Star Jasmine

Star jasmine is the plant I'd recommend to anyone building a seating area and wanting it to smell like a holiday. Train it over a pergola or against a warm wall near a bench, and from June onwards those clusters of small, pinwheel-shaped white flowers will fill the evening air with a perfume that's rich, sweet, and unmistakably jasmine — but warmer, deeper, and more complex than true jasmine. It smells like a Mediterranean terrace in a bottle.

Trachelospermum jasminoides isn't actually jasmine — it's a member of the Apocynaceae family, related to periwinkle. But the scent is so jasmine-like that the common name has stuck, and honestly, if a plant smells this good, it can call itself whatever it likes. The fragrance intensifies in warm evening air, which is perfect for the way most of us use our gardens in summer — sitting outside after the heat of the day, with a glass of something cold.

The flowers are small but produced in generous clusters against glossy, dark evergreen foliage. In mild winters, the leaves take on a coppery-bronze tint that's attractive in its own quiet way. The plant is a neat, well-behaved twiner that won't rip your trellis apart, which makes it a far more civilised choice than some climbers I could mention.

It needs a warm, sheltered wall in most of Britain — south or west-facing, out of cold winds. Given that protection, it's surprisingly tough. Mine has survived minus eight without complaint. The warmth of the wall is key — it needs that stored heat to produce flowers generously. But when it does flower, leaning back in a chair and breathing in that scent as the sun goes down — that's what a garden is for.