Fragrant White Flowering Bushes

You can treat your eyes -- and nose -- to specific evergreen and deciduous landscaping shrubs that produce white flowers throughout much of North America. Species featuring white, aromatic blooms are available for the various U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones. Uses of these shrubs vary, with the larger ones able to serve as specimen plants or in groups while the smaller ones are suitable ground cover, foundation plants and rock gardens.

In USDA zone 3, the purple-leaved sand cherry is a white flowering shrub noted for its cold hardiness. This bush grows to 10 feet tall, making it a possibility for hedges and privacy screens, especially since it features purple foliage. The aromatic flowers emerge in April, eventually yielding purple-black fruit that birds find edible. Another shrub for zone 3 is the American elder, a good fit for wet naturalized areas. It grows to 12 feet high, generating fragrant white blooms and edible berries. Other shrubs for this chilly zone include types such as sweet pepperbush, withered viburnum and tatarian dogwood.

A typical USDA zone 4 winter is too cold to support any broadleaf evergreen shrubs with white fragrant flowers. Deciduous types such as the Sargent crabapple, New Jersey tea and witch alder fit the bill. The star magnolia cultivar Waterlily grows to 12 feet and features extremely fragrant flowers. The white flowers bloom prior to the shrub's leaves emerging in March and April. Use mock orange cultivars such as Snow Velvet and Miniature Snowflake as foundation plants, permitting the aroma of their white flowers to waft into your home via open windows.

Fragrant, white flowers show up on the April Snow and April Dawn, hybrid cultivars of camellia known for their cold hardiness to zone 6b. These shrubs are broadleaf evergreens with dark, shiny green foliage. Another evergreen with white flowers that smells great for zone 6 is the cherry laurel cultivar Otto Luyken, which grows to 10 feet high. Deciduous bushes with these properties for zone 6 include the pineapple broom, European bladdernut and fragrant snowball.

Different cultivars of deciduous shrubs like Fraser photinia, India hawthorn, fragrant olive and Arabian jasmine are suitable for USDA zone 9 landscapes. Winterthur is a smooth viburnum cultivar possessing sweet-smelling white flowers during April and May. Accent your wet areas with this shrub, which grows to 12 feet high. Use the cape jasmine, a type of gardenia shrub, in containers throughout zone 9. This shrub has strongly aromatic white flowers and evergreen leaves; the flowers of the cape jasmine possess a funnel shape.