Sweet honeysuckle scent, spell-binding jasmine fragrance… Fragrant vines teleport us to richly-scented memories!
Prepare a spot for these in your garden!
Resilient and bearing many flowers, climbing plants help cover a facade with green, camouflage a wire fence or decorate a pergola or lattice.
Some of the smaller varieties can be grown in pots, they share their luxurious assets in pocket gardens and balconies!
Among the fragrant species, of course wisteria is a highlight, climbing to over 30 to 50 feet (10 to 15 meters) and so vigorous that the framework it rests on must be quite sturdy. Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) blooms in spring before even setting out leaves, and then a second time at the end of summer. Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) has a fragrance that isn’t so powerful but compensates this with even more flowers. Both do best in the sun in very well-drained soil. In a pot, indulge in the Amethyst Falls, smaller.
With their cascading flowers of old, climbing rose trees have a host of different fragrances: cloves for the immaculate ‘Bobby James’ roses, honey-scented for the ‘Wedding day’, musk for the pink-colored ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’… so many to choose from!
Easy to grow in the sun or part sun, honeysuckle spreads its scent from morning to evening with its extremely distinctive fragrance. The most fragrant honeysuckle varieties are the woodbine honeysuckles (Lonicera x peryclimenum). These include such varieties as ‘Belgica’ with violet and yellow flowers, ‘Serotina’ in shades of pink and cream, ‘Graham Thomas’ with yellow blooms…
Also, feel free to pick Lonicera japonica varieties that have semi-evergreen leafage. For pots, test the ‘Gold Flame’ whose red and yellow flowers release spicy tones.
Another certain winner is medicinal jasmine which is happiest in the sun in rich soil. It can be supplanted by star jasmine, more hardy, that reaches heights of up to 10 to 13 feet (3 to 4 meters). Also try to think of clematis that loves to grow with the head in the sun and the feet in cool shade. Certain varieties such as armandii or the montana are fragrant.
Laure Hamann
Credits for images shared to Nature & Garden (all edits by Gaspard Lorthiois):
Blooming wisteria by Rosalyn & Gaspard Lorthiois, own work
Wisteria sprig (also on social media) by Rosalyn & Gaspard Lorthiois, own work
