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17 of the Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots

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What are the best, beautiful, fragrant flowers for pots that you can grow?

Many people like to see colorful flowers, especially if they are fragrant blooms. A beautiful flower becomes more attractive when its scent is as good as it looks.

Having this kind of plant in your garden makes it more impressive and alive as it attracts many pollinators like bees and butterflies.

One of the economical ways to enjoy these beautifully scented flowers is to plant them in pots. This allows you to have the perfect spot to see and smell such blooms.

You can move it around in your yard, place from one fence to another, complement the dull pathways or beautify the inside of your house.

Plants with scented flowers have different types, sizes, colors, seasons and basic care requirements to consider. Without ado, here is the list of the best fragrant flowers for pots that are easy to grow and care.

17 Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots

1. Daphne

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Daphne

Daphne’s strong rose-citrus scent freshens up the air with its delightful fragrance. Its leathery star-shaped blossoms are showcased with its vibrant colors of white, yellow, pink, and purple.

This is a fairly slow growing flowering plant. It grows best in cool and temperate climates. It is one of those easily sown fragrant flowers for pots that you can easily move from a spot with the scorching heat of summer to a shady area, or keep indoors to avoid frosting in the freezing winter.

2. Dianthus

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Dianthus
via Pixabay

Dianthus is a perennial plant that is easy to grow in pots. It has scented blooms in shades of red, pink, and white. Like most fragrant flowers for pots, this is low maintenance and can thrive in a range of conditions as long as with moist organic soil.

It blooms best in full sun or bright windows when kept indoors. It has a long blooming season that starts in spring and reblooms until late summer or early fall.

3. Freesia

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Freesia 2
via Pixabay

Freesias are one of the fragrant flowers for pots popularly known for their colors, long vase life and of course, sweet aroma. They are perfect to grow using organic soil and blooms in the yellow, orange, pink, purple, pink, red and white colors.

They usually bloom in spring if it’s planted outdoors or in fall if it’s planted indoor, but placed in a sunny area.

4. Gardenia

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Gardenia
via Pixabay

Gardenia has elegant, scented white flowers. Its dwarf variety is perfect for growing in pots. Like other fragrant flowers for pots, this comes in beautiful shades of red, pink, yellow, purple, and white.

It can grow in a warm, humid climate positioned in a sunny or partially shaded area, and can tolerate dry environments but needs to be watered weekly. Its blooming season comes every late spring until late fall.

5. Geranium

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Geranium

Geraniums are gorgeous fragrant flowering plants that are perfect for pots, containers, hanging baskets and window boxes. There are different varieties of this flower to choose from, including mint, cinnamon, chocolate, citrus, lemon, fringed apple and rose.

Regardless, they all can thrive as an indoor plant as long as they’re placed in a sunny window and with the right amount of soil. Its blooming season starts in a cool nighttime temperature of spring, early summer and autumn.

6. Heliotrope

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Heliotrope
via Pixabay

Heliotrope is a kind of shrub perennial plant that has a cluster of small but sweet-scent flowers in deep shades of blue, purple, or white. As one of the fragrant flowers for pots, you can easily move it around in the garden or indoors.

It can withstand harsh weather, and is best sown in full sun, although it tolerates shady areas too but may not bloom quite as much.

7. Hyacinth

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Hyacinth
via Pixabay

Hyacinth is another perennial plant that has stunning, fragrant flowers that can be grown in pots or containers. The racemes are packed with cute flowers in hues of purple, white, blue, yellow, and pink.

This flowering plant usually blooms in early or mid-spring. It is important to note that the hyacinth bulb has oxalic acid that can cause skin irritation so it’s best to use gloves if you’re dealing with it.

8. Jasmine

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Jasmine

Another on this list of fragrant flowers for pots is Jasmine. Its cute, star-shaped and sweet-scented flowers make it a favorite plant for many gardeners and homeowners.

This is very easy to grow, being a low-maintenance plant. It loves to be under the sun, but also perfect to sow in pots to easily move indoors when the freezing temperatures in winter begin to set.

To add that, this tolerates almost any type of soil, as long as it is well-drained. For abundant flower production, regularly water it. Its blooming season starts from spring and ends in late fall or early winter.

