A Choice of Fragrant Houseplants

Scented flowering houseplants tend to be specialty items, so you can’t always find them in the nursery. The following can be purchased by mail-order.

* Aglaia odorata, ‘Chinese Perfume Plant’: Tiny yellow flowers with a delicate, sweet fragrance bloom throughout the year. It is a slow grower with an upright, bushy habit. Grow in an eastern or western window.

* Begonia: Several types pack a powerful scent. In general, begonias should be grown in an eastern window and watered only when they approach dryness.

Begonia ‘Lenore Olivier’ has large, compact clusters of fragrant salmon-pink flowers. The leaves are a dark coppery color with a red back.

Begonia ‘Peach parfait’ has large clusters of fragrant pastel-orange flowers and silver-spotted leaves.

Begonia venosa is a distinctive shrublike plant with white flowers that have a spicy fragrance. Thick, succulent leaves covered with white markings.

* Brunfelsia Australis, ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’: Named for flowers that fade from a rich blue-violet to white, this plant produces grape-scented blooms throughout the year.

* B. jamaicensis has long, tubular, creamy-white flowers that smell like Easter lilies and bloom throughout the year. Provide bright light from a southern window. Keep moist but not soggy.

* Codonanthe carnosa: This compact trailing plant has small, round, dark-green foliage and strongly scented, waxy white flowers each spring, followed by colorful orange berries. Requires an eastern window. Let it approach dryness between waterings and provide a well-drained soil.

* Hoya: Many hoyas with their waxy, stunning flowers provide fragrance to the indoors. They like a bright southern or western window and prefer drying out between waterings. Most bloom summer through fall.

Hoya australis have red-centered white flowers with a chocolate-vanilla fragrance. Bright-green leaves.

Hoya coronaria is a reliable bloomer that produces small clusters of deliciously fragrant white blooms in spring and summer. It’s a trailer and does well as a topiary or in a hanging basket.

Hoya lacunosa has cinnamon-scented clusters of yellow-centered white flowers. Small, glossy, dark-green leaves and thin trailing stems make it a good hanging-basket plant. Blooms constantly.

Hoya odorata produces large, fragrant, white star-shaped flowers with yellow centers throughout the year.

Hoya pubera is a fall-bloomer with white and maroon flowers that emit a spicy scent. Silver leaves and a compact growth habit.

* Jasmine: With their heady aroma, jasmines add a magical scent to the indoors. Some flower all year. They all require a bright, sunny window, such as an eastern or southern exposure. Let the soil approach dryness between waterings. For best results, train vining types on a trellis.

Jasminum nitidum has starlike white flowers and blooms year-round. Bushy growth habit and glossy, bright green leaves.

Jasminum sambac, ‘Maid of Orleans,’ is known as the national flower of the Philippines. This ever-blooming jasmine has intensely scented white flowers that fade to cream. Bushy growth habit.

Jasminum sambac, ‘Bell of India,’ is an upright viner with double, pure-white, sweetly scented flowers throughout the year.

Jasminum grandiflorum, ‘Poet’s Jasmine,’ produces clusters of semi-double, sweetly fragrant white flowers spring through fall. A delicate plant with small leaves and slender stems.

* Murraya Paniculata, ‘Orange Jasmine’: Ever-bloomer with waxy white flowers that emit an intense orange-blossom fragrance. Grow in an eastern or western window. Let it approach dryness between waterings.

* Mitriostigma axillare, ‘African Gardenia’: Much easier to grow indoors than standard gardenias, this produces clusters of white, star-shaped flowers with a yellow center and gardenia fragrance. Let it approach dryness between waterings.