Winter’s short, dark days don’t give us much time to enjoy our gardens, but planting a sweetly scented winter-flowering shrub in your front yard will deliver a plant-based mood boost every time you return home. Fall is the perfect time to add one to your garden as plants will have time to settle their roots into the ground before it’s time to bloom. And then – ahhh! On crisp winter days, the air will be full of fragrance, and you’ll want to stop for a moment to breathe it in.

All these scented shrubs are great picks for a front yard because, as well as brightening dismal winter days with glorious fragrance, they'll boost your home's curb appeal. They’re all very easy to grow, don’t need much in the way of care, and look good year-round. Just enrich the ground with a few spade-fulls of compost such as Back to the Roots Organic Compost, available from The Home Depot, when you plant them, add a further 2-inch layer of compost on top of the soil to act as a mulch to keep roots cozy through their first winter, and water during dry fall spells, and they’ll thrive.

Whether you favor the scent of comforting vanilla or sweet honey, gloriously floral perfumes or fresh and spicy aromas, there’s a winter-flowering shrub to suit. So, if you're wondering what to plant in October, start right here because growing a garden then smells good is just as important as one that looks good! Which of these scented front-yard shrubs will you plant this fall to cheery you through chilly winter days?

1. Daphne Odora

The name of this fabulous shrub announces its best asset: an incredible scent that’s intensely floral yet has citrus undertones with a hint of spice that stops it from becoming cloying. Daphne shrubs had a reputation for being finicky plants to grow, until ‘Perfume Princess’ came along and put these shrubs on the must-have list, even for beginner gardeners. It’s hassle-free, boasts flowers that are four times as big as traditional varieties, and blooms earlier and for longer, all the way from January to May.

Unlike most Daphne that only flower on branch tips, it also produces its blush-pink and white flowers all the way down its stems once established. And yes, that means lots more of that lovely fragrance.

Princess Perfume daphne, available from trees.com, grows well in full sun or partial shade in zones 7-11. It’s a winner for a front yard because it naturally grows into a dense, rounded shape around three feet high and wide without the need for frequent pruning, and is evergreen for year-round good looks.

2. Winter Scented Sweetbox

Sarcococca are hardy evergreen shrubs that lift the darkest of winter days with a sweet, honey-like fragrance, often with a comforting vanilla layer – the kind of smell that makes you take a deep breath and relax. These easy-to-grow plants perfume the air all around them with flowers in late winter and spring followed by highly ornamental berries, adding year-round curb appeal. They thrive in partial to full shade, making them a useful option for a tricky dark corner in zones 6-9.

There’s a sweetbox variety to suit every front yard. Fragrant Valley sweetbox, available from trees.com and flowering from late December is a great fit for most front yards because you can grow it as a low-maintenance groundcover, as it only reaches 2 feet high and 3 feet wide. Extend the aromatic experience with the newly introduced Sweet & Lo sweetbox, also available from trees.com and making great groundcover, as this flowers slightly later from February to March with bright pink tips to its white blooms.

If your front yard is short on space then Monrovia sweetbox, available from Lowe’s, can be grown flat up against a wall or fence, forming an attractive cloak of glossy evergreen leaves up to five feet high and wide but easily kept smaller. It flowers from December through March and though the blooms are tiny, their warm perfume carries up to 20 feet.

3. Witch Hazel

If you’ve got room to play with in your front yard, then witch hazel is a highly fragrant choice. The varieties with yellow flowers are far more fragrant than those with orange or red blooms, and Hamamelis x intermedia 'Arnold Promise’ is my standout choice for a scented front-yard showstopper. Highly aromatic with a sweet floral fragrance that carries well through crisp cold air, this pretty vase-shaped shrub (you can grow it as a small tree, too) flowers from late December to March, peaking in February – and we all need cheering up in February!

Hardy in zones 5-8, its ribbon-like blooms last for weeks, curling up during severe freezes then unfurling again as temperatures rise. Blooming on bare branches, it’s quite a sight on snowy days. Deciduous Arnold Promise witch hazel, available from Plant Addicts, has pretty fall foliage, too, and grows to 6-8 feet high though is easy to keep smaller by pruning right after the flowers fade. As long as it has its basic needs met in a spot with at least 5 hours of sun a day and neutral-to-acidic soil (it struggles in chalky soils with a pH above 7), witch hazel is a low-maintenance choice and drought-tolerant once established.

4. Japanese Andromeda

Also known as Japanese pieris, Japanese andromeda aren’t all fragrant but there’s one variety that will light up dark winter days with a wonderful perfume: Pieris japonica ‘Dorothy Wycoff’. Its fragrance is rich yet clean, reminiscent of lily of the valley and a promise that spring is on its way.

Though it doesn’t flower till March, its reddish-purple buds form in summer and sit on the stems all through autumn and winter among the evergreen leaves. So it’s a joy as winter turns to spring to watch the buds expanding then bursting into cascades of bell-shaped blooms. Plant one of these beauties in your front yard and I wager you’ll be checking on bud progress every day you arrive home!

Dorothy Wycoff andromeda, available from Plant Addicts, flourishes in zones 5-8 and though it’s capable of growing to 5-7 feet high and wide, is easily kept smaller and can even be grown in a container.

5. Winter-Flowering Viburnum

There are over 150 species of Viburnum, and among them sit some that bring intense fragrance to cold winter days. An excellent choice for a front yard is Viburnum farreri ‘Nanum’, commonly known as dwarf fragrant viburnum. Extremely low-maintenance, this dwarf viburnum is compact and naturally rounded, and although it can reach 2-4 feet high and wide, it grows incredibly slowly so there’s no need for heavy pruning. Hardy in zones 5-8, dwarf fragrant viburnum thrives in full sun to partial shade.

The strength of its perfume belies its small frame, however. And what a scent! The base is warm with almond and vanilla, like walking into a bakery, cut with a spicy dash of clove. The aroma can hang in the air on still winter days, and snipping a single flowering stem to bring inside will fragrance a whole room.

Dwarf fragrant viburnum, available from Nature Hills, takes a little time to settle into a new home, so for the first year you can expect it to bloom lightly in late winter and early spring. But once this shrub matures and has grown its roots deep into the ground, it can flower intermittently from October all the way through to March. It doesn’t open all its buds at once but bursts into bloom during mild spells then pauses when temperatures plummet, producing another cluster when the weather improves. Because this little shrub is deciduous, the flower show is all the more beautiful because it happens on bare branches.

Adding a fragrant winter-flowering shrub to your front yard in fall is such a smart move to cheer you through to spring. And it's not just you who will be pleased – their intoxicating scent makes all these shrubs easy for early-flying pollinators to find.