Heaven Scent - A guide to Scented Summer Flowers

Hello all.  Today I bring you another of my passions - scented flowers. One of the true pleasures of working with flowers is not just their shape, form or colour, but it’s their evasive unique scent which just can't be manufactured, that I love.

I’ve always loved plants and flowers and have been, in my time, quite a keen gardener.  So, when I trained to become a florist, I was initially quite sad to learn that commercial production of flowers which smell divine in the garden, had little or no scent in a retail setting.  In perfecting the shape, colour and longevity of the blooms, scent had been sacrificed.

Fast forward a number of years later and David Austin were for a time, at the forefront of promoting gorgeous cabbagey roses full of luscious, romantic scents.  Happily, the trend for flowers with a ‘just picked’ natural feel has meant that not only are organically and ethically grown flowers more readily available, but that scents are back where they should be. 

Here are a few of my top Summer Scented flowers:-

Lavender

As you might have noticed, I love dried lavender for it's scent and gorgeous texture.  It's also really useful to 'open' up a bouquet and help created a 'just picked' look

Fresh lavender is available in lots of gorgeous colours ranging from deep dark purples, through to lilacs, pinks and even white.

Sweet Peas

To me, Sweet Peas are as quintessentially part of British Summer time as strawberries and cream and have the added benefit of being available in an array of gorgeous colours

Peonies

A firm favourite with Bride's at the moment, peonies also come in a range of beautiful colours ranging from pure, pure white to pale pink through to the deepest vibrant magenta.

Freesia

I'm really happy to see this slightly underrated flower making a bit of a comeback recently, I love not only it's scent, but the pretty swirly buds which add so much textural interest to a design

Roses

I adore that unmistakeable scent of a beautiful rose - it reminds me of my Bampa's (Grandfather's) garden.  Happily there are so many varieties of rose now available with a gorgeous scent - I've noticed that even some varieties of spray rose do too. Fabulous!

Those are my top five, readily available scented flowers but there are so many more to choose from now, and I haven't even touched on herbs!  To me it's incomprehensible to have beautiful perfect blooms without their accompanying heady scent.  Thankfully, that all seems to be changing and I for one cannot help but use at least one scented bloom and/or a lovely Eucalyptus every time I make something – which is one of the reasons I love my job so much!

 So, when you have a consultation with your florist, be sure you ask for scented blooms – the more demand there is the more growers will make sure they produce scented varieties!

What's your favourite scented flower? Have you planned your bouquet around scent or would you like a bit of advice as to what's available when you've planned your wedding?  Leave me a comment and, as always, I'll get back to you if I can help.

Tracey x

Photocredit: Niel Stewart and Cat Hepple Photography