How to Grow Fragrant Flowering Shrubs

Whether it's a lilac, mock-orange, or camelia, nothing says "great garden" like a fragrant shrub. These long-lived perennials have been used to scent garden air for many years. You will notice their presence most in early morning and early evening, when the air is quiet. Most fragrant shrubs have specific light requirements, and they tend to need a fairly large space in which to grow and bloom successfully.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Ideally, a sunny patch of flower-bed at least 6 feet x 6 feet (sunny = 6 hours of sun or more)
• shovel
• peat moss or other soil enhancer
• water source
• garden book or catalogs (optional)

How to grow fragrant flowering shrubs

1. Choose the place in your yard where you will get the best benefit of a fragrant flowering shrub. That means figuring out where you will enjoy the scent as well as the sight of the flowers. In some cases, this means planting by a doorway--as you go in and out, you will be followed by that wonderful smell. Another area is close to your picnic or cookout space; since many fragrant flowering shrubs grow quite large, this will mean flowers, scent, and perhaps some welcome shade. Not too close to your eating area--you might draw bees--but close enough to enjoy all aspects of your shrub.

2. Ask questions at the nursery or garden center. Recommendations will differ if you have only partial sun or tree-shade, and, because this is a fairly substantial change in your landscaping, it's worth getting advice at more than one nursery. While you are shopping, ask for guidance on fertilizing and pruning--for example, lilacs bloom more fully in the northeast with an application of lime in the fall. Pruning time and style will affect further seasons of bloom.

3. Dig a hole twice the size of the rootball. Soak hole with water and line with a mixture of soil and peat-moss. Remove or make lots of shallow slashes in burlap or plastic-mesh rootball-covering (they'll tell you at the nursery that you can plant with this on, but many shrubs that fail after a few seasons get dug out with nearly all the covering intact). Place shrub in prepared hole, fill in with dirt, tamp dirt down with your feet after the hole is full (prevents air-spaces that damage roots).

4. Water deeply and frequently for the first two months (new roots need time to settle in).

5. Be prepared for your new shrub to bloom sparsely or not at all the first season. Fragrant flowering shrubs are stressed by transplanting.

Tips & Warnings

• Either write down what you're told about fertilizing and pruning your new shrub while you're at the nursery or call back later to confirm the advice.
• Fragrant flowering shrubs should begin flowering their second season in your yard. Poor or no bloom the first year may be ascribed to transplant-shock. If you see no blooms the second season, don't dig the shrub out or demand your money back, but it's worth reexamining the overall growing conditions with an experienced nurseryman or fellow-gardener.