Scented plants. The new sweet autumn clematis I planted last year is blooming. It has a pleasant light fragrance and delicate, twinkling flowers. It has a reputation for being invasive so I plan to cut it back a bit as the blooms fade. Hopefully, that will reduce the number of seedlings in the spring. I'll cut it back by at least 1/3 in the early spring since it blooms on new growth.

My favorite scented plant is sweet allysum - which reseeds every year and produces a heavenly sweet smell all summer in the sunshine. I pull out a lot of seedlings in the spring but I always have more than I planned. Since the plants tend to get leggy, I trim them two or three times a year with a grass sheers. By now they look leggy again but the aroma is worth it.

Another one of my favorites is the sweet shrub. It was given to me by a neighbor. He got it from a man who called it a strawberry bush. It's a rather ordinary looking bush. The flowers are not very showy - sort of brownish, spikey lumps - somewhat strawberry-like, I guess. It's not the prettiest bush nor is it the easiest to maintain. It needs to be trimmed once or twice a summer and sends out runners that need to be pulled up and cut off. Is it worth it? I think it is because I really enjoy the heavy aroma of the long spring bloom filling the garden.