recreate even a fraction of that oomph by repeating the planting on my patio in Spring next year, I’ll be a really happy gardener!
Fragrant Plants for Patio Pots – Summer
In summer I could make so many recommendations – dainthus, phlox, petunias, roses, honeysuckles – but I’m going for something a little different – well for me!
Gardenia
Gardenias are famed for their scent and they like light shade (or indirect sunlight), which is ideal as a large chunk of my patio is pretty shaded. I’ve also not grown one before. So I’m adding gardenia to my list here as one to try. I’m must add some caveats here. I gather that they aren’t necessarily very long lasting – often declining at 5 years old.
Also not all gardenias are suitable for outdoor planting. Those that are, like sheltered conditions and they can be tricky to grow. So the experts suggest you don’t buy a cheaper, teeny-tiny specimen, but a larger more established plant. I can feel I’m putting you off here!
‘Why bother with this temperamental plant’ I hear you shout? Well the answer is its beauty and its fragrance. When it comes to fragrant plants for patio pots, gardenias take some beating. So inspired by this, and to be honest by the challenge of growing one, I’m going to have a go!
I’m going to try either Gardenia ‘Crown Jewels’ which grows about 1.2 metres tall – with a spread of 60cm. It has white, waxy, gorgeously scented double blooms. It’s happy in a pot on the patio or in a very sheltered border. And it’s hardy, but you may need to give it a bit of protection in bad winters.
The other Gardenia which has caught my eye is Gardenia jasminoides ‘Kleim’s Hardy’. This has just single white blooms but these have an really strong fragrance. It grows about 90cm x 90cm and again is happy in a container or in a sheltered flower bed. It will take up quite a bit of space, but oh, what a heavenly fragranced specimen to have!
Whichever I go for, I’m probably going to move mine to the potting shed to protect it over winter. That could be interesting if it reaches this size! If you have a porch, sheltering it there over winter would work too.
Heliotrope
Confusingly, there are lots of different heliotropes around and although they are shrubs, many are grown as half hardy annuals. This sort of puts me off, as I can’t bear the fiddle of seedlings etc.
But my patio is sheltered. So with highly fragrant flowers from June to September, ‘Heliotrope Chatsworth’ which loves a sheltered spot might deliver a lot of bang for its bucks. So could be worth the effort.
Also, I want to see if I can get it to not just flourish for a season, but last all year round. (I love a challenge). And I’ll see if I can take cuttings from it too!
I think it’s worth giving all this a go. Because at 1.2m tall, with dark green leaves and small, very very fragrant purple flowers I think it’s a beauty. It would work wonderfully in one of my larger wicker containers on my patio.
Sweet Peas
Sweet peas are an obvious contender as fragrant plants for patio pots in the summer. I’ve a bit of a love hate relationship with them. I love them, but sweet peas seem to hate growing for me! But I’m going to persevere as few plants offer the variety of colour, the beauty or the height of a Sweet Pea. And although you need to plant them afresh every year, one packet of sweet pea seeds can keep your patio awash with scent during the summer. Especially if you enrich the compost you grow in with well rotted manure, keep it nice and moist and deadhead or pick the sweet peas regularly.
Even in the highly scented sweet pea kingdom not all sweet peas are born equal! Some are even more scented than others. So if your determined to have the most fragrant pots on your patio, there are the five varieties the Gardener’s World experts recommend:
- King Edward VII – raspberry coloured, small flowers but lots of them
- Almost Black – dark purple velvety flowers on long stems, so brilliant for picking
- Painted Lady – bi-coloured, pink and white flowers – starts blooming in May
- Noel Sutton – mauve frilly flowers
- Matucana – the scentiest of all! Mauve and red flowers
There’s still time to buy your sweet pea seeds and plant them. So if you’re after uber-fragrance give some of these a go and let me know how they perform. I’d love to know.
