In article , "pixi" wrote:

I have a honeysuckle vine, Harlequin. It has beautiful pink flowers and
blooms all summer with the most wonderful smell.

It is my habit to sit on my deck in the early morning to drink my coffee and
watch the birds. And this honeysuckle, especially just after dawn throws
off this wonderful, wonderful aroma.

I would like to find its equivalent in a shrub, not a vine. Does anyone
know of such a honeysuckle and where I can get it.

Thanks a bunch
Pixi

You can have the scent of honeysuckle at the height of winter if your zone
will support Winter Honeysuckle, Lonicera ragrantissima:
http://www.paghat.com/winterhoneysuckle.html
It is a twiggy shrub that blooms in winter well before its leaves are
returning, so though the fragrant blooms are smaller than summer
honeysuckles, they're really quite showy in the winter context & with no
leaves to detract from the white flowers. After it starts to re-leaf, it
produces larger than average honeysuckle fruits, so still rather
decorative.

There are many deciduous azaleas that have extremely redolent perfume,
though only for one month of spring. Here's one that singlehandedly
sweetens up the atmosphere while it's flowering:
http://www.paghat.com/azalea_whitethroat.html
Another one that is fantastically redolent is the wild (non-hybridized)
Western Azalea (Rhododendron occidentale).
In their natural range in Oregon, they are often called "honeysuckle
bush" because the sweet scent can be detected long before one reaches the
shrub.

We have a smaller deciduous azalea with that smells of cloves & spice even
from a great distance:
http://www.paghat.com/azalea_apricot.html
And this evergreen species rhododendron:
http://www.paghat.com/rhody_concinnum.html
smells wonderfully of cinnamon. But for a rhody with PERSISTANT sweet
odor, this hard-to-find but worth-the-hunt shrub is the one:
http://www.paghat.com/rhody_tolmachevii.html
R. tolmachevii has the most powerfully redolent leaves of any rhody I've
experienced. To some it might be a bit too medicinal a scent, but I just
love it. I planted it right on the path & smell it year round, as the
slightest breeze seems to be enough to induce the leaves to release their
scent. When I weed around it, brushing into it, I can smell its scent on
my clothing for a long time after.

The most strikingly scented shrubs are the Lilacs. Around here they're
rather cliche shrubs but beautiful enough to deserve so much attention,
though if you wanted something a bit less common, there are many rarer
types of lilacs worth driving a bit further to obtain from larger
nurseries with more than the usual to choose from.

The untidy butterfly bush flowers a very long time. The blooms smell of
the best grade of honey tinctured with vanilla. Good golly they're great
for their odor, as also for the largeness & persistance of the blooms. If
you track down an alleged "dwarf" you'll have an eight foot tall
fountaining shrub slightly easier to manage for size & no less flowery.
Here's my "Nanho Blue":
http://www.paghat.com/butterflybush.html
Except for needing pruning or they get out of hand, butterfly bushes grow
great without any attention. It's a good choice for a location where water
doesn't reach, like maybe on the road or near where you usually park the
car, so that you smell it every time you go somewhere & return.

There are a couple different shrubs called "Mock Orange" because the
flowers smell like orange blossoms, including Western Syringa:
http://www.paghat.com/philadelphus.html
but the odor can be less than sweet at too close a range, so it should be
part of a pefume array a bit further from the central location.

For a really hot sunny spot, Mexican Mock Orange is a good choice for
beauty & scent. I have one called "Aztec Pearl" which smells of almonds:
http://www.paghat.com/mexicanorange.html
If you planted rosemary & lavender nearby -- they too like dryish hot
sunny spots so all live happily together -- you'd have a veritable
scent-factory, &amp the lavender in particular can bloom from late spring
to mid-Autumn for persistant perfume. The Rosemary will grow to be a six
foot tall shrub or larger & release its odor mainly when knocked into:
http://www.paghat.com/rosemary.html

As a foot note, if you plant some hyacinths at the foot of all your
shrubs, on the sunnyside, man oh man will the garden be filled with
scent. I always thought hyacinths were too damned gaudy & I like subtler
flowers, but the super-duper perfume induced me to plant them, &amp
they're especially nice to add around shrubs with unperfumed flowers.

-paghat the ratgirl
The lavender, depending on variety & species (so select well) can become a
three or four foot tall &amp wide shrub that blooms so persistently &
smells so nice:
http://www.paghat.com/lavender.html

Lemon verbena is a small semi-creeping subshrub in my zone, not physically
impressive; but in a hotter zone it would be a great big floppy shrub,
untidy like a butterfly bush, but the great thing is the leaves are the
most powerfully redolent leaves of any I have experienced. You don't have
to bruise the shrub to smell the sweet lemon sucker smell. Of all the
citrusy shrubs this one's the best for its scent, & because it is the
leaves rather than the flowers that smell so fine, the scent is present
mid-spring through late autumn. It is also the #1 make-your-own-tea plant
you can have in the garden:
http://www.paghat.com/lemonverbena.html

Fotrhergilla's spring bottlebrushes smell of wild honey, plus the autumn
colors are super.
http://www.paghat.com/mountairy.html
I've found the scent does not travel far, though.

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/