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What's the most fragrant flower in your garden?



Pink flowers on long stems
Naked Lady amaryllis is an old-fashioned favorite with a distinctive spicy scent. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)
Time to smell the roses and much more



Lily blossom
Blooms on the lily tree are over 8 inches across.
Get out and smell the roses; that's advice that gardeners (and rose lovers) often share.

It means to forget your current worries (which we have many during this COVID summer) and enjoy the little things in life through the bounty of nature.

But roses aren't the only sweet-smelling blooms in the summer garden. These fragrant flowers have scents so strong, you can even smell them through your face mask.

Not only do these fragrant plants bring people joy, they're often bee favorites, too.

Surrounded by roses, the most fragrant blooms in my summer garden really stand out; the plant is more than 6 feet tall. It's a lily tree, a cross between Asiatic and Oriental lilies. Like those other lilies, it has a sweet, intense fragrance. The king-size blooms (more than 8 inches across) attract loads of bees, too.

Mme. Antoine Mari is one of many fragrant old garden roses
at Sacramento's Historic City Cemetery.
Here are more fragrant summer suggestions:

Roses: The classic example of a garden perfume maker, roses can be all over the fragrance map. Some have a musky smell, others offer a citrus or licorice scent. The most fragrant roses are old garden varieties that predate modern hybrid teas. Combining that heady rose scent with modern disease resistance, Austin shrub roses can fill a garden with fragrance, too.

Lilies: Besides the giant lily tree, the shorter Asiatic and Oriental lilies also offer rich perfumes. (Stargazer, a popular florist variety, is an Oriental hybrid.) Rubrum lilies have an intense fragrance that people either love or hate; one cut bloom can fill a room.

Amaryllis: Naked Lady amaryllis, those pink flowers that seem to pop up out of nowhere, have a vibrant, spicy floral scent. It's used in perfumes.

Gardenia: An old-fashioned favorite for corsages, this beautiful shrub blooms in early and late summer.

Ginger plant
Ginger likes the shady area of
the garden.
Ginger: This Hawaiian favorite adds tropical scent to the Sacramento garden. It prefers a shady spot.

Jasmine: This vine or ground cover offers a distinctive scent that adds a tropical note to any garden. In the evening, its scent seems to be at its strongest.

Honeysuckle: Another old-fashioned favorite, this vine can quickly become a garden thug. But the bees love it.

Lavender: The fragrance star in the low-water garden, this herb is another bee-pleasing favorite. It also makes wonderful potpourri.

Sweet alyssum: Perhaps the strongest scented annual in the late spring and summer garden, this low-growing white flower smells almost like honey. No wonder it's another bee magnet.

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Garden Checklist for week of Oct. 6

Get ready to get to work! Cooler weather is headed our way mid-week.

* Clean up the summer vegetable garden and compost disease-free foliage.

* Harvest pumpkins and winter squash.

* October is the best month to plant trees, shrubs and perennials.

* Before planting, add a little well-aged compost and bone meal to the soil, but hold off on other fertilizers until spring. Keep the transplants well-watered (but not wet) for the first month as they become settled.

* Dig up corms and tubers of gladioli, dahlias and tuberous begonias after the foliage dies. Clean and store in a cool, dry place.

* Treat azaleas, gardenias and camellias with chelated iron if leaves are yellowing between the veins.

* Now is the time to plant seeds for many flowers directly into the garden, including cornflower, nasturtium, nigella, poppy, portulaca, sweet pea and stock.

* Plant seeds for radishes, bok choy, mustard, spinach and peas.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Set out cool-weather bedding plants, including calendula, pansy, snapdragon, primrose and viola.

* Reseed and feed the lawn. Work on bare spots.

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