At this time of year I just love to go outside and sniff the wonderful autumn scents and aromas. It's such a deeply sensuous time of year; all those leaves to kick in and woody outdoorsy smells.

Talking of smells, I just had the huge displeasure of entertaining Suze and her revolting dog in my kitchen. It's been raining and she insisted on bringing the horrible thing inside - damp dog smell is now all-pervasive.

But let's try and forget about that and think about the future - some nice perfumy smells that will last over winter and into spring - that should cheer us up no end. It's easy of course to ensure a lovely scented garden in the summer, with all those roses and honeysuckles. And in fact, I dot perfumed plants all around the garden, making sure I've got something gorgeously fragrant for every month of the year. But lots of you have said you're not sure what to plant for winter and spring scent.

Of course, I've got my very definite favourites - tops has to be Azalea mollis. It's a small shrub that loses its leaves in winter and looks a bit twiggy, but the yellow funnel shaped flowers in spring are to die for...deeply musky and sensuous...mmm. The foliage looks good in autumn too.

I also love the scented viburnums, especially the beautiful Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn'. It's a lovely deciduous upright shrub which is perfect to squeeze in near a doorway, as from November to early spring it's dotted with fragrant pinky white flower clusters on bare stems.

Daphnes are the most shy and delicate shrubs - but with an overwhelmingly rich and heady scent. Daphne odora is one of my favourites - it's a lovely evergreen shrub with glossy green leaves and very lemony fragrant deep purplish pink and white flowers from midwinter to early spring. Lastly, don't be without Magnolia stellata, the star magnolia. Conjuring up the heady scent of cold face cream, this shapely shrub carries perfect star-shaped flowers in great profusion before coming into leaf in spring.

These are my top four choices of winterand spring shrubs for perfume. Unfortunately they're not cheap to buy, but they'll give you pleasure for years without growing too large for a medium sized garden, and will really clothe your garden beautifully at an otherwise bleak time of year.