Thinking about nice smelling trees (and satsumas), what about bitter lemons (poncirus)? Do they offer more or less the same scent as other citrus up into zone 6?
My favorite smelling fruit tree so far is my ‘Guthrie’ chickasaw plum. For comparison, I haven’t even noticed the scent of my European plums, but the Guthrie is very noticeable and very nice.
calamondin citrus might do well in zone 6, and their topnotch blossoms fill the air with fragrance.
I’d say citrus have the most fragrant among trees—trees which also bear edible fruit. Jujube blossoms rank second in my opinion. The three most popular jujus also happen to have the sweetest smelling flowers among jujus: li, honeyjar, and sugarcane. Smells of sweet grape julep.
There’s an old song that sometimes sticks in my head, “Lemon tree very pretty, and the flower it is sweet, but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.”
Hm… Interesting enough.
I have 2 out of 3 Asian pears bloom their heads off last week but I don’t recall smelling anything when walked by. It’s too late now, maybe I’ll have to try that next year.
Talking about best smelling tree blossom, does tree peony count? They’re notoriously slow grower but the payback is awesome displays of their flowers.
I have some blooms for the first time this morning after 3, 4 years of planting though still in juvenile stage. And I thought that the fragrance is heavenly sweet! Imagine when it’s fully grown out covers in blossoms in spring!
Beautiful. Does your tree peony have a cultivar name?
The variety is called “Ru Fu Rong”. I forgot where I bought that from, probably Cricket Hills in Connecticut.
Well you got me @speedster1! Now im the proud owner of 3 Sweetshrubs (Carolina Allspice). Found them available in ebay and couldnt resist. I have two huge weaknesses when it comes to plants, fragrant plants and fruiting plants. I wont plant anything that isnt one or the other. Now to see if they can stand low humidity and heat. 
Very cool. Please keep us posted on how they do for you in that hot arid environment. Hopefully you are able to soon smell the wonderful fragrance.
