Sitting outside on warm nights is hopefully more for you than being eaten alive by mosquitoes; summer is full of the fragrance of many flowers to combat the smell of mozzie repellent.

The great thing about pots is that you can move them around to suit the seasons or even better, place them around the garden to stop your dog from lying on your plants.

Using fragrant climbers is also a way of getting perfume around the garden and there are many summer-flowering climbers that can be trained to fit the spaces that surround your outdoor living areas.

Here is a selection of a few all-time favourites:

1. Ipomoea alba — moonflower, one of the most beautiful climbers which has massive white flowers the size of dinner plates. The flower slowly opens as the sun sets and takes about a full minute to open. Every kid should have one.

2. Jasminum azoricum — lemon-scented jasmine with star-shaped white flowers on a very hardy climber. Flowers on and off all year, but in summer is covered in blooms.

3. Jasminum sambac — Arabian jasmine thrives in warm tropical climates. It has large white flowers and grows to only 1m high. It is suitable for pots, as it needs watering in summer every second day.

4. Lonicera heckrottii — L. Americana is a honeysuckle similar to the Firecracker type, with rosy purple tubes that open out to white, pink and golden yellow flowers. It is a vigorous grower (up to 3x6m) but does not sucker.

5. Mandevilla laxa — known as Chilean jasmine, has pure white flowers and is the hardiest of the mandevillas. It grows to 3m high.

TIP: If you want to get calcium into high-alkaline soils use dolomite lime, which is slower acting and has magnesium.

 

© The West Australian

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