The Best Aromatic Plants For Your Yard

The only thing better than waking up to a vibrant and lush garden is waking up to one full of beautiful, blossoming, aromatic plants. Aromatic plants ignite your senses, they are a sight for sore eyes and they smell wonderful. A wonderful scent is one of the most sought-after qualities when choosing what to plant in a garden.

When walking past a garden, what draws us in most of the time, is a strong, lingering fragrance that we smell long before seeing the actual plant. A scent can transform you, the sweet scent of a jasmine flower can remind you of your favorite sweet fragrance and a lemon tree can remind you of a hot late summer day sipping an ice-cold lemonade.  

Choosing the most beautiful aromatic plants to grow in your yard can be quite overwhelming, especially when you are bombarded with too many choices. This is why our experts at ShrubHub have carefully curated a list of the best aromatic plants with the most exquisite scents to add to your garden.

From fragrant flowers to shrubs and trees this guide will help you choose the best fragrant and aromatic plants to transform your garden into a heavenly scented paradise!

The Best Fragrant Trees To Plant In Your Garden

Plumeria Flowering Trees

If you want your home to feel like a resort off the coast of Hawaii, these exotic-looking and fragrant beauties will add a piece of the tropics to your backyard. Despite being associated with Hawaii, these plants are actually native to Singapore and are known for giving off a rich, sweet perfume-like aroma.

Plumerias are small evergreens that can grow up to 8 feet tall and can be used as striking ornamental plants. These tropical aromatic plants can be grown in partial shade but prefer full sun, they also require well-drained soil and watering once a week.

The sweetly fragrant blooms produced from this plant are white flowers with bright yellow centers. These small trees are drought-tolerant and heat resistant making them very easy to care for!

Sweetbay Magnolia Trees

For those of you who prefer to tap into native gardening, these gorgeous fragrant trees are native to North America and make the perfect addition to your aromatic garden.

To find out more about how to grow a sustainable native garden, visit ShrubHub.

Depending on which part of the country you are based, this tree can either be deciduous if grown in the North or evergreen if grown in the South.

This American beauty provides foliage of emerald green leaves and white flowers that give off a distinctive lemony scent. Sweetbay Magnolias require full sun or partial shade as their ideal growing conditions. Make sure these trees get plenty of water to ensure their surrounding soil does not dry up.

Sweetbay Magnolia Trees

American Wisteria

While technically Wisterias are climbing woody vines, not trees they can be planted to look and function like a tree, they are also incredibly beautiful we couldn't resist not adding them to the list!

Wisterias are an extremely elegant and stunning focal point to add to your yard. They can be grown against a pergola or a wall for a beautiful draping effect and they can be stand-alone. These vines give off an extremely pleasant aroma and can grow up to a whopping 40 feet tall given the right growing conditions!

These gorgeous vines require full sun to thrive and grow best in well-drained soil. They produce lacy foliage and a cascade of brightly colored lilac or blue flowers that bloom during the late spring to the late summer seasons.

Cherry Plums

Cherry Plum trees are breathtaking ornamental trees that under the right growing conditions can grow up to about 8 meters high. Despite their relatively shorter height for a tree, they tend to grow more in width and produce long branches that flower and produce delicious edible plum fruit.

These beautifully scented trees are very easy to care for, they require full sun or partial shade to thrive, they can grow in virtually any type of well-drained soil as long as they aren't too sandy, and they are relatively drought tolerant. Make sure to water the younger trees of these fragrant plants regularly, however, once they are established they will only require regular watering during very dry seasons.

Cherry Plums bloom pretty flowers that give off a sweet aroma, they are usually white flowers, however, they can also be pink flowers. The plum fruits they produce usually ripen around mid-summer and are ready to be picked.

The delicious fruit produced by this tree is very versatile and can be a great addition to your cooking! Cherry Plums can be baked into pies, made into jams, or eaten as is, and they are packed full of nutrients!

