A Fragrant Garden

Back in May, I decided to revamp the little daffodil and hosta border in front of our three-season porch to be filled with more fragrant flowers. The idea here is that these plants are right outside the screened jalousie windows where the furniture is on our porch, so we could enjoy plants that smell nice right outside the windows.

The challenge is that this area is also shaded by the sugar maple, which makes choosing flowers tricky. There are lots of leafy plants for shade, but not many flowers. Luckily, not all of the area is in darkness. The left is the shadiest; the right has more sun:

So as you can see, I moved the hosta into the shady section, and set out a new hydrangea in the partial-sun portion. Hydrangeas don't smell like anything at all, but I love blue ones, and wanted to create a little vignette of my summertime favorites: blue hydrangeas, white daisies, and orange daylilies: 

That should look better in the future when everything fills in and blooms at the same time.

I am glad to get a least a little taste of it for now, though. I'm also working on the acidity to make those hydrangeas even more blue, but it's not a bad start on the color so far.

For the shady section, I filled in the spots between hosta with some lily of the valley and sweet woodruff, both of which smell great and should fill in the shady spot with no trouble. I also put in a tiny cutting of valerian, which also smells sweet and should get tall enough to see from the couch inside. The hostas smell nice when they bloom as well. 

For the space in between the shade and the partial sun hydrangea section, I sowed seeds for fragrant stock. That happened pretty late, so they're really tiny right now. In the future, I plan to plant a mix of annual stock, night blooming stock, mignonette, and heliotrope in the gaps for scent. 

This year, though, I didn't think of any of this fast enough to order and start seeds, so it will go on the shopping list for next winter. Like so many things around here, it's a work in progress!