Things You'll Need:
- A garden
- A nursery
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Step 1
Start by visiting nurseries that specialize in fragrant or heirloom plants. To find them, call your local garden club, or crank up your favorite Internet search engine, and type in "heirloom plants" or "fragrant plants."
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Step 2
Shop wisely. Beyond looking for old-fashioned, "unimproved" flowers, keep the following pointers in mind when you're shopping for plants or seeds.
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Step 3
Look for the word odorata or odoratus in a plant's scientific name; that means it is (or should be) fragrant.
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Step 4
The most fragrant flowers tend to be white or very pale-colored. If you think back to high school botany, you may remember the scientific reason for that fact: To reproduce themselves, most flowering plants need to attract birds or insects that will pollinate the blossoms. Those critters are drawn to either bright colors or strong scents.
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Step 5
Keep in mind that second in the fragrance line are purple- and mauve-colored flowers.
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Step 6
Know that thick-textured flowers often have wonderful scents. Tuberoses are an example. Tuberoses are not annuals in the true sense. They are warm-climate perennials that folks up North grow as annuals, but if you love fragrant flowers, and you've never tried these, you and your nose are in for a real treat.
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Step 7
Many flowers release their aroma only after the sun goes down. Night-scented stock, four-o'clocks and flowering tobacco are prime examples.
