If you are in love with the perfume of anything natural, then have a look at the Most Fragrant Flowers According to Gardeners and grow one today!
We love pleasant aromas, and flowers are the liveliest source of them. Here’s an all-inclusive list of the Most Fragrant Flowers According to Gardeners based on a small survey in more than 20 countries on major social media platforms.
Check out the most beautiful Orchids here
Most Fragrant Flowers According to Gardeners
1. Scented Primrose
Botanical Name: Primula vulgaris
Grows widely in Europe, primrose comes in colorful flowers with beautiful foliage and a mild fruity aroma. They herald the arrival of spring, especially in the evening time when the breeze passes through them.
2. Plumeria
Botanical Name: Plumeria
Also called Frangipani, plumeria is a subtropical or tropical flower related to oleander. Its flowers are softly fragrant in the daytime and intensify at night.
3. Sweet Autumn Clematis
Botanical Name: Clematis terniflora
From late summer to autumn, its perfumed white flowers bloom in clusters. The sweet vanilla scent oozes out and spreads a soft coolness all around.
Here are the best varieties of Clematis
4. Ylang-Ylang
Botanical Name: Cananga odorata
It is native to the rainforests of Asia and Australia and is also called the perfume tree. The plant blooms profusely year-round, pouring a slightly fruity floral scent to the surroundings.
5. Nicotiana
Botanical Name: Nicotiana
Popular as a Tobacco flower, nicotiana is native to North and South America. Its small tubular flowers open in the noon and ooze out lily-like intense fragrance.
6. Lily of the Valley
Botanical Name: Convallaria majalis
Lily of the valley grows in USDA Zones 2-9 and blooms in spring. It has cute bell-like white or pale, pink flowers that spread their floral type fragrance in the whole area.
7. Viburnum
Botanical Name: Viburnum
With beautiful foliage, viburnums are excellent fragrant flowers, especially their ‘Korean spice’ variety blooming in clusters of white fluffy flowers in spring and summer with a sweet and spicy fragrance.
8. Tuberose
Botanical Name: Polianthes tuberosa
Rajnigandha is its local name in India. Its seductive odor captures the warmth of mid-summer. The tube-like blossoms appear in hot tropical spring and summer with a sweet scent.
9. Sweet Osmanthus
Botanical Name: Osmanthus fragrans
Native to China, Japan & Cambodia, orange osmanthus flowers carry a sweet apricot-like fragrance. It’s also called Kinmokusei, grown popularly in patios and yards and sidewalks in Japan.
10. Mock Orange
Botanical Name: Philadelphus
It is a cold-weather plant that blooms in summer and emits a pleasant orange-like scent that is refreshing like mint. The plant is the best combination of beauty and fragrance!
11. Lilac
Botanical Name: Syringa
Blooms in spring and summer in Europe & America, lilacs are excellent cut flowers, with their arousing sweet-smelling fragrance. You can also grow this in containers as many hybrid varieties are now available.
12. Angel’s Trumpet
Botanical Name: Brugmansia
Popular for its trumpet-like creamy-orange flowers that ooze a sweet and strong aroma at the onset of dusk.
13. Daphne
Botanical Name: Daphne
This flower is a favorite of the perfume industry with its alluring fragrance, thanks to its sweet and spicy fragrance. Not many gardeners grow Daphne because of the care it needs.
14. Night Scented Stocks
Botanical Name: Matthiola longipetala
Stocks with their intoxicating perfume like lily are the best choice in fragrant gardens of cold climate. Its mild fragrance blends lightly in the surroundings in the evening.
15. Magnolia
Botanical Name: Magnolia champaca
The beautiful cream-colored flowers give it a mix of deep grape and sweet banana-like fragrance like no other flowers. It’s native to the Himalayan ranges of South-East Asia, and blooms year-round in a tropical and subtropical climate.
16. Arabian Jasmine
Botanical Name: Jasminum sambac
It is the national flower of the Philippines and is also called Arabian Jasmine & mogra. Its strong fragrance is different than jasmine and is more like vanilla.
