Fragrant tender perennials
By: Garden Gate staff
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Fragrant tender perennials
Add the sweet smell of spring almost anywhere in your yard! It’s easy with the three tender perennials ahead. They don’t just have great fragrance, either. With bright, colorful flowers and bold shapes, they look good planted in containers or along the front of the border. Just keep clicking to find out more!
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Stock Matthiola incana
Deer-resistant, this old-fashioned flower tolerates clay and sandy soils. As daytime and nighttime temperatures start to rise, flowers will disappear until late summer or early fall.
Hot-colored cultivars, like ‘Hot Cakes Mix’ to the left, aren’t just good thrillers in containers. Cut flower stalks add drama in bouquets, too, thanks to their shape and size.
Type Tender perennial
Blooms White, pink, red, lavender or purple in late spring to early summer
Light Full sun to part shade
Soil Humusy, well-drained
Size 12 to 18 in. tall, 10 to 12 in. wide
Cold-hardy USDA zones 7 to 10
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 12 to 1
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Sweet alyssum Lobularia maritima and hybrids
Sweet alyssum’s flower clusters have a honeylike fragrance that continues all the way through fall in cool summer areas, even withstanding the first light frost. If your summers are hot and humid, shear it back by up to half when temps pass 70 degrees F for a rebloom in fall.
To get a fine-textured edging like the Crystal Clear® White here, just direct sow and sweet alyssum will reseed year after year.
Type Tender perennial
Blooms White, purple or pink in midspring to fall
Light Full sun to part shade
Soil Moist, well-drained
Size 3 to 9 in. tall, 6 to 48 in. wide
Cold-hardy USDA zones 9 to 11
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 12 to 1
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Nemesia Nemesia hybrids
When it comes to nemesia, there are endless options for containers. Erect varieties, like ones in the Serengeti Upright series, make excellent filler plants. In hanging baskets, trailing nemesia, like the Sunsatia® varieties, are close to nose level so you can get a better whiff.
Fragrance ranges from sweet to spicy clove, like the upright Bluebird (‘Hubbird’) at left.
Type Tender perennial
Blooms All colors except green in early spring to early summer and fall
Light Full sun to part shade
Soil Humusy, well-drained
Size 6 to 24 in. tall, 12 to 24 in. wide
Cold-hardy USDA zones 8 to 10
Heat-tolerant AHS zones 12 to 1
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