The sweet smell of time well spent

Electric mix of fragrant natives

March 29, 2020

With the novel coronavirus disrupting much of daily life, it’s good to have a back-up plan. If you’re forced to stay home, how about doing some gardening? It’s great exercise, gives you a wonderful chance to experience nature, and you can actually challenge your mind a bit by planning for specific variations within your landscape parameters.

If you’re planning a new garden, or just want to spruce up your existing space, it's always fun to add plants with fragrance. There’s nothing better than walking in your garden at dusk and having the wonderful scents of jasmine or sweet almond or Brunfelsia wafting through the evening air.

So here are some plants for fragrance — and most of these are also great pollinators, which attracts birds, bees and butterflies.

Sweet almond bush, Aloysia virgata, is one of the most intensely fragrant plants you can find, with spikes of small white flowers that attract a host of pollinators, including hairstreaks, crescents, blues, and the lovely rare atela butterfly. A fast growing, 6-8 foot shrub, this needs full sun for optimal flowering, and looks wonderful near a wall or next to a walkway where its fragrance can be fully appreciated. Occasional pruning will help maintain a more compact canopy, but it is lovely as a graceful, airy, freestanding specimen. Drought tolerant and not fussy as to soil, this is a wonderful addition to any garden.

Sweet almond bush

A honeybee takes a long drink of nectar from the flowers of a sweet almond bush.

Brunfelsia Americana, or lady of the night (great name!), is another terrific plant for fragrance. This small shrub produces clusters of bright white flowers over mounds of glossy dark green foliage. The heady perfume is strongest at night, inviting you to step out into the garden and inhale deeply. Happy in sun or part shade, this will reach a height of 4-5 feet with a slightly smaller width. The fragrance is, quite simply, intoxicating.

Lady if the night

Our native wild cinnamon bark, Canella winterana, is a wonderful small, slow-growing tree with a dense rounded crown and thick aromatic leaves. The bark smells like cinnamon when rubbed or bruised, and clusters of lovely reddish pink flowers with vivid yellow stamens attract an assortment of butterflies and pollinators. The clusters of bright red fruit that follow are staples for a variety of birds and small mammals. This beautiful little tree should be far more widely planted.

Wild cinnamon bark

White indigoberry, Randia aculeata, is another terrific native evergreen shrub with wonderfully fragrant white flowers year-round, providing nectar for many butterflies including the rare atela and Schaus’ swallowtail. It is the larval host for the tantalus sphinx moth. Highly salt and drought tolerant, this is a great plant for coastal landscapes, reaching a height of about 6-8 feet in full sun or part shade. The white, berry-like fruits are loved by birds and small mammals.

White indigoberry

The flamboyant flowers of the maypop, Passiflora incarnata, are as fragrant as they are beautiful. This is Florida’s showiest native passionflower and is the larval host for the Julia, Gulf fritillary and variegated fritillary, as well as the zebra longwing butterflies. It provides nectar for a host of pollinators and other butterflies. This is an aggressive vine, excellent on arbors or fences, and is highly salt and drought tolerant once established. The hybrid “Incense” produces sweetly perfumed lavender blossoms. Plant this along with the native corkystem passionflower, Passiflora suberosa, and you will have more zebra longwing butterflies than you’ll know what to do with.

A fragrance garden wouldn’t be complete without some form of jasmine, and staror Confederate jasmine, Trachelospermum polyanthum, is one of the sweetest smelling. This evergreen, spreading vine with dark green glossy leaves produces showy white and very fragrant flowers in spring. The less vigorous form Variegatum has green and white variegated leaves tinged with pink. This will attract numerous pollinators as well as hummingbirds, and while it is not a native, it makes a wonderful addition to any Florida landscape.

Star Jasmine

And of course, for fragrance and beauty, you can’t forget the beautiful sweetbay magnolia, Magnolia virginiana. This lovely native evergreen grows to 60 feet with fragrant white flowers, and stunning foliage with a silvery pubescence on the underside of the leaves. It is the larval host for eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies. The leaves, which can be used in cooking, have a spicy/citrusy fragrance when crushed.

Finally, Simpson’s stopper, Myrcianthes fragrans, produces a mass of fragrant white flowers across the entire crown of the tree. While these flowers are most numerous in spring, they continue sporadically throughout the year. The bright red, berrylike fruit are eaten by mockingbirds, blue jays, buntings, cardinals and small mammals. This can be used as a hedge or specimen plant in full sun or part shade; its lovely exfoliating bark is more visible in shady settings. Highly adaptable as to soil, this is drought, salt and wind tolerant, requiring little maintenance once established. A member of the eucalyptus family, the leaves have a spicy fragrance when crushed, reminiscent of nutmeg, and the stunning bark provides interest year-round.

Simpson’s stopper

Simpson's stopper, with its fragrant white flowers and edible red fruit, is a magnet for butterflies, bees and birds. Growing to 20 feet, it makes a great hedge or specimen tree in the sun.

None of these plants requires pesticides, fungicides or chemicals of any kind, so don’t spray anything if you want to attract birds and butterflies. If you’re bothered by mosquitoes, try planting some herbs.

Herbs such as lemon balm provide an ingredient for cooking, as well as a natural repellent in the garden for those pesky mosquitoes.

Lavender, lemon balm, thyme, mint, citronella, catnip (nepeta), rosemary, tarragon and basil will all provide mosquito-repelling scents — and you can use them in your cooking too. The bright yellow flowers of tarragon will give your garden a bright burst of color as well. Lantana is another great mosquito repellent, but plant the native, Lantana involucrata, as the other species are now considered invasives.

Most importantly, get outside and have some fun. This coronavirus may be just the excuse you needed to stay home and garden!

— Kim Frisbie

Original article on the Palm Beach Daily News is HERE.