Check out the most beautiful Jasmine varietieshere
17. Stargazer Lily
Botanical Name: Lilium ‘Stargazer’
All lilies are aromatic, but this hybrid variety is the most fragrant. Its sensual and slightly spicy scent is addictive to fall in love with!
Have a look at the most beautiful Lily pictures here
18. Honeysuckle
Botanical Name: Lonicera periclymenum
A trendy flower among those who love fragrant plants. Its cluster of tiny flowers erupts, inviting fruity fragrances like vanilla & honey that are always noticed.
19. Rose
Botanical Name: Rosa
A fragrant plant list can never be complete without the inclusion of fragrant roses. Loveliest of all the flowers and popular, everyone should grow them! They give out a mild and pleasing scent.
Check out this brilliant hack for growing Roses here
20. Freesia
Botanical Name: Freesia
Native to South Africa, many European gardeners voted for freesias. Its charming and fruity fragrance is pleasing to the senses.
21. Hyacinth
Botanical Name: Hyacinthus
Coming in red, white, blue, and more, hyacinths are appealing to the eyes, and their fragrance resembles a combination of strawberry and honeysuckle.
22. Jasmine
Botanical Name: Jasminum
Whether it’s the queen of the night or the poet’s jasmine, they all are the most fragrant flowers in the world with a strong and sweet scent.
Check out some stunning Jasmine varieties here
23. Night Blooming Jasmine
Botanical Name: Cestrum nocturnum
The plant surely has the most powerful fragrance and what makes it different from the others is its nature to bloom at night, wafting the intoxicating aroma in the air.
24. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Botanical Name: Brunfelsia pauciflora
The reason this plant has a strange name is that it opens in purple (yesterday), gets a lavender hue (today), and finally takes a pure white shade (tomorrow). It has a sweet fragrance.
25. Orange Jessamine
Botanical Name: Murraya paniculata
If you love intense fragrance, then this should be your pick. The plant has beautiful waxy white flowers with a strong, orange-like smell. It stays bushy and compact, which makes it a top pick for small spaces.
26. Water Jasmine
Botanical Name: Wrightia religiosa
It is a very fragrant plant with a fruity scent. The best part about it is that it blooms all year round and grows quite fast.
27. Ginger Lily
Botanical Name: Hedychium coronarium
The stunning white flowers of this plant have a strong, lily-like fragrance with fruity undertones. Its scent is at its peak in the evening.
28. Spider Lily
Botanical Name: Hymenocallis littoralis
The flowers of this plant look like spiders crawling on leaves. It is one of the most fragrant flowers with a sweet and strong scent of vanilla!
29. Puakenikeni
Botanical Name: Fagraea berteroana
This Hawaiian beauty gets full of small cream-white flowers that take a yellow hue over time. It has a sweet fragrance that anyone will surely love.
30. Gardenia
Botanical Name: Gardenia jasminoides
The plant is quite easy to grow and flourishes everywhere, in the cold or the tropics. Its big milky white flowers look beautiful, and their magical fragrance is pleasing yet not as overpowering as jasmine.
Learn growing Gardenia in pots here
31. Crepe Jasmine
Botanical Name: Tabernaemontana divaricata
This evergreen shrub is popular for its pinwheel-shaped flowers that give out a sweet and strong fragrance. It does best in full sun and looks stunning with its glossy green foliage.
32. Day Blooming Jasmine
Botanical Name: Cestrum diurnum
This tall plant is a great contender for pots and gives out a pleasing, sweet fragrance during the daytime from its clusters of tubular white flowers. The plant is prevalent in Indian subcontinent countries.
33. Vanilla Spice
Botanical Name: Clethra alnifolia
This dense shrub is quite popular for its sweetly fragrant white flowers. It is easy to maintain and also attracts bees and butterflies.
34. Spice Baby Viburnum
Botanical Name: Viburnum carlesii
Noted for its magnificent white blooms in clusters, the plant will wow you with its rich and spicy vanilla-like fragrance. It does well in full sun.
35. Paperwhite
Botanical Name: Narcissus papyraceus
The strong scented white flowers look beautiful on the tall, slender stalks. The upright nature of the plant makes them perfect for cut flowers and tabletop decors.
