Spring has left us here in Southwestern Ontario as it usually does, quickly and in a bit of a wilted huff. Her fresh and subtle charm simply overcome by the sheer bounty of June.

There is just so much more in June. More light, more heat, more bugs and blooms. In my garden, there is no other time of the year when so many different types of plants are in flower at the same time. Most do it on a wave of fragrance that can go unnoticed. After temporarily losing my sense of smell this past winter, scent has become more important to me. I am far more appreciative of the good and hopefully more tolerant of the bad. In the garden, opportunities to use fragrance abound. Old favourites and new discoveries offer their perfume not only to us, but pollinators as well. This year, I am smelling everything.

Summer is an easy time to discover scent in the garden. Already the parade has begun with stalwart favourites like iris, peonies and roses. Bearded iris (Iris germanica) can be intensely fragrant depending on the cultivar. I grow a handful of different colours and each one has its own unique bouquet; from musky to candy sweet. Peonies lean more to being rose-scented both faint and strong. ‘Sarah Bernhardt” and Festiva Maximas are good examples. Of course, roses rule June and there are thousands of varieties with some specifically bred to thrive in our climate. The Explorer series of roses was developed with Canada in........

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