Sadly, I’ve already got my sweet peas for this year planted up – and while I’ve long since lost the seed packets and can’t recall the varieties, I’m pretty sure none of them are on this list. But there’s always next year. Isn’t that the gardener’s mantra?
Fragrant Plants for Patio Pots – Autumn
Daphne
No, you’re not seeing double! I’ve popped daphne into my list for Autumn scent as there’s a wonderful variety aptly called ‘Eternal Fragrance’ which blooms three times – yes you read that right, three times – in the year. And one of those times is Autumn.
Daphne transatlantica Eternal Fragrance as she’s formally called is a semi-evergreen variety (so you won’t get the lovely year round variegated leaves of my earlier daphne recommendation). But she makes up for this by producing tubular star-shaped creamy white flowers, with pink flushes at the base of each flower. These flowers come in spring (April), summer (June-July) and early autumn (late August/September).
So if my poorly daphne doesn’t revive, I’m going to get one of these …or I knowing me I’ll get one of each!!
Potato Vine
I’ve lots of lovely colourful clematis varieties on my patio, working their way up obelisks. They look beautiful but their scent isn’t that special. It tends to be the larger, more vigorous clematis – such as Clematis armandii, montana and triternata ‘Rubromarginata’ – that have the best scent and they’re way too big for a patio pot.
Jasmine produces delicately fragrant flowers from mid-summer to early autumn. But it too is a vigorous climber, so I think it’s best grown over something substantial such as a shed, porch, arbour or an outbuilding.
However, there is a climber which is evergreen, and produces pristine white flowers with a jasmine-like scent right into autumn. Please all stand for the humbly named potato vine, or Solanum laxum ‘Album’.
This beauty has been given the Royal Horticultural Society’s prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM). It likes moist but well-drained soil in a sheltered, sunny site, ideally in front of a south- or west-facing wall, however it’s also happy grown it in pots, trained up an obelisk in a sheltered position on a patio.
It’s tender, so as the frosts threaten I’ll move it indoors and grow it as a houseplant, to see if I can keep it going until the following year. (Poor Mr F-W, with yet another plant over-wintering in our sitting room!)
Nicotiana
While I’ve read that the half-hardy annuals, Nicotianas, (tobacco plants) should be sown here in March to give them a maximum growing period, I’ve also read that later sown nicotianas will reward you with lovely sweet perfume up until the first frosts. Mmm, something of a conundrum. But I think it’s well worth a try planting some seeds and experimenting, as a container full of gorgeous nicotianas will not only look rather lovely on my patio but it will provide evening scent – which is rather special. It also means they’re a great food source for moths.
Nicotiana alata ‘Grandiflora’ is the most highly scented tobacco plant you can grow. It has delicate white flowers, grows about 60cm tall and likes a bit of shade, so could fit in well on my patio.
If you want something more colourful with a delicious scent, Nicotiana x hybrida ‘Whisper Mixed’ is a mixture of pink and white. Or I rather fancy Nicotiana alata ‘Lime Green.’ Again 60cm tall, it has the most velvety looking, acid-green trumpet flowers, which in low evening light would be really eye-catching.
Whatever the sowing time or variety you go for, the experts all agree that to keep the blooms coming you need to regularly deadhead. I’m going to give them a try and then let the final flowers form seedpods – to see if I can save them for next year. (Ooh another lovely project!)
Fragrant Plants for Patio Pots – the list feels endless
So that’s it – plenty of fragrant plants for patio pots which will give you year-round pleasure. Of course, you can go way beyond my list. There are lots of roses which smell delicious and will perform brilliantly in containers. I’ve not mentioned all those plants with fragrant leaves such as lemon balm or our herbs…who can resist the scent of rosemary? And of course don’t forget lavender. It’s such a crucial plant for polinators we all should be planting more of it – and a pot’s the perfect way to do this.
The long and short of it is there are oodles of ways to inject fragrance into our patios – and I for one am going to have a ball trying lots of them! I hope you do too. Happy gardening – x