Small growing alpines with fragrant leaves - suggestions wanted

[Nick]

Hi folks, i grow alpines in troughs and whilst i love fragrant flowers, i also love plants that have fragrant foliage so i can enjoy them through the year.  Any suggestions for fragrant small growers would be most welcome, as seedlist time time will soon be upon us 😉
Thanks
Nick

[Nick]

Found one - Artemisia minor - there must be more……
I have various Pelargoniums and Albuca spp which are pleasantly fragrant, but they arent frost-hardy i think.

[Maggi Young]

Loads of cute little Thymus to give pretty flowers and scented foliage..... need to get brain in gear  for  some  more!

[Tristan_He]

Hi Nick,

Extending the Thymus theme, most of the Lamiaceae have scented foliage. There are some genera with very dwarf forms such as Teucrium, Salvia, Origanum, Scutellaria etc. Most of them need a lot of sun and very good drainage.

On the bulbous front there are lots of dwarf Allium, most of which have scented foliage.

Not really an alpine as such but chamomile is dwarf. I suppose it could be grown in a trough - maybe a good one to underplant with bulbs?

Most Geranium and Erodium also have scented foliage (not as good as Pelargonium admittedly). Though most are too big for a trough, some are dwarf especially the Erodiums.

[Rick R.]

Corsican mint

[Nick]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I need to choose with care as i suspect Corican mint would soon render my troughs a monoculture  - perhaps one for the lawn though.  I also found a few Saxifrages that have aromatic foliage S. vredayana and moncayensis for example, but they are a bit on the big side for a trough i think. 

[Rick R.]

Lucky you with Corsican mint.  It grows ans an annual for me in my cold zone, and a friend nearby tells me that sometimes it survives the winter.  From our point of view, it's hard to believe such a tiny plant could be so thuggish!