Houseplants not only do they add beauty and lushness to your indoor spaces. Choosing fragrant varieties means they can also take the place of artificial air-fresheners too. So, we’ll share with you the best smelling plants that you should grow indoor.
1. Lemon balm
Lemon balm is a bushy, perennial herb of the mint family. Though humble in appearance, when lemon balm’s serrate, oval leaves are lightly brushed or rubbed between the fingertips, it releases a fragrant lemony scent.
Beyond its aromatic properties, lemon balm is an eminently useful specimen to have around. Clip the leaves often to flavor soups, salads, sauces, and ice cream. You may also steep the leaves to make lemon balm tea, a therapeutic beverage for lifting mood, improving sleep, relieving pain, and more.
As a houseplant, lemon balm is easy to grow and very low maintenance. Place it on a window ledge that receives up to 5 hours of direct sunlight each day.
2. English lavender
The purple spiked plant beloved by natural health enthusiasts, lavender is another herb with dozens of wonderful benefits for health and home.
Though there are several types to choose from, English lavender is one of the more aromatic varieties. Keep it blooming by providing lots of sunlight and good airflow. It also prefers a spacious pot with a couple of inches between plantings and monthly feedings.
3. White jasmine
A twining vine that produces clusters of star-shaped flowers, white jasmine provides the sweet smell of summer during the winter months. It is also known as pink jasmine or many-flowered jasmine.
Keep white jasmine happy by placing it in a sunny, humid spot. It looks lovely in a pot or hanging basket, just be sure to add a stake or trellis so its clinging vines have something to grasp on to.
4. Gardenia
Although it made our shortlist of the worst plants to grow in your garden, gardenia might be tough but she sure is beautiful. If you are up to the challenge, this gorgeous diva just might reward you with a show of exquisite, sweetly fragrant blooms.
Gardenia requires bright, indirect light and temperatures above 60°F at all times. It prefers acidic soil, bi-weekly feedings, and a consistently moist growing medium.
5. Citrus tree
Lemon, lime, orange, and other citrus fruit plants can add fruity scents to your indoor garden. Dwarfed into miniature trees, citrus needs sunshine and warmth to produce small fragrant blossoms that smell like their fruit.
Citrus plants tend to be thirsty so give them good watering regularly and feed with an all-purpose fertilizer in spring and summer.
While you can grow citrus plants from seed, you will have to wait around six years for it to mature enough to bloom. If you don’t want to wait that long, pick up a 3-pack of orange, lime, and lemon starter plugs here.
6. Twinkle Orchid
Though orchids, in general, are not known for their fragrance, this Oncidium hybrid blooms with hundreds of dime-sized flowers that emit a spicy vanilla scent.
Despite their reputation, orchid species aren’t too difficult to care for provided you give them plenty of bright, indirect light. Choose a spot with high humidity and temperatures between 70 to 85°F during the day and 55 to 65° at night. Because twinkle orchids are epiphytes, pot them in an orchid mix of fir bark and peat moss.
7. Scented leaf geranium
Though scented geraniums bear delicate 5-petaled flowers in summer, their strong fragrance is released when the thick, fuzzy foliage is touched or rubbed.
It comes in several scents – P. capitatum (rose), P. crispum (lemon), P. denticulatum (pine), P. fragrans (apple), P. grossularoides (coconut), P. tomentosum (chocolate mint).
Whatever variety you choose, place scented geranium in a sunny spot that receives at least five hours of sunlight per day.
8. Stephanotis
With attractive dark green leaves that look good no matter the season, stephanotis is a vining plant that produces clusters of waxy, sweet-smelling flowers in spring and summer.
As one of the easier to grow indoor flowering plants, stephanotis just needs a good amount of bright light and support to climb on.
9. Eucalyptus plants
Also known as silver dollar tree and argyle apple, eucalyptus emits a minty, sweet, and uplifting aroma. The silvery, blue-green foliage also provides a nice visual contrast among the pure greens of other houseplants.
Eucalyptus plants are incredibly speedy growers, maturing from seed to shrub in a single growing season. Indoors, they can be pruned into a bushy form or trained to look like a tree. Being native to Australia, it needs full sun to thrive. Feed weekly throughout spring and summer with a low nitrogen fertilizer.
10. Sweet bay
Sweet bay is a non-fussy evergreen tree with thick, glossy, elliptical leaves. Its foliage gives off an herbal scent with slight floral notes. Clip off the leaves from time to time to add flavor to soups, sauces, and stews.
Place sweet bay plants in a spot that receives full sun to part shade.
11. Tea rose begonia
A fibrous begonia, this tea rose cultivar features broad green leaves and ever-blooming pinkish-white flowers that appear along its red stem. Blooms are fragrant with a lightly sweet aroma.
Tea rose begonia prefers medium to bright light when kept indoors, with high humidity, and warm temperatures.
Pick up tea rose begonia plants here.
12. Heliotrope
Bearing tiny violet flowers grouped together in large clusters, heliotrope is a delightful specimen that smells of vanilla. Although heliotrope is typically planted outdoors, it can be tamed for your indoor garden as long as you provide plenty of sunlight and humidity. Deadhead spent blooms to encourage more flowers.
13. Angel’s trumpet
Fill your home with the intoxicating perfume of angel’s trumpet, a large tropical tree native to Ecuador. Releasing its scent in the evenings, angel’s trumpet has numerous, huge, downward-facing trumpet-shaped flowers that are available in white, yellow, orange, and pink colors. But beware, all parts of this plant are highly toxic.
To keep it in bloom, angel’s trumpet needs as much sunlight as you can throw at it, warm temperatures, and plenty of ambient humidity.
14. Frangipani
Frangipani is a small tree native to Mexico, Hawaii, Central American, and the Caribbean. It is most well known as the flower used to make leis. The five-petal blooms – available in red, pink, yellow, and white hues – are incredibly fragrant, especially at night.
To keep frangipani as a houseplant, you’ll need to give it lots of bright, direct sunlight (at least 4 to 6 hours per day). Water the plant deeply but allow the soil to dry out between waterings. Encourage blooming by feeding with a high phosphorus fertilizer every two weeks.
15. Blue passionflower
An absolute show stopper, blue passionflower offers a mesmerizing display of colorful sepals, petals, filaments, stamens, and stigmas. Beyond its complex appearance, blue passionflower emits a minty, fruity aroma.
Since blue passionflower is a woody vine, it needs a cage or hoop support to keep it tidy. It also prefers a spacious pot for its roots to become well established. Blue passionflower loves the sun, high humidity, and household temperature ranges.