Our Top Picks: Best Plants For Winter Scent
Winter can be a magical time for gardens, despite the grey and cold weather. While many plants and flowers enter their dormant season during the winter, this does not apply to all of them and there are some wonderful additions you can incorporate into your winter garden.
Although we often choose plants for their visual appeal, scent is another amazing sensory benefit of a blooming garden and some plants come into their own during the winter.
Using our experience as a leading landscaping company, Ideal Building & Landscapes is sharing our favourite picks for your winter garden. We believe that your landscape deserves the best, no matter the weather, and want to incorporate some joy into the winter season through plants.
If you are looking to create a fun, engaging environment this winter, then you will want to consider incorporating these plants for winter scent:
1) Wintersweet
Wintersweet is a deciduous shrub that produces beautiful, waxy, yellow flowers and a spicy, sweet scent during the winter. As one of the best plants for winter scent, Wintersweet is a great addition to your winter garden as it not only looks great but smells good too.
To ensure you experience the best of Wintersweet, make sure to prune the shrub just after flowering. This maintains the open structure of the shrub and supports new growth so it will last in your garden for many more seasons.
2) Witch Hazel
Witch Hazel is renowned for its scent and makes a great addition to your winter garden. It not only smells beautiful, with a menthol, spicy scent, but can also be used in a range of treatments from beauty to medicinal making it a useful plant to have around.
As well as being one of the best plants for winter scent, Witch Hazel looks great with it’s spidery and fragrant flowers. These come in a range of colours, red, yellow or orange allowing you to add a pop of colour to your garden in spring.
If you are seeking a low-maintenance option this winter, Witch Hazel does not need to be pruned or trimmed this season. Instead, work will begin in spring when it flowers.
3) Mahonia Japonica
If you like the bright yellow flowers of Wintersweet shrubs and are looking for another option, Mahonia Japonica is one of the best plants for winter scent. These flowers continue into the winter season, producing a citrus scent that adds a touch of sun to the otherwise cold, dreary days.
Like Witch Hazel, no pruning is required during the winter making it an ideal solution for low-maintenance gardens.
4) Sweet Box
Sweet Box is a beautiful small shrub that looks great in all kinds of landscapes, even if you are limited in space. This is one of the best-known plants for winter scent because it produces a sweet, vanilla-like smell during the season which complements the festivities perfectly.
It is another wonderful low-maintenance option for your winter garden, as it can thrive in shady areas. Pruning is needed ahead of the winter to ensure the shrub maintains its shape over the season, along with regular watering to support its growth.
5) Viburnum x Bodnantense (Dawn)
This hardy shrub is one of the best plants for winter scent because it combines beautiful flowers and a sweet scent that can brighten up the season and offer sensory pleasure every time you step outside. The pink blooms emit a sweet, jasmine-like scent during the winter.
These blooms appear in the autumn and continue through the winter season until the spring when pruning is needed to promote new growth. Incorporating this shrub into your winter garden ensures colour and scent well into the season.
The Benefits Of Plants For Winter Scent
Winter can be a tough season for many people, which is why incorporating plants for winter scent can be so beneficial. With the cold temperatures and grey weather, winter can feel like a drab season which causes emotional and well-being issues but by incorporating these plants for winter scent into your garden, you have a holistic mood booster right on your doorstep.
Planting for winter scent can bring some additional joy to the season, helping you feel better and get out of a low mindset simply by getting outdoors. Not only will the scents boost your mood, through aromatherapy but they can provide an excuse for you to get outdoors at some point.
Whether your plants require some light maintenance this season or you simply want to admire your garden design, spending time outdoors can aid with the winter blues.
Not only do these plants for winter scent offer benefits to humans during the winter, but wildlife too. Many of the plants in this list, as well as any others you can plant during the winter, become essential habitats for wildlife during the winter. By incorporating these flowers, plants and shrubs into your garden, you can help support local ecosystems and ensure our furry, feathered friends have a place to stay as the weather gets colder.
Conclusion
Winter can be a tough season for many people, but your garden can be a great mood boost by carefully planning your plants. Incorporating these plants for winter scents allows you to create a sensory playground that will continue throughout the season, brightening even the dullest of days for humans and wildlife creatures alike.
At Ideal Building & Landscapes, we believe that your garden deserves the best no matter the weather and are passionate about creating dream outdoor spaces all year long.
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