Our panel of experts includes Liv O’Keeffe, communications director for the California Native Plant Society Lucinda McDade, executive director of the California Botanic Garden landscape designers Shawn Maestretti and Leigh Adams of Studio Petrichor Nicole Calhoun, owner of Artemisia Nursery Mike Evans, president and co-founder of Tree of Life Nursery Evan Meyer, executive director of the Theodore Payne Foundation Madena Asbell, director of plant conservation programs, and Jessica Dacey, communications director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust Carol Bornstein, native plant horticulturist and author Mt. And following that are honorable mentions so you can try a few of both. And while they agreed on a few, many of their picks were for different plants, some I’d never heard of, and am now eager to find.īelow is a list of the top 10 vote-getters, most of which are native plant standards every fragrance lover should have in their yards or on their patios. I contacted 13 experts in SoCal’s native plant world, asking for their five favorite-smelling plants, but most sent a list of 10 or more. Native plant fans rave endlessly about their fragrance. I’m not the only one obsessed with these scents. Here are our picks for the best independently owned plant nurseries near Los Angeles. These lean, scrappy plants are rarely as showy as their ornamental cousins, but when it comes to fragrance, they win every award, hands down.įor Subscribers 38 fantastic independent nurseries that SoCal plant lovers will adoreįinding your favorite nursery can be thrilling. It made me happy, it gave me hope, for no good reason I could explain except for the scent.Īnd that, ultimately, is what lured me into the native plant world. I lived in central Washington then surrounded by orchards, and on crisp fall mornings, the thin, candy-sweet smell of ripening apples curled into my being like a drug. It took many more years before I understood the power of fragrance on my mental health. I loved the colors, yes, and their variety and form, but what really hooked me was their smell almost like I could assimilate their grace with one big inhale. But as I lugged the buckets behind her, I’d put my nose in the growing bouquet and breathe in all those scents, some spicy, some rosy and some just honey sweet. My grandmother grew abundant roses as easily as I grow weeds, and I used to follow her in the garden as she cut huge bucketfuls for the cemetery (never for the living I never saw a vase of flowers in her home). I was too busy being googly eyed over show-stopper ornamentals like roses. Full disclosure: I wasn’t always a fan of California native plants because, honestly, I didn’t know anything about them.

Indigo flower scent