A flower bed or border that is not only beautiful to look at but also full of fragrant flowers for the garden is one of my goals with every flower garden I create.

One of my favorite hobbies is flower gardening and landscaping. I like digging in the dirt and planting the seeds or small plants and watching them become mature and more beautiful as they grow.

I have always said I never saw a flower I didn't like, and while that may be true I do have some favorites that I just wouldn't want to garden without.

Some of the flowers that are on my list of favorites are there because they are easy to grow, iris and daylilies fall in the easy to grow list.

Others are on my favorite flower list because they are just so pretty, clematis is on my "so pretty" list. Nothing makes an impact like a mature clematis in full bloom.

Fragrant flowers for the garden top my list of must have flowers though, because a fragrant garden seems to just draw you in and make you want to linger a while.

One thing I have found is that many modern hybrids are not as fragrant as some of the more old fashioned favorites.

Petunias are one of these, the old fashioned reseeding variety of petunia has a much nicer fragrance than the modern varieties of petunias.

Because of this, you may have to obtain seeds, or starts of plants from other gardeners if you want some of the old fashioned fragrant plants, as they are sometimes hard to find. I have found several varieties of flower seeds on eBay that I couldn't find anywhere else.

Without any more rambling, I want to share five of the plants that are on my list of favorite fragrant flowers.

Nicotiana alata or flowering tobacco is one of my favorite old fashioned fragrant flowers. I first grew these from seed that I bought on eBay and winter sowed several years ago.

While they are classified as an annual I do have some of them come back from the roots and they also reseed in my garden, so I have not had to replant.

They grow to around three feet tall and have large rather course looking leaves. The star shaped pure white flowers open at dusk and close during the day, unless it is cloudy and then they remain open during the day.

The fragrance is heavenly, and carries for a distance. There are modern hybrids of nicotiana, most are much shorter and the fragrance has mostly been bred out of them.

Do not confuse this honeysuckle with the invasive Japanese honeysuckle, although they are both honeysuckles, the Lonicera heckrotti, is not invasive.

This honeysuckle does have the fragance most people associate with Japanese honeysuckle, but in a milder form. The fragrance doesn't carry like that of Japanese honeysuckle, but it is fragrant, beautiful and it won't take over your yard.

An added bonus is the hummingbirds love it.

Some varieties of peonies are one of the most fragrant of flowers you can grow.

In my area two of the most widely planted varieties of peony are "Festiva Maxima"  a white with red in the center of the bloom and "Sarah Bernhardt" a pink peony.

I have grown both of these and they both have absolutely gorgeous, huge double blooms that smell wonderful.

They both have the classis peony fragrance, which is somewhat like a very strong rose fragrance. if you like fragrant flowers you will love these peonies.

They do need to be staked because the flowers are so large that springtime rains will cause them lay them on the ground. You can buy special peony rings that work really well.

Ahh, the fragrance of  oriental lilies, another of my "must have" fragrant flowers.

Oriental lilies are available in white and shades of pink and red, and then in mixtures of the three colors.

The stargazer lily in the picture is a very poplular and widely available variety. In the area I live Oriental lilies bloom just in time for the forth of July in an explosion of fragrance.

Although I am mentioning roses last, if you want fragrance in your garden, roses are usually the first flower you think of. Even people who don't garden would name roses as a fragrant flower.

If your only experiance with roses is with hybrid teas (and there are some beautiful hybrid teas that aren't prone to disease) and you gave up roses because they were to much trouble, you need to try some of the old garden or heirloom roses.

While the old garden roses are often hard to find locally, you can find lots of venders online that offer a wide variety of old garden roses.

If you want roses for their fragrance, be sure the rose you buy is indeed fragrant, because some roses while still pretty, have little to no fragrance.

There you have it, five of my favorite fragrant flowers. There are lots more fragrant flowers that I grow and love and I may share them another day. I hope you enjoy this list and maybe you have found a new favorite, or were reminded of an old favorite you want to grow again.