Expert advice A treat for the senses

Kew Gardens' TONY HALL reveals what scented plants can do for your garden

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WHILE many of us are preoccupied with how our gardens are looking, scent is just as important in an outdoor space.

For Tony Hall, Kew Gardens’ Head of Arboretum and Temperate Collections, scented plants are “not just an attraction for wildlife,” but are key in cultivating a therapeutic and multi-sensory outdoor space.

So, Tony chats through how to garden with scented plants, the best combinations and where you can source some inspiration.

HOW SCENTED PLANTS IMPACT THE WILDLIFE OF YOUR GARDEN

Of course, the more fragrant plants you have dotted about, the more diversity you'll draw into your garden. Typically, plants that have a more intense scent usually look quite similar.

“It does tend to be that most of the plants that produce good scent are single petaled,” says Tony. “So that means that the senders are open, which makes it much easier for wildlife to get to both the pollen and the nectar.”

However, most new plant breeds are now bred for appearance, and the focus on scent is not cultivated.

“A lot of plants that are now bred for show and longevity,’ says Tony, “put they tend to be double flowers, so not only are they not that good for pollinators, they also tend not to produce the scent in the same way that many of the the older single-petal flowers do”

Tony says things like sweet peas have been bred to have longer stems for cutting, for show, but they're not as scented. Breeding out scent has also been the case for lilacs and a lot of other garden plants.

“Lots of the roses now have had the scent bred out of them,’ says Tony, such as the David Austin or English rose. “A lot of the plant breeders have got carried away - with roses in particular - to have more showy, more colourful [flowers].