Aromatherapy in your backyard with sweetly scented flowers. Open the windows and enjoy the sweet scents coming in from the outdoors. Adding fragrant flowers to your garden spaces brings joy to the senses. Colorful flower patterns and features appeal to the eye, while fragrant blooms appeal to the nose. To create a sensational garden of sites and scents read about these 15 sweetly scented flowers that bloom in summer. Plant these sweetly scented perennials and bulbs this spring for fragrance this summer and years to come!
Fragrant Flowers List
Late Spring to Early Summer Sweetly Scented Flowers
Lily of the Valley
- Blooms late spring with intoxicatingly fragrant white bell-shaped blooms
- Grows best in shade to partial shade
- Groundcover used in wooded settings and areas it has room to spread
- Good cut flower and is deer resistant
- Blooms late spring to early summer with light pink blooms that have deep pink centers
- Grows best in full sun to part sun
- Best for specimen plantings in perennial beds and borders
- Strong sturdy stems that don’t droop
Coral Sunset Peony
- Blooms late spring with fragrant double coral blooms that have tones of yellow and peach
- Grows best in full sun to part sun
- Best for perennial beds, borders and foundation plantings
- Good cut flower and is deer resistant
- Blooms heavily in early summer and on and off through summer
- Grows best in full sun and well-drained soil
- Best for perennial beds, borders and used as a groundcover
- Leaves are fragrant with a minty smell
- Attracts bees, butterflies and is deer resistant
- Makes an excellent choice for a cottage garden
Shirley Temple Peony
- Blooms late spring with pure double white fragrant flowers
- Grows best in full sun to part sun
- Best for perennial beds, borders and foundation plantings
- Excellent cut flower, and is deer resistant
- Blooms early summer with violet-blue spires of flowers
- The foliage has a fragrant sage scent
- Stays in a neat mound making it excellent for the front and middle of garden beds
- Deer resistant. Long bloom time. Will bloom all summer if flowers are removed once they are expired.
Mid Summer Sweetly Scented Flowers
Stargazer Lily
- Blooms mid-summer with highly fragrant pink star-shaped blooms
- Most popular Oriental Lily
- Mix with perennials in garden borders and beds
- Can be grown in containers
- Popular cut flower for bouquets and vases and is easy to grow
- Blooms mid-summer with vanilla-scented clusters of pink blooms
- Tall clump-forming habit makes it perfect for the mid to back of a perennial bed or border
- Tolerates moist soil
- Deer resistant
- Pollinator garden-friendly: attracts bees and butterflies
The Pearl Double Flowering Tuberosa
- Blooms mid-summer with highly fragrant double white star-shaped blooms
- Good for small space gardens as they grow well in pots
- Grows best in afternoon sun and soil that drains well
- Excellent cut flower
- Deer resistant
- Unique pure white blooms that are noticeably fragrant
- Grows well in containers or in planting beds
- Best in full sun-this bulb prefers the heat
- Good for cutting gardens and is deer resistant
Miss Feya Orienpet Lily
- Showy pink flowers in mid-summer are exceptionally fragrant.
- Blooms after Oriental Lilies like Stargazer Lily and Casablanca Lily
- Can grow up to 6′ tall. Is best for the back of a perennial garden bed or border
- Does best in full sun to part sun
- Great cut flower
- Snow white blooms mid-summer are immensely fragrant
- Best when grown in full to part sun
- Most popular white Oriental lily
- Superb cut flower and can be grown in a container as well as in a mixed garden bed or border
Late Summer Sweetly Scented Flowers
Fireball Bee Balm
- Blooms late summer with bright red flowers
- The foliage is fragrant with a lemony-mint scent
- Does best in full sun. Tolerates dry conditions
- Attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds
- Blooms late summer with pale purple-blue blooms
- Clusters of blooms have a sweet fragrance
- Performs best in full sun
- Plant with other perennials in a mixed border or garden bed
Sweet Autumn Clematis
- Pure white blooms late summer to early autumn are sweetly fragrant
- Climbing vine is best for fences, arbors, and trellis to climb
- Can reach 20′ tall
- Beautiful golden autumn color
- Deer resistant
Sweet Scents from May through September
This list of 15 sweetly scented flowers gives inspiration for a highly fragrant and colorful garden from May through September. Many of the varieties listed above have similar flowers related to them that are also fragrant with similar positive qualities as well.
Want to learn even more about fragrant flowers?
It’s no doubt that peonies and lilies are some of the most well-known blooms for their intoxicating scents. If you want to learn even more about growing lily bulbs check out The Beginners Guide to Growing Lilies.
You may have noticed that Itoh hybrid peonies and herbaceous peonies were mentioned above, find out the difference between them here.
