Fragrant perennials
There is little more delightful than a richly scented perennial flower. In this section, we’ve handpicked the best fragrant perennials that will come back year after year to deliver a beautiful perfume into your garden. Some of the best fragrant perennials are dahlias, day lilies (hemerocallis), some iris varieties, lupines, peony, phlox and salvia. Dahlias are well-loved for their long flowering season and eye-catching blooms available in a rainbow of colours, perfect for filling out dry, summer borders with showy blooms from summer through autumn. Day lilies produce a generous display of lily-like flowers in fiery shades of yellow, burgundy-reds and oranges throughout the summer, some with contrasting throats or ruffled edges. They are robust and reliable perennials, perfect for making a statement, even if each flower is short-lived. Iris plants produce distinctive, intricate, pleasantly scented blooms with an exotic appearance typically in shades of purple, lavenders, yellows and whites. Lupins are majestic, eye-catching perennials that are perfect for adding colour and height to the garden from late spring to early summer. These titans of the cottage garden produce spectacular, chunky tall spikes of pea-like flowers in rich, vivid hues of reds, pinks, purples, yellows and whites, which are loved by bees and butterflies and perfect for cut flowers. See our guide to perennials for more information.