Rose-scented geranium

Eastern Australian temperate forests

Fynbos shrubland

New Zealand North Island temperate forests

Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude'

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun / Part shade

Water

Moderate water

Spacing

24"

Habit

Bushy, mounding tender evergreen subshrub grown for its rose-scented foliage

Care tips

•

Plant it for the foliage, not the flowers: brush or pinch the leaves to release the rose scent, and harvest leaves freely - regular pinching keeps the plant bushy and is also your kitchen and essential-oil supply.

•

Give it full sun to part shade and let the soil dry between waterings; it is drought- and heat-tolerant once established but rots in heavy, wet, poorly drained soil, so err on the dry side.

•

It is frost-tender (zones 9-11): in colder climates grow it in a pot and bring it indoors to a cool, bright window before the first fall frost, watering sparingly through winter, or treat it as a replaceable warm-season annual.

Lifecycle

Planting

Hardy in the ground only to about USDA zones 9a-11b, so outside those frost-free climates it is planted out as a warm-season annual or kept in a pot. Give it full sun to part shade and average, well-drained soil that is allowed to dry between waterings - it resents heavy, wet ground and rots in soggy soil. In pots use a free-draining mix and a container with good drainage holes. Set plants out only after the last frost once the soil has warmed.

Transplanting

Move hardened-off nursery starts or cuttings out after frost danger passes, spacing them about 24 inches apart, and water in well; once established it prefers to run on the dry side. Container plants are easy to shift indoors and out - bring them in before the first fall frost to overwinter as houseplants in a bright window.

Early growth

Pinch young plants often to keep them branching and compact rather than leggy, and harvest leaves freely - pinching for the kitchen doubles as pruning. Water when the top inch of soil dries; feed only lightly, since rich feeding produces lush leaves with weaker fragrance.

Maturity

Forms a soft, bushy, woody-based subshrub 2 to 4 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide where frost-free, blooming with small insignificant pinkish flowers. Plants get woody and leggy with age; cut them back hard in spring to renew, and in cold climates overwinter container plants indoors in a cool, bright spot, watering sparingly.

Propagation

Propagated almost entirely from softwood or semi-hardwood stem cuttings, which root quickly and easily in moist, free-draining media - this is also how named scented-leaf selections are kept true, since seed does not come true to type. Take cuttings in late summer to carry stock through winter in cold climates.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Autumn-joy stonecrop

A clump-forming herbaceous perennial grown for its showy late-season flower heads: masses of tiny star-like flowers borne in flattened cymes 3 to 6 inches across that emerge rosy pink, deepen to rose-red, and fade to coppery-rust as they die. Gray-green, fleshy, succulent-like leaves form upright clumps to about 24 inches. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant and attracts butterflies, and its foliage and dead inflorescences persist into winter for added interest.

Chrysanthemum x morifolium

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Garden mum

The classic fall-flowering "garden mum" - a compact, clump-forming herbaceous perennial in the daisy family, grown for a prolific late-season flush of showy flowers from September to frost in shades of white, yellow, orange, bronze, purple, and red. A complex hybrid of five Chinese species, not native to North America; widely sold as a one-season annual but hardy in the ground roughly zones 5-9. Deer- and rabbit-resistant, and a welcome late-season nectar source when little else is blooming.

The classic white-and-yellow garden daisy - a clump-forming herbaceous perennial bearing showy single flower heads of white ray florets around a yellow central disc from midsummer into fall. A garden hybrid bred by Luther Burbank in the 1890s near snow-covered Mt. Shasta in northern California, it grows 2 to 3 feet tall and is a mainstay of the perennial border, cottage garden, and cutting garden. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant, attracts butterflies, and is resistant to deer and rabbit browsing.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Leucanthemum × superbum

Shasta daisy

Easter lily reaches most people the way almost nothing else in this catalog does: as a forced gift plant in a foil-wrapped pot, in full white trumpet in March or April, months before its real season. Left to itself in a garden Lilium longiflorum flowers in July and August, and Missouri Botanical Garden files it under the plainer name trumpet lily. Everything about the pot version is engineered - bulbs lifted in autumn from a narrow strip of the California and Oregon coast, cooled, potted, held under a temperature schedule that lands the buds on a date that moves by up to five weeks a year, and kept short with growth retardants. That is why the plant you were given is 16 to 20 inches tall and the same plant in the ground is 2 to 3 feet. The single most important sentence in this record is not horticultural. This is the species behind the veterinary literature on feline lily poisoning: every part of it, including the pollen and the water in the vase, causes acute kidney injury in cats, less than one leaf can be enough, and untreated cases die in 36 to 72 hours. It is also the lily that enters houses in quantity, which is the whole problem. If there is a cat in the house, this plant does not come in the door. Beyond that, be clear about what it is not. It is not a hardy garden bulb in the way the regal lily in this wave is - Missouri Botanical Garden rates it zone 4 to 8, which is the most generous number in circulation for a subtropical island endemic, and much US extension guidance says 5 to 8. It is not a widespread wild species either: Kew's native range is the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, southern Japan and the Philippines, and nothing else. A globally traded flower with a natural range you could drive across in a day.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Lilium longiflorum

