Grow Your Own Perfume At Home

You can always grow your own vegetables at your home's garden, urban farming is making a comeback. Luckily, if you are one of the millions of American who own a home, you have a way of producing your own natural and floral scents all at home.

Year round, you can find a fragrant plant that blooms almost any month of the year. Those are all plants with pretty flowers, and some would be grown mainly for their fragrance. All of these possess a strong scent.  There are many other very fragrant plants such as oriental lilies, lavenders, lily of the valley, certain daffodils, certain roses. I tried to only mention shrubs and small trees.

Be mindeful of allergies, just like perfumes the real flowers and planets can cause allergy triggers.

1. The frigid days of January are brightened with the sweet fragrance of wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox). This is followed by Breath of Spring (Lonicera fragrantissima), which starts blooming at the end of January and continues for a month or more. 
2. Daphnea odora and Edgeworthia are two more shrubs that bloom in February and possibly into March. They perfume the air and are both blooming now.
3. Witch hazel, with its traditional clean sulfur-colored flowers, blooms early in the year and sends out a lovely scent. There are many varieties, adorned with yellow, copper or red flowers. Be sure to purchase one that is highly scented. 
4. Viburnums are a large group of plants. Some varieties are extremely fragrant, while others are not.
5. Lilacs are a must have for the mountains. The aroma is delightful, and the flowers are stunning. You will love to see each spring. It is tremendous in size and delightful to see in bloom.
6. Moving on into summer, you have the magnolia grandiflora with their stunning white flowers, the quintessential Southern flower. You will certainly love their shiny, dark green foliage that glistens in the winter. They have beautiful white fragrant flowers that make this a plant worth growing. 
7. Deciduous azaleas come into bloom at different times of the year, and many are very fragrant. I have some that bloom in March and April, and there are varieties that bloom in the summer. Azaleas are listed under the name Rhododendron, which can confuse people. this is where you get some fragrant and handsome flowers. 
8. Late summer, you can smell a sweet, sugary fragrance from Clethera alnifolia. There are several cultivars that are fragrant, but one of my favorites is a compact variety called "Hummingbird." It has lovely white flowers, and mine is about 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide after about eight years.

Plant fragrant plants out of the wind, in a calm place where the fragrance is not whisked away. You should also consider having different fragrant plants that bloom at different times.