9. Lavender

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Lavender
via Pxhere

Lavender is known to be one of the most popular flowers. It is one of the fragrant flowers for pots too. It consists of numerous varieties, but the common lavender and lavandin are the two widely used for commercial cultivation and oil extracts.

This plant prefers to grow in full sun and typically blooms from spring to late summer.

10. Lily of the Valley

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Lily of the Valley
via Pixabay

Lily of the valley grows from a rhizome showcasing tiny beautiful bell flowers that are so delicate and aromatic. This flower is perfect as an indoor plant that can brighten up nearly any spot with its heavenly scented blossoms that usually blooms in spring.

It is an easy, low-maintenance, and versatile plant. It is sown in shady areas and tolerates nearly any types of soil. It is highly recommended to place it indoors to fully enjoy its beautiful and fragrant flower heads.

11. Mock Orange

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Mock Orange
via Pxhere

Among the fragrant flowers for pots, mock orange is a popular ornamental plant. The pleasant smell of its white fragranced flowers is very similar to a zesty orange blossom, hence the name.

It is easy to grow in a pot filled with moist, well-drained soil. It is very tolerant to most growing conditions either in full sun or partial shade.

This is also why it’s a perfect choice for indoor plants, especially in urban areas. The typical blooming period starts in early spring that extends to the beginning of summer.

12. Peony

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Peony
via Pixabay

Peonies are a popular perennial plant with beautiful strong scented flowers that come in the shades of white, pink, red, and purple. This fragrant flower grows best in areas with cool climate because cold temperature promotes the development of flower buds.

It can be planted in pots for indoor display to avoid frosting from freezing cold weather. Some varieties can also tolerate hot summer temperatures in a partial or shaded area. 

13. Primrose

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Primrose
via Pxhere

Primrose have fragrant flowers that come in a variety of hues, like red, pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange and white. Its classy looks and pleasant smell makes it a perfect outdoor garden, but also considered as one of the fragrant flowers for pots, this can be transferred to an indoor setting.

It survives the best in full sun but can also tolerate shady areas and light frost in a cold environment. Its blooming season starts in spring as well as mid to late winter.

14. Rose

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Rose
via Pxhere

Roses are one of the top famous flowers in the world, not just because of its elegant looks but also for its lovely smell. The iconic scent flourishes throughout the day.

The brighter and darker the color of the flowers is, the sweeter the scent is. Most of the varieties of this fragrant flower can be grown in an indoor pot or an outdoor bed, as long as there is enough and usually deep space for the roots.

It thrives well in a sunny area, but must be sheltered from strong winds. Depending on the varieties, the flowers bloom in spring, summer, and fall.

15. Sweet Alyssum

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Sweet Alyssum
via Pxhere

Sweet alyssums are plants that live in a short period of time only. However, this is one of the cute fragrant flowers for pots you can grow.

Its tiny white, pink, lavender or violet blooms release a honey-scented smell that attracts many pollinators. This plant is commonly used as a ground cover and accent to rock gardens.

Even with limited space, you can sow using a pot, a container, a hanging basket, or a window box. This requires full sun and well-drained moist soil.

16. Tuberose

Tuberoses are a tender perennial plant that produces grass-like leaves and sweet-honey scented flowers. Its adorned statuesque stems and fragrant flowers are very suitable for pots whether for outdoor or indoors display.

It offers beautiful creamy colors of white, pink, orange, yellow, and purple. It is also easy to grow and loves to be under the sun. This normally produces beautiful fragrant flowers all year round but the best blooms appear in spring.

17. Wisteria

Best Fragrant Flowers for Pots Wisteria
via Flickr

Wisteria is a kind of ornamental vine plant that twines beautifully on anything it can climb and crawl to. It produces an impressive sweet-smelling purple flower that gives delight to any garden in springtime.

Surprisingly, you can start growing in a pot or a container while exposed in full sun. It grows very fast that it easily outgrows the space you allotted for it, so make sure there’s a ready framework for climbing before planting. This bloom once a year only in mid to late spring and lasts for about a month or two.


Conclusion

Whether you have an outdoor garden or extra indoor space, you can still enjoy growing beautifully scented flowers. These fragrant flowers for pots are easy, low-maintenance, perfect for beginners.