36. Sweet Violet
Botanical Name: Viola odorata
The tiny scented flowers bloom profusely in dappled sunlight under the shade of big trees. The fresh floral scent contributes to one of the most loved perfumes from around the world.
37. Gillyflower
Botanical Name: Matthiola incana
Gillyflower features tiny pink, purple, mauve, white, and violet flower spikes on gray-green foliage. The plant thrives in the well-draining medium under bright indirect sunlight.
38. Candle Flower
Botanical Name: Hoya carnosa
Clusters of waxy, star-shaped flowers adorn the deep-green vining foliage. The tiny pink or white fuzzy flowers emit a sweet fragrance at night.
39. Purple Panicle
Botanical Name: Wisteria sinensis
The hanging purple-blue flowers look dreamy on shiny oblong leaflets and exude a strong sweet smell that might seem overpowering to some.
40. Scented Selluka Ivy
Botanical Name: Vigra caracalla
The plant produces purple and white ornamental flowers on the ovate green foliage. The unique snail shell-like flowers smell like hyacinths and are a magnet for ants.
41. Snake Plant
Botanical Name: Dracaena trifasciata
Although the plant is a rare bloomer but will reward you with fragrant pale green flower stalks under suitable conditions that emit a strong vanilla-like scent at night.
Learn the secret of making a Snake Plant bloom here
42. Chocolate Vine
Botanical Name: Akebia quinata
As the name suggests, the deciduous semi-evergreen plant blooms purplish-brown blooms that smell of chocolates. The plant needs sturdy support to vine beautifully across the garden.
43. Clary sage
Botanical Name: Salvia sclarea
The plant blooms pink, lavender, and white flowers during mid-late summer on wrinkled, serrated foliage. Clary sage mists the air with a sweet and mild tobacco-like scent.
44. Night Jasmine
Botanical Name: Nyctanthes arbor-tristis
Night Jasmine blooms in clusters that emit a sweet fragrance as the petals open at night. The tiny white blooms with orange centers can be the point of attraction in any garden.
45. Garlic Creeper
Botanical Name: Mansoa alliacea
The plant produces funnel-shaped intensely fragrant blooms in purple and lavender that take a lighter hue as they age. The creeping vines look great on pergolas and fences. It grows best as a perennial in frost-free regions.
46. Yellow Jasmine
Botanical Name: Gelsemium sempervirens
The fragrant yellow blooms can be a great addition to outdoor gardens for their unmistakable sweet scent in the spring and fall months.
47. Rangoon creeper
Botanical Name: Combretum indicum
The star-shaped aromatic blooms are loaded with nectar that attracts a hoard of pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Plus, the warm and sweet scent intensifies with the evening.
only thing i can say is you never drove or walked by honeysuckle blooming it would be one on list you can smell it a mile away ~!and magnolia i know it’s a tree,but it would have to be one or two,this tree in proper bloom is awesome.
Chuck,,Oh Yes The LOVELY honeysuckle Plant , I Have Been Lucky To Buy My First Home With Flower Bush Growing In The Yard , Take Care,Sharon🍅🍋🍓!
Hasn’t anyone smelled Common Milkweed? The scent is heavenly and they bloom for weeks in the summer!
Amen, Pat! And, they feed the pollinators, preserve endangered Monarchs, and, in a large patch, turn your yard into a butterfly adventure.
Thanks for comment, but the rankings are according to the votes we got in the survey.
I’ll add Orange Jessamine — Murraya paniculata to your list. A relative of citrus, the flowers are even more fragrant than orange blossoms.
Thanks for the suggestion.
The photo for #3 is that of Muscari. I expect most respondents were voting for Hyacinthus when they said ‘Hyacinths’ — you have to get down really close to experience the fragrance of Grape Hyacinths.
Thank you for comment Jean. Smart gesture though both the ‘Muscari’ and ‘Hyacinthus’ are from Asparagaceae family, it’s true that image here is of grape hyacinth but we mean hyacinthus.
