Want to Cheer Up a Shady Wall Fast? These 7 Fragrant Climbers Will Quickly Transform a Dull Corner into a Lush Oasis of Color and Scent

Little six-packs of annual starts can add immediate color to a garden bed. But if you want to create a truly immersive landscape, you need more elements than just a spash of color. I’m thinking specifically about height, texture, and fragrance. While a slow-growing magnolia is a lovely long-term investment in bigger yards where time is not an issue, many of us have problem areas in the shade (like shady walls or drab fences, or spots with prying eyes) that need our help right now.

Luckily, there is an easier, faster way to cultivate gorgeous living screens of fragrant color even in shady spots, and that’s by introducing fast-growing fragrant climbing plants. You can grow flowering fragrant climbers for shade that establish super-fast. These evergreen and deciduous vines fill quiet corners with scent, visual decoys for unsightly areas, and pretty screens that keep neighbors at bay. By selecting varieties that prefer or tolerate the cooler, filtered light of a north-facing wall or a dappled corner, you can turn a forgotten space into the most evocative part of your yard.

Planting in May gives these vigorous climbers time to establish their root systems while soil conditions are agreeable. Get these fragrant vines in the ground now, and you’ll soon be enjoying a living tapestry of scent that can add a whole new dimension to growing in the shade. These fast flowering climbers thrive in low light and quickly carpet a humdrum corner with lush color, structure, seclusion, and unforgettable scent. Believe me, before you know it, your yard will be swooning in fragrance…

Choose Fast Growing Fragrance

These fast-growing shade lovers are uniquely adapted to reach for light, and manage an impressive vertical stretch in a single season. These selections excel at concealing unsightly corners like rusted chain-link fences or stained walls. Because many are a mix of hardy perennials and vigorous annuals, they cater to a range of USDA hardiness zones, whether you are looking for evergreen privacy or a lush summer screen that disappears in winter. And as well as being some of the best flowering plants for privacy, these fragrant flowering vines create corridors of exquisite scent from honey-sweet to spicy chocolate.

Before planting these fast growing flowers, enrich your site with organic compost to ensure a moisture-retentive base. Most of the fragrant flowering climbing plants here are heavy drinkers, because they have so much foliage to support. If you’re planting near a house wall, remember the rain shadow, that dry patch of earth against the bricks. Planting vines 12-18 inches (30-45cm) away from the base of the wall ensures they get the hydration and airflow they need to stay lush and mildew-free.

Sort out any supports while your plants are young and there is less risk of damaging roots. And test your soil before sowing or planting, using a meter like the Yamron 4-in-1 Meter from Amazon. If your soil is very clay-based, amend with a little coarse sand or perlite to ensure the site is well draining. So, let’s check out our 7 shade sensations.

1. Poet’s Jasmine

Poet’s jasmine (Jasminum officinale) will grow fast and light up your garden with fragrant white blooms, attracting bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It quickly grows to eventually reach 40 feet (12m) with a spread of up to 15 feet (5m), making this jasmine a champion for high-impact coverage. The flowers are star-shaped clusters that offer a classic, romantic jasmine scent that is most potent at dusk and through the night, perfect for a moonlight garden near a bedroom window or patio. It is known as a vespertine bloomer and is popular with night-flying pollinators.

The plant has a second calling card as well. The gorgeous flowers are edible, and they are often used in teas and desserts. While this easy vertical plant loves sun, in hotter US climates (zones 7-10), it thrives in partial shade. To get the fastest growth, provide a sturdy support from day one. It uses twining stems that need something to wrap around. Prune immediately after flowering to keep it from becoming a tangled mess, and don't let the soil dry out completely, as this halts flower production. Key varieties include chartreuse 'Fiona Sunrise' and buttery 'Clotted Cream' with its dairy fragrance. Pair with dark-leaved heuchera for a stunning contrast to those pretty flowers. Buy Golden Poet’s Jasmine ‘Fiona Sunrise’ as a live plant from Walmart.

2. Common Honeysuckle

I’m crazy about the honeysuckle vine (Lonicera periclymenum) with its lavish cottage garden kudos. It’s the queen of the flowering vines, climbing hand over hand up archways and tree trunks, twining as it goes. Then there’s the heady fragrance, sweet and permeating. Unlike the invasive Japanese variety, the common woodbine (and its cultivars) is a well-behaved addition to the landscape, reaching around 20 feet (6.5m) as it twists and twines with effortless abandon. It is hardy in zones 4-9.

Honeysuckle basks in sun or partial shade, but likes its roots in deep, moist shade. This makes it perfect for a wall where the base is shaded by other shrubs. It blooms in midsummer, with scent levels peaking in the evening and nighttime to attract hawk moths. Apply a thick layer of garden compost in May to lock in moisture, but don't over-fertilize with nitrogen. Lovely varieties include long-flowering purple ‘Serotina’ and honey musk ‘Graham Thomas’ with its copper yellow blooms. For a dreamy dessert scent, try ‘Peaches & Cream’ Honeysuckle from Fast Growing Trees. Grow with clematis (next on our list) as they share the same preference for cool roots.

