Plant These Fragrant Flowers Near Your Front Door

The next time you find yourself in a garden center or on-line shopping for flowers, keep these fragrant beauties in mind. Flowers are beautiful additions to the landscaping no matter where they grow, but the placement of fragrant flowers is even more important. After all, you want to enjoy them and what better way than to plant fragrant flowers close to the front door to greet you and your guests. These easy to grow flowers will welcome you home with a sweet fragrance from spring to fall.

Pinks - Dianthus hybrids - USDA Zones 4 to 9 - Full sun to part shade: Pinks have a wonderful spicy sweet fragrance and some varieties smell identical to cloves. They're easy to grow and just as the name suggests, they come in multitude of different shades of pink, white, burgundy and several bi-colors. Most of these fragrant perennials are short plants, so keep that in mind when choosing the planting location. Pinks would be a good choice by the edge of a walkway so you can enjoy them up close. They also grow equally well in containers. Some will even stay green all winter.

Pinks grow about 6 inches tall but some varieties will reach close to 3 feet tall with the bloom spikes. The leaves resemble grass and some of the leaves are bluish gray. They begin blooming in spring, but will continue to bloom repeatedly as long as you keep them deadheaded. After my Dianthus bloom initially and robustly, I cut back part of the entire plant. The next time it blooms will be intermittently for the rest of the summer and fall.

Stock - Matthiola incana - USDA Zones 6 to 9 - Full sun: This is a wonderful and fragrant old-fashioned flower used for cut flowers and a florist's favorite. The flowers have a spicy fragrance in shades of pinks, light and dark purple and white. Look for double flowering varieties of stock because the fragrance will be more intense and the blooms are showier. Stock will grow better in cooler temperatures in spring and fall, so it doesn't do well in my hot humid summers.

Stock grows from just over a foot tall to 30 inches tall. The fragrant flower spikes rise above the greenish-gray foliage. When you deadhead the flowers, be sure to cut it off at the base of the spike to promote more blooms.

English lavender - Lavandula angustifolia - USDA Zones 5 to 8 - Full sun: Everyone loves the wonderful fragrance of lavender and it doesn't need much introduction to describe its flowers. It's been used for a long time for aroma-therapy, so you can just imagine having this one-of-a-kind floral fragrance greet you on your way to the front door each summer.

Lavender usually prefers dry and hot conditions but more varieties can now tolerate humidity. What it can't tolerate is soggy soil, so it has to be extremely well-drained soil. This popular fragrant flower still needs water regularly to keep it growing. Lavender flowers smell best when touched, so plant them where you'll brush against them on the way to the front door. Cut the flower stems all the way to the bottom of the plant. This will keep the fragrant flowers coming.

Oriental lily - Lilium hybrids - USDA Zones 5 to 9 - Full sun to part shade: It's hard to describe the incredible fragrance of Oriental lilies. You'll have to plant these to fully appreciate just how wonderful they are. If your summers get 90 degrees and above, plant lilies in part shade. These fragrant flowers especially need shade from the hot afternoon sun.

Be sure that you buy the right type of lily bulb. There are other lilies with flowers every bit as beautiful but they lack the rich perfume of Oriental hybrids. They begin blooming in mid to late summer. Lilies' fragrant flowers come in every imaginable color except blue.

I'll be the first to admit that the greenery of lilies doesn't offer much and they need to be planted in groups for impact. If you've ever seen one lonely lily plant, then you know exactly what I mean. It's wise to know exactly what type of Oriental lily you're buying, because they range in height from one to eight feet tall! I got my bulbs accidentally mixed together one year. There were several beautiful lilies almost five feet tall standing at attention close to the edge of the sidewalk. Meanwhile, the shorter varieties were dwarfed by other perennials.