If you love to laze in water in your backyard, fragranced plants will take your al fresco R&R to a whole new level, whether that's in a pool, hot tub or a garden bathtub. Yes, you read that right, a bathub! For years, I dreamed of having an outdoor bathtub – a secret garden retreat where I could spend evenings soaking peacefully under the stars, immersed in nature with a cold drink and a good book. So, when I spotted an antique cast iron bath online for $50, I snapped it up. It had seen better days and was more shabby than chic, but I sanded down the outside and gave it a coat of Dark Brunswick Green (by Little Greene in Intelligent Exterior Eggshell finish).

Creating a wood-fired tub was a step too far for me so, so whenever I fancied a relaxing garden bathe, I simply ran a hosepipe from a hot tap indoors to fill up the bath. It was so lovely taking long, luxurious baths outside. I listened to tree leaves gently rustling in the breeze, watched bats flit across the sky and allowed the warm water to ease my tired muscles at the end of long days. But I soon realised something was missing: scent.

To take outside bathing to the next level, I needed to plant the area around my tub with perfumed blooms, so I could lie in a mist of floral fragrance.

I set about moving the evergreen shrubs that surrounded the tub, and replaced them with heavenly scented plants to transform my garden bathing space into a spa-like sanctuary.

Whether you have a garden bath like me, or a backyard pool, a hot tub – or even just a restful little corner with a homespun water feature where you like to sit in the evenings – these sweet-smelling plants will be perfect for you, too. The strongest scents are released in the evening of a hot summer’s day, as night falls and the air cools, just at the point your garden beckons you for a well-earned rest. Many night-scented plants intensify their scent production as temperatures drop and humidity rises, conditions that allow molecules to linger rather than drift away rapidly. Some plants are even pollinated by moths, so have evolved evening fragrance to attract them.

Here are the scented flowers I planted around my bathtub, and why you should add them to your garden so you can relax in a sea of blissful scent, too.

1. Honeysuckle

Buried somewhere underneath a vigorous Virginia creeper behind my bathtub is a climbing honeysuckle vine with trumpet-shaped blooms and a sweet, musky fragrance. Strongly perfumed and non-invasive, Lonicera periclymenum ‘Scentsation’ is an absolute joy, and is available from Fast Growing Trees.

My parents had a huge honeysuckle arch in their garden when I was a child, and I have such fond memories of sitting underneath it. It’s strange how the power of scent can do that, in the same way that music can, instantly transporting us to other times and places.

2. Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’

Rose scent varies so much from fruity to floral, lemon-fresh to honey-sweet, you can choose a rose to match your favorite perfume to fill your garden with a scent you already adore. My all-time favorite is English pink shrub rose 'Gertrude Jekyll' from David Austin Roses, named after the famous garden designer and writer Gertrude Jekyll. It has an old-fashioned rose fragrance that’s super-strong and it’s a classic cottage garden plant – one that flowers again and again if you deadhead it regularly and prune it back in late winter.

If I’m feeling particularly romantic, I sometimes pick a rose and sprinkle the fragrant petals in my bath water to elevate my evening soak to the status of a sensuous summer ritual. I'm a firm believer that roses are an essential part of any garden, and another that I’ve been admiring and sniffing in a friend's garden has crept onto my garden wish-list. ‘Jude the Obscure’ is another David Austin rose and it smells deliciously of guava.

3. Mock Orange

Known as Philadelphus, mock orange is an elegant flowering shrub with the most exquisite sweet scent, reminiscent of orange blossom. It grows pretty big – up to 3m high – so it needs plenty of space and it doesn’t flower for very long, but when the creamy white blooms do blossom, the fragrance is so potent that it floats across the whole garden.

Its leaves grow on arching stems which can get a bit unruly, so you’ll need to cut it back every year to stop it taking over. Or be smart and choose a compact dwarf cultivar such as Philadelphus ‘Illuminati Spice’, available from Jackson & Perkins.

4. Jasmine

With clusters of dainty star-like flowers, climbing jasmine creeps and trails all over the fence beside my garden bathtub. This plant loves a warm, sheltered spot with plenty of sun and, although it doesn’t make a huge impact visually, it releases a musky, honey-like perfume every evening which drifts delicately on the air.

There are 200 varieties of jasmine, which is related to lilacs and forsythia. My favorite is common Jasmine (Jasminum officinale) as I find it to be the most heavily scented variety. It climbs really quickly, too, so it’s great for covering an unsightly wall or fence. Star jasmine, also known as confederate jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) is a slower-growing jasmine that's also very fragrant and it thrives in sun or shade; plants are available from Fast Growing Trees.

5. Lavender

Lavender attracts pollinators and looks pretty all summer long, and the scent it emits is immense, too. Inspired by a visit to a lavender farm in the Cotswolds in England, I planted a bushy dwarf English lavender Lavendula Angustifolia ‘Hidcote'. It has silvery-grey foliage and deep-violet flowers plus the most beautiful scent. Because it's right beside my bathtub, I can reach out and squeeze the flowerheads to release an extra burst of fragrance whenever I want.

Lavender contains compounds like linalool and linalyl acetate which lower heart rate, reduce stress and ease anxiety, so breathing in the scent physically helps me relax.

6. Daphne

Beloved by bees and butterflies, daphne is an understated shrub that flowers in the spring and is the first plant to fragrance my bathing area each year. The overwhelming scent is an intense rose-citrus perfume, so powerful that I can often smell Daphne before I even see it.

To prolong the joy, look for reblooming varieties such as ‘Eternal Fragrance', available from Nature Hills, so that blissful scent lasts for as long as possible.

7. Salvia Nachtvlinder

With a strong, sweet, blackcurrant fragrance, I have planted aromatic Salvia x jamensis 'Nachtvlinder' right beside my garden bath to enjoy its fruity scent as I take a relaxing soak. The name means ‘night moth’ in Dutch, which I love – and this plant really does come alive after dark scent-wise, and the fragrance flutters around the whole garden.

Both the dark purple flowers and the leaves of this salvia smell absolutely delicious. Sometimes my feet brush against it when I’m stepping in or out of the tub, which releases even more punchy perfume into the air. The best thing about salvias is they are so easy to take cuttings from, so I now have this salvia in patio pots, in my veg patch and I gift it to friends, too.

This perennial is pretty hard to track down but absolutely worth it, and is stocked by Annie's Annuals & Perennials.