Choosing a plant for a fragrant garden often means comparing flowers, bloom times and the space a shrub or climber needs. Foliage is easier to overlook when selecting something for a patio pot. Yet a plant with modest flowers can still offer fragrance beyond its blooms. For a container near a favourite seat or bright window, scented leaves offer a different way to enjoy a plant at close range.
Choosing by flower colour alone makes this easy to miss at a nursery. The detail worth checking is on the plant label, because related plants can carry quite different scents. Once you find the right one, growing it in a container makes its seasonal care much easier to manage.
The apple scent comes from the leaves
Look for Pelargonium odoratissimum, commonly called apple-scented geranium. Its rounded leaves have fine hairs and an apple or apple-mint fragrance. The Royal Horticultural Society identifies the foliage as the source of its scent. Rub a leaf gently and smell it at close range rather than expecting the white blooms to perfume the garden.
The small flowers have red markings on their upper petals, and the RHS describes flowering from spring into summer. This is a low, spreading plant with trailing flowering stems, so allow space beside the pot for its growth. Its old-fashioned reputation has substance: the species has been cultivated since the early eighteenth century.
Check the botanical name when buying. The common word geranium is also used for hardy cranesbills, which belong to a different genus. This scented pelargonium does not share their outdoor winter hardiness. Choosing a plant solely because the label says geranium could leave you with a different fragrance, growth habit or cold tolerance.
Give the container light and drainage
Choose a pot with drainage holes and use a well-drained, peat-free compost. Grit or perlite can improve drainage where the mixture needs it. The RHS recommends full light for plants in containers, indoors or outside, with protection from scorching midday sun. A sheltered summer position can keep the leaves within reach without placing the pot in a busy walkway.
Indoors, use a bright windowsill or similarly well-lit position. Keep some space around the foliage so air can circulate, particularly in a conservatory or greenhouse. Allow for a plant that stays low, around 25cm tall, but can eventually spread to between 50cm and 1m across at maturity. Position neighbouring pots far enough away that their leaves do not crowd it, and rotate the container when checking its growth.
Water moderately during active growth in spring and summer, avoiding compost that stays wet. Check the mixture before watering again and empty any water left standing in a saucer. Reduce watering in winter, allowing the compost time to dry between applications. The amount needed changes with light, temperature and growth, so a fixed daily watering routine is unsuitable.
Plan its winter position before the cold arrives
This pelargonium needs frost protection. Move an outdoor container into a bright, frost-free place before freezing weather reaches it. A pot makes that seasonal move simpler than lifting a plant from a border, but check that you have room for its spreading foliage. An unheated space that freezes is not adequate winter protection.
Remove faded flowers during the growing season and check plants for pests before bringing them indoors. Pelargoniums can suffer from whitefly and other pests, so inspect the undersides of leaves and stems. Keep the pot where cats and dogs cannot chew it, as pelargoniums are toxic to them. Before settling on its winter spot, check the light, airflow and access to the leaves.