Easter lily

A bold, clump-forming evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for big rounded umbels of trumpet-shaped blue (or white) flowers held on tall bare stalks above arching, strap-shaped leaves in mid-to-late summer. It is widely sold as "lily of the Nile," but that is a misnomer - the plant is South African (the Cape provinces and KwaZulu-Natal), not from the Nile. Spectacular and easy in warm climates, this evergreen Agapanthus is frost-tender, so in cold-winter areas it is grown in a container and overwintered under cover. The RHS has given several Agapanthus praecox forms its Award of Garden Merit and rates this evergreen species half-hardy (H3 - needs winter protection).

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Agapanthus praecox

African lily

Hylotelephium 'Herbstfreude'

Autumn-joy stonecrop

A clump-forming herbaceous perennial grown for its showy late-season flower heads: masses of tiny star-like flowers borne in flattened cymes 3 to 6 inches across that emerge rosy pink, deepen to rose-red, and fade to coppery-rust as they die. Gray-green, fleshy, succulent-like leaves form upright clumps to about 24 inches. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant and attracts butterflies, and its foliage and dead inflorescences persist into winter for added interest.

Scadoxus multiflorus, the blood lily (also fireball lily, ball lily, powderpuff lily), is a summer-growing bulbous geophyte in the Amaryllidaceae, native across tropical and southern Africa to the southwestern Arabian Peninsula. Each bulb sends up a leafless stem topped by a dramatic globe-shaped umbel of scarlet flowers with protruding stamens, often before or alongside the foliage. It is a focal-point container and bedding bulb prized for its bold flower head, but it is decidedly tender - RHS rates it H1B (minimum 50 to 59°F), so outside roughly USDA zones 9b–11 it must be grown under glass or as a houseplant and dried off / overwintered frost-free. CRITICAL CAUTION: every part is toxic - Scadoxus contains poisonous alkaloids and has been used as a component of arrow and fishing poisons; the bulbs are ornamental, not edible, and the plant is harmful to people, pets, and grazing animals if ingested. Handle with gloves and keep away from children and animals.

A bold, clumping rhizomatous perennial grown for its elegant, pure-white funnel-shaped flowers - actually a curved spathe wrapped around a yellow finger-like spadix - held on tall stems above large, glossy, arrow-shaped deep-green leaves from late winter into summer. Native to the wetlands and seeps of southern Africa, Zantedeschia aethiopica is the classic florist's calla and a striking water-margin and container plant, thriving in consistently moist to wet rich soil in full sun to part shade. It is tender (hardy in zones 8a-10b), where it overwinters in the ground and can be near-evergreen; colder gardeners grow it from lifted rhizomes or under heavy mulch. Two cautions are load-bearing: every part is toxic if eaten (calcium-oxalate raphides), and in mild, wet climates it can escape and naturalize into an invasive weed.

Zantedeschia aethiopica

Calla lily

The classic clove-scented carnation, a short-lived evergreen perennial in the pink family grown for centuries for its frilled, spice-fragrant double flowers and tidy mounds of narrow blue-gray foliage. Native to the Mediterranean region, it thrives in full sun and lean, sharply drained, neutral-to-alkaline soil with steady but never soggy moisture, and is hardy in USDA zones 6a-9b. It is the florist's carnation and the parent of countless border and perpetual-flowering strains, prized as much for cutting as for the garden.

Dianthus caryophyllus

Carnation

A tuberous-rooted member of the aster family native to Mexico and Central America, grown for showy summer-to-fall blooms in nearly every color except blue. Hybrids in commerce span ten flower-form groups (single, anemone, collarette, waterlily, decorative, fall, pompon, cactus, semi-cactus, and miscellaneous) and range from 1 to 6 feet tall. Winter-hardy only to USDA Zones 7-10; in colder regions the tubers are lifted in fall and stored frost-free, so most North American gardeners grow it as a summer annual.