Lazy afternoons, dinner outdoors, a bedtime wander outside to breathe the sweet night air? August has to be the month when a garden most needs perfumed plants.
I don’t believe that anything says summer better than common jasmine (Jasminum officinale), which grows to 3-4m. Its clusters of white and pink flowers may not be extravagant to look at, but they are plentiful and pack the warmest of evening punches. It’s a climber to put somewhere near — but not right next to — a path if possible, because for all its virtues it’s a scrambly old thing. I have grown the pale yellow variety ‘Clotted Cream’, and while it smells if the weather is really warm, as a rule it can’t match the
