Naturally fragrant houseplants can improve the whole ambiance of a room, creating a more calming or a more invigorating atmosphere, or even evoking memories of your favorite vacation. A few fragrant flowers and herbs do especially well indoors. Among these, you have a variety of choices including intoxicating florals, crisp citrus scents, and appetizing herbal aromas.
These best smelling houseplants don’t just smell good, they are beautiful and make great decorations for your home. From subtle scents to stronger ones, here are ten best smelling houseplants you are sure to want in your home!
Below you can read about 8 best smelling houseplants as natural air fresheners.
Gardenia
The sweet, heady fragrance of the gardenia’s flower is the main reason this plant is so popular. Each rose-like bloom lasts for around a week, but when conditions are right, the plant can keep blooming all summer.
It’s picky about its living conditions, though, and requires high humidity, at least six hours of bright light a day, cooler temperatures to set buds and warmer temperatures while in bloom. You’ll also need to keep a close eye out for pests.
Lavender
With its clean, calming fragrance, lavender is perfect for the bedroom or kitchen. The plant doesn’t need much, but the one thing it must have is abundant direct sunlight. The sill of a south-facing window is the ideal spot as long as it’s free from drafts. This plant dislikes wet feet, so let the soil dry slightly between waterings. Overwatering can cause root rot, which frequently kills lavender plants.
To harvest the flowers for scented sachets or tea, cut branches back to the first set of leaves and hang them to dry. Cutting branches promotes growth and blooming, but cutting just the flower tips can have the opposite effect.
Orchids
While known primarily for their showy blooms, many orchids also produce distinct floral, spice or citrus fragrances. Brassavola nodosa, or “Lady of the Night,” releases a strong citrus scent in the evening. Aeranthes grandalena produces a jasmine-like scent, while orchids in the Gongora genus typically produce a spicy fragrance.
Orchids require shallow planting in well-drained soil that’s kept moist. Give them bright light from a south-facing window, but not so much it scorches the leaves. They need high humidity, so place the pot in a tray of water and pebbles or mist the leaves daily.
Citrus
Dwarf citrus trees like calamansi (also known as calamondin) and Meyer lemon are a favorite among houseplant lovers—and not just because these cheery tropicals reward attentive gardeners with the literal fruits of their labor. Their small, white blooms give off a delicious scent that you can pick up across the room. Citrus trees need at least eight hours of full sunlight, so they’re ideal for a bright south-facing window, or give them a grow light made for citrus trees to keep them blooming and fruiting.
Scented Geranium
Like their annual geranium cousins, scented geraniums produce clusters of cheerful blooms—but their lovely scent comes from their leaves, not from their flowers. Rose geranium is one of the most common varieties, but scents range from lemon to apple or nutmeg, depending on which variant you’re growing. Give these hardy plants plenty of full sun in a bright, south-facing window, or use a grow light designed to support flowering to keep them blooming all winter. Bring your scented geraniums back outdoors when the weather warms up to encourage lush, full growth and to let them soak up direct sunlight.
Jasmine
A plant that will fill your home with its aroma is the yellow star jasmine. This beautiful vine has long vines and delicate, frothy white flowers in summer to autumn months (from late June through September).
Place it on a sunny spot for best results!
Mint
Mint is an aromatic plant that can be grown indoors or out. It has a refreshing, cool scent and you’ll find it growing in many different home decorating schemes!
When crushed up into a ball form, mint leaves emit their own unique smell which will fill your room with the smell of energizing freshness – perfect for any time of day or night, when we just need to relax and unwind.
Lily of the Valley
Lily of the Valley flowers is quite unique in their flowers and scent. These best smelling houseplants have a pretty strong scent and the cute little bell-shaped flowers grow in clusters. If you get the care just right with this plant, you could grow it all year round making it an ideal naturally fragrant houseplant.
Like many other blooming plants, this houseplant needs a lot of light. It also needs plenty of water in its growing season, spring and summer, but not enough to drown it. Just make sure the soil is damp. If you notice new shoots coming from the soil, water the plant a little less.