Sampagita (National Flower of the Philippine Islands), Star Jasmine ( found in California, USA), Myer Lemon tree- it’s flowers are fragrant (USA).
If you live in Caribbean it really would be hard to omit “Lady In the Night”. However I really appreciate your list
Really appreciate the list of scented flowers. Will definitely try to grow some of the plants in my little garden.
gardenia is the best smelling flower. Not to mention the Queen of the night (shrub) and
Sky flower (tree).
Will they grow in wiscinsin.
The night scented cestrum is a hardy shrub with masses of green small flowers which have an overpowering incense-like fragrance at night.
I totally agree. It is my very favourite – the night scented cestrum. It always has been, and always will be, my number one shrub; it has a fragrance which, when flowering, seeps through your home after dark, all through the night, but is gone by daylight. It is overlooked as the flower close during the day, and is totally insignificant. I feel it has been overlooked as ‘gardeners’ have not discovered this shrub.
My absolute favorite is the Pakalana from Hawaii, which is a vine that has small clusters of tiny flowers, and one or two small flowers will scent an entire yard during a still night. It is an airy fragrance like Lily of the Valley, but with a light Jasmine, Freesia like nuance. Very difficult to find, but once you get a clipping, it grows rapidly and is strong. My second favorite is the Yellow Oleander, with an airy, perfume like quality. I can actually imagine it alone being used as a single note perfume as is, that is how airy and aromatic it is without being heady. I could intoxicate myself with either of those all day.
I like your flowers ideas. It’s very useful and impressive.
It’s best for everyone. Flowers are best gifts for anyone. These flowers are best smelling flowers.
Thanks
THEY ARE ALL WRONG… The most fragrantly diverse and one of the most pungent is probably CANNABIS. which contains over 100 different turpenes, lemonenes, red fruits, resins, peppers, sage scents, banna pineapple etc… bv 100 different ones!!! which makes cannabis the most aromatically complex plant, for volatile essential oils…. it is also fairly productive.
Very true my friend but we can not grow them plants.🙁😕😞
The list is very informaive. Good for flower lovers.
Fragrant flowers developing the environment
Sampaguita, Plumeria, Gardenia, Ylang Ylang , Rose and Stargazer are among plants in my garden plus jamaican jasmine, yesterday today and tomorrow, dama de noche camia, and 2 sweet smelling orchids are in my garden still finding other fragrant flowers your articles will helpe a lot.
I really love gardenia. I worship them a lot with their frqgrance.
What variety gardenia is the picture you have for number 1? Thanks
Here in The Philippines one of my favorite flowers was ALAS SUERTE, the color of its petal are white, a size of Star Gazer Lily. It only blooms once in a year at about 11 pm only and close it petal at dawn. Its scent of this flower was very aromatic as when you smell it you felt that you were enchanted. Actually, you can see the pics on my FB wall.
What is scientific name ?
Yes here is very unique and awesome fragrant floral images. One can enjoy to see and download it. THANKS.
Hedychium coronarium (Butterfly Ginger), Tiare Apetahi, Peony and Pandanus have to be included in this list.
Lady of the night otherwise known as ” dama de noche” is the most frangrant flower. It only opens up at night . You don’t have to go near the plant to smell the fragrance unlike other fragrant flowers you have to have your nose few inches from the flower to smell it. Guess gardeners who have voted did discover this flower yet
this was so helpful with my graden!!!
I’d like to add wisteria, I had this huge bush of it in my backyard when growing up. I’d sit in the middle and just breathe it all in… It had this lovely candle-like aroma which I’ve always enjoyed. Such a beautiful flower too! ^_^ Anyway, that would be my favorite one with Gardenia or Jasmine.
Thank you for the article. Natural fragrance from flowers. Good to plant them spread them. I love all of them. I live in Zone 7. I tried to plant gardenia s o far no success but I will try again. Both Gardenia and Jasmine. I have indoor very strong.
