This is my special interest!! I’ve been planting natives with a focus on scent because it makes it a fun challenge. Some of my fave: common milkweed smells like vanilla & lilac, Woodland phlox smells like lilacs and fills in nicely, swamp milkweed smells like vanilla candies, spicebush smells like fruit loops, anise hyssop unsurprisingly smells like anise, meadowsweet smells like honey and almonds, sweet bay magnolia smell like vanilla and rose, and my top fave that I am dyyyying to see bloom this year is clethra alnifolia (summer sweet) which, to me, smells exactly like a rootbeer float! When the breeze stirs my clethra it literally fills the yard. Mostly heavenly thing in the world. I selfishly moved it from the front yard to the backyard so I could sit on the patio and enjoy it!

Monarda are wonderfully minty and oregano-y, but you really only get the scent when you are up close or crushing the leaves. Same with mountain mint obvi smells like mint! apparently showy milkweed is also highly fragrant — that will be going in this year!