One of the many pleasures in my life is to stick my somewhat large nose inside a flower and slowly breathe in,  just for the smell of it! That feeling when you smell a beautifully scently flower is just divine. Equally, the disappointment when a flower that you think is going to smell delightful, but in fact smells of nothing at all, is also great.

I can rarely resist having a quick sniff of the flowers whilst I am at work. It was whilst I was doing some pruning today that I started to wonder what my favourite flower smell is. There are many to pick from, but here are a few. You’ll have to scroll down to see my favourite.

Lavender has got to be up there with the best, with its fresh, calming, floral and balsamic aromas. I can’t help but rub a flower between my fingers when I walk past. This bee seems to be pretty happy.

There are many varieties of lavender, but this French lavender smells equally good.

I adore the smell of roses. When planting the roses last year I made sure that each of the five varieties had a strong fragrence to compliment their good looks.

My boss has a rather strange, and a bit controversial, favourite smelling plant. He loves the Helichrysum Italicum plant, AKA the curry plant. Now I’ve been struggling a bit to describe the aromas of plants. What words do you use to describe the smell of a rose in comparison to lavender? Well the smell of the curry plant is dead easy to describe… CURRY! Many people cannot bear it, whilst others love it. It isn’t my favourite, but equally I don’t hate it.

Other favourites of mine, which I don’t have photos of, are jasmine, freesias and sweet peas, with their delicate floral aroma. Mum used always to grow sweet peas and cut them daily to make small little posies for the kitchen table.

Before I reveal my favourite, I have some photos of flowers I took today at the hospice, but which have almost no smell. Maybe don’t need to be fragrant because of their visual beauty.

And now to my favourite fragrant flower. They probably aren’t what you’d expect (unless I’ve mentioned it in a previous post!). They are…. drum roll please….

Marigolds! Not perhaps the prettiest of flowers, although they do add some great colour. And yes, they are a bit flouncy and prone to be eaten by slugs. But their incredibly strong, citrusy aroma reminds me of days gone by and of hot, dry summers (chance would be a fine thing).

So there you have it. Marigolds top my list of favourite smelly flowers. What’s top of your list? Please let me know!