Best Way to Liven Up Windowboxes

Scented windowboxes are a tonic throughout the year. Even winter can be enriched with fragrances from miniature and slow-growing conifers. Here is how to create memorable scents in windowboxes.

Hanging-baskets bursting with vibrantly colored and scented flowers create spectacular features throughout summer. Position them slightly to one side of a window, so that strong wind does not blow them against the glass. A combination of windowboxes and hanging-baskets creates an un­forgettable display.

Scented winter windowboxes

Many miniature and slow-growing conifers can be put in windowboxes to create a scented display throughout the year, but this will be especially appreciated in winter when the range of scented flowers is limited. These conifers emit a bouquet when their foliage is bruised or stroked. Because close proximity to the aromatic foliage is essential, these conifers are best used in windowboxes for ground-floor windows, as well as windows on balconies. Eventually, these conifers will outgrow a windowbox and have to be moved to a rock garden or another part of the garden.

• Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Elwoodii’: resin and parsley fragrance.
• Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Elwood’s Gold’: resin and parsley fragrance.
• Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Pygmaea Argentea’: resin and parsley fragrance. Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana’: warm and sweet bouquet.
• Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Aurea’: warm and sweet bouquet.
• Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Pygmaea’: warm and sweet bouquet.
• Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Boulevard’: resin­like fragrance.
• Juniperus communis ‘Compressa’: apple­like fragrance.

Small late-winter and spring-flowering scented bulbs for windowboxes

These, like the conifers in winter-fragrant windowboxes, need close examination. But this time they can be used for wind-sheltered first-floor windows as well as at ground level.

Small, scented bulbs are especially appreciated where first-floor bedrooms have sash-type windows, which readily enable the flowers to be admired and allow the fragrances to waft indoors.

• Crocus chrysanthus: honey-like redolence during late winter and early spring.
• Crocus longiflorus: primrose-like bouquet during early and mid-winter.
• Crocus versicolor (also known as Cfragrans): primrose-like bouquet during early spring. Galanthusallenii: almond-like scent in spring.
• Galanthuselwesii: violet-like scent from late winter to early spring.
• Galanthus nivalis (common snowdrop): moss-like redolence from mid-winter into spring.
• Iris danfordiae: honey-like and sweet, from mid- to late winter.
• Plants for scented summer-flowering windowboxes
• Heliotropium arborescens (heliotrope/cherry pie): sweet, heavy, fruity and resembling a cherry pie.
• Laurentia axillaris ‘Stars’ Series’: soft and gentle fragrance.
• Matthiola incana ‘Cinderella Antique Pink’ (stock): Delicious clove-like fragrance.
• Nicotiana alata (tobacco plant): very sweet and slightly heady.
• Reseda odorata (mignonette): heady, sweet and very distinctive.
• Viola x wittrockiana ‘Singing the Blues’: pervading sweetness.

Biennials for fragrance

Biennial plants are an inexpensive way to brighten beds alongside walls and under windowboxes. They are planted in late summer or early autumn, and during the following spring and early to mid-summer drench gardens with rich fragrances.

• Dianthus barbatus (sweet William): Sweetly fragrant, single or double flowers during early and mid-summer; variously colored, from white to red, or marked in other colors.
• Erysimum x allionii (Siberian wallflower) and E. cheiri (wallflower): sweetly-scented, in a color range that includes orange, white, yellow, scarlet, crimson and purple.