Sweet Smelling Flowers Or Shrubs

Roses

We cant discuss fragrant plants without giving an honorable mention to roses. A classic staple to any backyard, the rose is not only amongst the most beautiful and timeless flowers to grow but it also gives off a rich, lingering exquisite aroma.

The rose flower is a pure symbol of love and respect. Planting a rose bush in your garden will make gifting roses to your loved ones much easier and will also provide you with limitless foliage to decorate your home with.

Many perfumes chose a rose scent as their main note due to its incredibly irresistible scent. Roses come in many colors, the classic is of course red, a romantic symbol of love. Roses also come in pink flowers, white flowers, orange flowers, and yellow flowers, each with its own unique symbol.

Roses require specific growing conditions, they require full sun, moist but well-drained soil, and regular pruning. There are many species of roses to choose from depending on how you want them to grow, rose shrubs, climbing roses, rambling roses, and patio roses.

Lilacs

Lilacs are known as the queen of shrubs and are amongst the most powerfully fragrant plants to grow in your garden. Lilac is commonly used as a base note for several perfumes, soaps, and many body care products due to its smooth and rich scent. This scent only gets stronger when you provide the shrub with full sun.

Most Lilac flower species are perennials meaning their blooms only last for a few weeks annually, but you can always rely on them to continue to bloom every year for many years to come. Some lilac shrubs can live for about 100 years!

Lilac flowers come in many species and many colors, most commonly the light purple they get their namesake from. They also bloom pink flowers, white flowers, yellow flowers, and blue flowers.

Not only is the beauty of this flower unmatched but it also has very specific uses due to its unique fragrance. Lilac is used in many essential oils for cosmetic uses like skincare due to its anti-aging and healing properties. Lilac essential oils are also used for aromatherapy to help reduce stress levels and anxiety.

The Best Fragrant Plants And Herbs

Rosemary

Not just a decadent cooking ingredient, these gorgeous aromatic plants are a staple for your garden. Rosemary is a very easy-to-care-for drought-tolerant herb, all it needs is full sun and well-drained soil.

This plant produces very attractive foliage of needle-like green leaves and can bloom a beautiful shade of blue flowers. Rosemary is evergreen which makes it a very commonly grown ornamental plant.

They give off a very rich aroma that fills your garden with a lingering intoxicating scent. Rosemary is mainly used as a seasoning to add flavor to your dishes but did you know that it can also be used as an essential oil due to its distinctive scent?

Rosemary essential oils are used as a stress reliever, they are also known to stimulate hair growth and increase brain function! It is also said that rosemary essential oils can help perk you up by reducing fatigue!

Lavender

Beauty, delicious scent, and possibly the easiest plant to grow in your garden what more could you want from this deliciously fragrant herb? Lavender is a combination of practical, attractive, and versatile which makes it essential for your garden.

Not only is this herb used as a mouth-watering ingredient to add to your cooking but it also has a lot of holistic health benefits due to its strong scent.

Lavender is used in many essential oils for its array of benefits. The plant can be made into an essential oil that is used for aromatherapy to help battle insomnia, anxiety, headaches, and migraines. It can also be used as an essential oil with ointment properties to treat skin conditions.

Lavender is ridiculously easy to grow and maintain, it is evergreen, drought-resistant, thrives in most soil types as long as they are well-drained, and needs full sun due to its warm weather preference.

Lavender blooms a gorgeous shade of purple flowers that give off a rich fragrance. These flowers can be used in your cooking to make jams, ice cream, tarts, cakes, and even a roast!

Where Can I Find Out More About Fragrant And Aromatic Plants?

There are thousands of aromatic plant species to landscape with, choosing the best ones to plant on your own may be overwhelming which is why our plant experts at ShrubHub are here to make your decision easier! All you need to do is visit ShrubHub and sign up for our service and you can design the aromatic garden of your dreams for just under $300! 

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