I have a deep love of scented plants. I adore walking up to a flower, sticking my head in it, and being rewarded with a sweet perfume. Even flowers that I know aren’t fragrant I will still smell them just in case. With scented Geraniums, the flowers arn’t fragrant, but the leaves are. The first I ever encountered was a rose scented geranium. My mom bought one for fun from a nursery when I was a teen. That plant made the patio by the backdoor smell like roses especially during the really hot days of August. After that summer I was hooked. The next year I went to the nursery and ended up with another rose, a mint, and a lemon scented variety.
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| Rose mint variety from last year. |
They are annuals in most areas of the country since the plant originally hails from South Africa. I have had a few die back over the winter and grow from the roots in the spring. no rhyme or reason to which varieties are more likely to live or not but sometimes, in the spring, one or two will reappear. The flowers on these plants aren’t amazing or flashy, they are smaller and usually pink, sometimes a lavender shade. Though this is mostly a personal bias (I don’t really like pink flowers). The other delightful bonus of scented geraniums is that they can be used for food. Lemon scented geraniums are great in sun tea and it keeps the plants under control in the summer. This year I have 5 varieties, lemon, mint rose, orange fizz, mint, and rose. The mint rose and rose are survivors from last year. I am extra excited for the orange fizz, it smells like orange soda and I think I might use it to flavor ice cream this summer.
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| 'Orange Fizz'- super ruffly leaves |
They make great drink garnishes too, the leaves are ruffly and pretty.
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| variegated lemon scented geranium |