The strongest aroma I have experienced from flowers is the night blooming Sirius until now it has been surpassed by this little shrub that I found in my garden ,if you crush a leaf the fragance stays with you for days and you can still smell it after washing your hands many times with soap,the night blooming Sirius blooms one night per blooming season and the aroma permeates the whole house but this little shrub has tiny Daisy looking flowers with white petals and a yellow center you only notice the aroma after crushing the leaves or the flowers.
My mother would wax poetic everytime she remembered the smell of a Tuberose plant she had the pleasure of enjoying as some time in her life. I had never seen one, though the grow well in our area. On day, in an local dept store garden area, I smelled this heavenly fragrance and just HAD to find where it came from. I searched the entire department being led by my nose. As I searched, my mom’s description of Tuberose came to my remembrance. Sure enough, there were 2 pots of Tuberose in the far reaches of the garden shop and I bought them both. They bloom well and multiply well each year in the CA Central Valley, blooming from mid July into Sept when other flowers are dying out from out hot summer heat. Lovely, lovely flowers.
Agreed with the list. I love any kind of Gardenia. The classic gardenia augusta has the strongest scent, one flower fragrant my entire garden. Gardenia Carinata is the most beautiful one IMHO.
I will add some orchids to the list
– Blc. Port of Paradise (strong citrus scent at night)
– Blc. Tainan Gold (mild peach scent)
– Phalaenopsis Bellina (mild peach scent)
– Vanda Merrillii (strong jasmine scent)
– Rhynchostylis retusa (strong candy scent in the morning, fade at night)
– Oncidium Sharry Baby (choco scent)
– Vanda Tricolor (not bloom yet but my friend said ‘strong scent’)
– Maxillaria Tenuifolia (coconut scent)
– Brassavola Nodosa (not bloom yet in my garden, but some said it is strong scent)
Other strong scent include:
– Aloysia Virgata (strong sweet scent)
– Buddleia (jasmine scent)
Foliage:
– Rosemary
– Lavender
– Pelagornium Citrosum
Still have more but not bloom yet in my garden
I need help. I love the fragrance of lily of the valley, roses and freesia. I do NOT like gardenia – there’s an undertone to gardenia that I just do not like. I want to find a jasmine that smells like lily of the valley or honeysuckle or roses, not the one that smells like gardenia. Can anyone help me identify WHICH jasmine I should get? The typical description of “sweet fragrance” does not help.
You’re an idiot
Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) has an absolutely wonderful scent when blooming.
Fine list ! Although not a plant, a linden tree near a flower garden is breathtaking.
That’s what I say! I grow milkweed to raise monarch butterflies, and the scent is just wonderful. It blooms for several weeks and you can smell it several feet away. I can hardly wait for the blooms every year, it’s a perennial and spreads by rhizomes once established. I think it smells better than hyacinths.
Sweet Olive is a new favorite of mine. I’d highly recommend it in any garden. The shrub itself is quite attractive and while the flowers are tiny and delicate their scent carries far and is spectacular!
Gardenia, polianthes tuberosa, jasmine sambac, cananga odorata are my best favourite. I used to have all of them on my back garden.
I’m so glad you put gardenia first followed by jasmine. They are my favourites, such a delicious smell and gorgeous flowers as well.
What about the lovely scent of the regal Wisteria?
Surely underrated in this list here!
I just found this article and I really appreciate it. I want to add to the list as I have those plants in my garden.
1. Night blooming (cestrum nocturnum)
2. Yesterday, today and tomorrow (brunfelsia grandiflora)
3. Orange jessamine (murraya paniculata)
4. Wrightia religiosa
5. Rangoon creeper (Combretum indicum)
Tomato plants. May not be the strongest but I just love rolling in them naked.
Has anybody here grown and/or smelled fringed pink “Rainbow Loveliness?” If not, I suggest you do. And why were sweet peas not mentioned at all?
I’m really surprised not to see carnation in this list.
Are any of these wonderful fragrant plants non toxic and pet/ kid safe?
Tuberose hands down is my ultimate favorite scent. If I could fill my apartment with that scent 24/7 I would be so happy.
Runner up would be anything orange scented.
Hyacinths also love the scent.
But definately I plan on trying to find some of these others on the list at the garden center.