Choose a fragrant gift for your gardening mum, whether it's plants, flowers or botanicals. Hannah Stephenson sniffs out 10 ideas.
So many plants offer fantastic scents – the sweet headiness of lily-of-the-valley in spring, the strong perfume of roses, mock orange and lilies through summer.
From shrubs whose scent is carried in the wind and can be enjoyed out on the patio, to houseplants that fill a room with fragrance, along with scented balms, oils and candles aimed at gardeners, your mum can inhale the joy of her garden with a fragrant Mother’s Day gift.
Here are some of the most perfumed offerings to buy now…
1. Scented Crab Apple Blossom Tree Gift, £35, notonthehighstreet.com
Planting a tree can make a gift last a lifetime, and this fragrant crab apple from The Gluttonous Gardener offers the most spectacular display of aromatic blossom, beginning with clusters of fragrant white flowers that open from pink buds in spring.
They’re followed by crops of golden fruits in early autumn, which remain bright and beautiful on the bare branches into winter, when birds will flock to the garden to feast on them.
2. RHS Flowers for Fragrance seed collection, £4.99, Mr Fothergill’s (mr-fothergills.co.uk)
This collection of seeds, which will produce flowers to give you a mixture of delicate fragrance and rich aromas, is part of a new range from Mr Fothergill’s Seeds in partnership with the RHS. The packet contains chamomile, mignonette, nicotiana, lupin, monarda and stock, which can all be sown in spring.
3. Aromatherapy Gift Set – Pelargonium and grapefruit, £28, Denys & Fielding (denysandfielding.co.uk)
If your mum likes natural products made using essential oils, this plant-based gift set may be one for her. It comprises a floral, fresh bath oil, with a slant on reducing stress and enhancing mood, while grapefruit is great for combating fatigue and lifting spirits. It comes with a matching aromatherapy votive candle with a 20+ hour burn time, a choice of candle container and a biodegradable bath mitt.
4. Stephanotis gift crate, £24.39 (from £27.99), crocus.co.uk
A bridal bouquet favourite, this climber has deliciously scented flowers, and can be trained onto a support. The jasmine-like perfume of the summer flowers will fill a room, and as it matures, it develops vigorous climbing stems, and glossy evergreen leaves. You can put it outside when the weather warms up too.
5. Moorland Myrtle and Rose scented candle, £29, notonthehighstreet.com
With elements of gorse, heather and myrtle, this candle – hand poured into a scientific beaker no less – has a bold floral scent with earthy undertones.
6. Lasting rose bushes
There are a number of new roses worth earmarking, including Rosa ‘Silas Marner’ (from £22 for bare-rooted, David Austin Roses, davidaustinroses.co.uk). An unfussy rose, it’s a soft mid-pink, with relaxed medium-sized cupped blooms, ruffled petals and a rich medium-strong Old Rose fragrance with accents of fruity lemon, green banana and apricot. Plu it’s shade tolerant.
If a namesake is more your mum’s bag, there’s Rosa ‘Mum in a Million’ (£11.95 for bare root, Peter Beales Roses, classicroses.co.uk). This hybrid tea, with large soft pink, highly fragrant blooms, flowers repeatedly from May until first frosts, and is ideal for beds, borders or a large patio pot.
7. Limited edition English lavender collection, £50, 30ml, jomalone.co.uk and Jo Malone London boutiques
This new collection from Jo Malone combines lavender with a trio of different additions to create three different scents – coriander (aromatic), silver birch (cool woodiness) and wisteria (soft florals). The collection also includes Lavender & Musk pillow mist and diffuser.
8. Daphne ‘Eternal Fragrance’, from £10.99, Thompson & Morgan, thompson-morgan.com
If your mum likes a shrub that offers year-round interest and fantastic spring scent, ideally in a patio pot or border, treat her to this fragrant semi-evergreen daphne. It bears non-stop white blooms, which turn from pink in bud, from April to October. It has neat, compact growth, so is best appreciated in a patio pot or near a pathway, where everyone can enjoy its rich scent.
9. X oncidopsis ‘Nelly Isler’ scented orchid, £16, root-houseplants.com
The X oncidopsis ‘Nelly Isler’ is a crimson red orchid with a mood-enhancing, sweet and lightly citrus fragrance to brighten up Mother’s Day. Its exotic-looking flowers provide a long-lasting display and could bloom a few times a year – if they’re happy. They usually flower between autumn and winter and are most suited to a north or north-east facing window.
Easy to keep, position in bright filtered light, water weekly and feed fortnightly (diluting fertiliser to half the recommended strength). Misting is also advised.
10. Baylis & Harding Royale Garden Fragranced Luxury Soap Bath Petals Mother’s Day Gift Set, £10
What better way to relax after a hard day in the garden than with this beautifully packaged box of delicate soap petals? They dissolve in warm water and smell of rose, poppy and vanilla.