Gardens can provide so much enjoyment, floral displays, that patch of green during the dry times and even that sweet fragrance that drifts across the garden.
No matter what season there is always an array of perfumed flowering plants in bloom.
I was in Barcaldine during this week and was able to go for an evening week along the town pathway network.
With Barcaldine having one of its wettest years on record the town has so many perfumed plants in flower.
Every now and then you find a plant growing where you would never expect to so it growing. I had the experience this week when I found a Jasminum azoricum or azore’s jasmine in full bloom growing in Barcaldine.
It is often a slow growing bushy shrub until it becomes established, and then it can develop into a vigorous climber.
The azore’s jasmine has one of the sweetest perfumes. It will almost flower throughout the year in Central Queensland.
Normally the clerodendrum heterophyllum has only slightly fragrant white star-like flowers but Wednesday evening the fragrance was very noticeable.
It will throughout the year but seems to flower best after rain. clerodendrum heterophyllum is a densely branched shrub with either gold or dark green foliage.
It is an old fashion hedging plant that is being used more often in commercial landscapes. Clerodendrum heterophyllum is one of the most waterwise hedging plants available.
Last week’s rain has given the murrayas an extra opportunity to burst into their perfumed flowers again.
The murraya paniculata or orange jessamine is a beautifully scented long flowering evergreen shrub which produces clusters of sweetly scented white flowers mainly in spring and summer.
In warmer climates large red berries appear in winter and spring. It makes a good informal hedge.
One of the toughest of all perfumed plants in the garden would be the plumeria obtusa, or evergreen frangipani.
As the common name suggests this frangipani retains the majority of its foliage throughout the year.
It has glossy, rigid, dark green leaves that make it recognisable from all other frangipani varieties.
The flowers are pure white and highly fragrant. I have been told by a Singaporean soldier that was training in Rockhampton that this plant is also known as the Singapore frangipani.
At the moment one of my favourite flowering creepers is just starting their flowering season.
The garlic creeper or pseudocalymma alliaceum will add to the garden fragrance will just a gentle breeze the brushing of the leaves will emits whiffs of garlic scent.
This evergreen fast growing creeper that is very hardy in most protected locations. The flowers of this creeper start out as a deep lavender colour with a white throat.
As the flowers start to fade the colours change from the deep lavender to an even paler lavender eventually fading to almost white. One other interesting fact about this plant is that in southeast Asia the garlic creeper is grown in pots to help get rid of bad luck.
If you were to take an evening walk in any one of Central Queensland towns the sweetly perfumed brunfelsia latifolia is very noticeable. This hardy and popular highly scented old-fashioned shrub is also known as franciscea or yesterday today and tomorrow this shrub is easily spotted in gardens by the distinctive purple flowers fading through mauve to white over successive days.
brunfelsia latifolia looks striking when covered with flowers from purple flowers fading through mauve to white and the lush green foliage looks great at any other time of the year.
The near-groundcover variety of gardenia and one of the most adaptable of all the gardenias was so noticeable with its delightfully sweet perfume.
The gardenia radicans has flowers that are very much the traditional waxy white and is a one of my particular favourites. It will grow to a maximum of approximately half a metre high.
This dense shrub is ideal to use as an edging plant for a tropical garden, or even to be pruned or shaped to make a border plant for a formal garden.
Attractive fragrances can add a whole new dimension to any garden, so it is well worth considering some scented plants when you are creating your next garden. Even at twilight there are many plants that still provide a feature to a garden.
When are flowers most fragrant?
This depends on the essential oils that provide the fragrance.
These oils are in flowers and plants at different levels during the day and night, this varies from variety to variety.
Roses have the strongest fragrance on damp mornings when the sun hits them until noon.
Some flower’s fragrance is noticeable at night e.g. murrayas and gardenias.
Fragrance may be more noticeable in a protected position where the wind does not disperse the scent.