3. Clematis

Clematis (Clematis spp.) requires something to climb, like a trellis or fence, or it will sprawl in a gorgeous, tangled carpet. This is another majestic bloomer, but while it is associated with large unscented flowers, C. armandii and C. montana smell lovely. C. armandii has evergreen leaves and almond-scented white flowers which appear in early spring. You can find large, purple varieties as well as star shaped, bell, saucer, double and semi-double types. These vigorous growers (hardy in zones 4-8) can cloak a fence in one season, and attract hummers, butterflies and bees.

Most clematis varieties handle partial shade beautifully, especially in the afternoon. Provide a thin support like wire mesh, as clematis climbs by wrapping its leaf stalks around things, so thick fence posts are hard for them to grab without help. Try white flowered 'Sweet Autumn' (a vigorous fall bloomer) or pink 'Elizabeth' (which smells like vanilla fudge). Clematis make lovely companion climbers for climbing roses, as well as hardy geranium ‘Rozanne’ which happily fills the bare legs of older clems. You can buy elegantly fragrant ‘Armandii Snowdrift’ Clematis from Fast Growing Trees for a blanket of stars to illuminate the gloom with a sweet floral scent. These climbers are most potent with a little midday sun.

4. Sweet Peas

Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) are the quintessential fragrant climbing annual and they love trellises and arches (as well as pretty cottage garden ideas like willow teepees). Their fast-growing winged flowers appear in hues of pastel pink, purple, blue, and white with a distinctive scent that is reminiscent of honey and orange blossom and is especially potent in the morning. Hardy in zones 7-10, sweet peas love spring sun, but in many US regions they benefit from afternoon shade to prolong their blooming season all summer long.

Pinch out the growing tips when plants are 6 inches (15cm) high. This forces the plant to branch out, resulting in more flowers and a thicker screen. These climbers require consistent moisture so don’t forget to water your plants. Pick flowers daily to promote further scented blooms, and try not to let seed pods form too soon, or they stop flowering. Try violet and cream ‘High Scent’ and maroon-purple heirloom ‘Matucana’. Pair with pastel-toned nasturtiums for a spill of protective color that keeps aphids from your sweet peas. You can buy ‘Incense Peach Shades’ Sweet Pea Seeds from Burpee for waves of blush, rose, pastel peach, and cream.

5. Chocolate Vine

For something truly unique, the chocolate vine (Akebia quinata) offers rich, burgundy-purple flowers with a spicy chocolate-vanilla scent. The fragrance may not be quite as powerful as some of the other vines, but this choc garden favorite is very moreish. This is a vigorous, semi-evergreen climber that can grow up to 40 feet (12m) in a season, making it one of the fastest privacy screen plants here, with shiny, dark green leaf clusters that create a dense, tropical-looking screen.

Hardy in zones 4-8, this vine is exceptionally shade-tolerant, often performing better in partial shade than full sun. The flowers appear in spring, cascading racemes that evolve into fruits. Be sure to provide a sturdy trellis or frame if not a fence, as this vine becomes heavy over time. Also, bear in mind this is a vigorous grower that will need regular pruning. Great varieties include pinky ‘Silver Bells’ and white ‘Alba’ flowering vines. You can buy Hirt’s Gardens’ Chocolate Vine Live Plants from Walmart. Still, sunny afternoons help to coax out that spicy cocoa aroma.

6. Carolina Jessamine

Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) is perhaps the cheeriest of our clambering shade flowering plants, and they smell just as sweet as they look. Its unique bright yellow flowering trumpets appear from February to May, providing a sweet, clean fragrance that signals the arrival of spring. This native thrives in the south (zones 6-10), but is very adaptable and can handle partial shade well. You can buy Caroline Jasmine from Fast Growing Trees for lush canopies of buttery blooms.

This is an evergreen vine, meaning it provides privacy and greenery even in winter, when it often takes on a bronze hue. It’s a great choice for a boundary fence, trellis or mailbox post, and it can grow to 20 feet (6.8m). Grow double flowering ‘Pride of Augusta’ or cold-hardy 'Margarita' with native coral honeysuckle for a pollinator station that hummingbirds, bees and butterflies are sure to adore. This fragrant climber is most potent in the morning and at midday.

7. Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana)

While technically a short-lived perennial often grown as an annual, nicotiana plant varieties like N. sylvestris can reach a staggering 5-6 feet (1.5-1.8m) in a single season. They produce masses of enchanting pendulous trumpets that emit a heavenly, jasmine-like scent which intensifies at dusk and during the night. Flowering tobacco prefers partial shade, which keeps its large, architectural leaves from wilting in the midday sun. It adds an airy, sophisticated height to the back of a shady border, and the flowers often physically perk up and open wider as the sun sets.

Plant near a patio or seating area to enjoy the evening fragrance. Nicotiana can easily self-seed which means it returns the following year if the soil is undisturbed. Just remember that these fragrant shade dwellers prefer moist, rich soil. Try giant white flowering ‘Only the Lonely’ (N. sylvestris) and violet ‘Perfume Blue’ as well as multi-colored ‘Sensation Mix’ and ‘Lime Green’ Nicotiana Seeds from Eden Brothers. Partner with silver-foliage plants like artemisia and lush purple basil, which helps brighter nicotiana flowers sparkle in the gloom.

Shop Fragrant Climbing Heroes

The sky’s the limit with these gorgeous fast growing flowering vines and climbers, and May is the perfect time to start yours for epic scented stunners. Whether you are looking for the classic floral notes or something more intense and heady, these curated colorful perfume picks will help you reclaim your shady walls in style.

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