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I should here issue a health warning: if you buy one scented-leaf geranium you will want every single one you can lay your hands on. You will fall hopelessly and headlong in love with their demure but exquisite charms; once you've tried growing the cinnamon-scented one you'll have to have the one which smells of oranges, and then you'll feel life has no meaning without the chocolate peppermint one. That's it: you're lost.

The charms of scented-leaf types are subtle compared with their bright red cousins. Though there are some with larger flowers - 'Copthorne', for example, or 'Orsett' - they're not my favourites; most have tiny, dainty, dancing flowers which I find far more captivating.

The leaves, too, come in some strange shapes and sizes. Lemon-scented Geranium graveolens 'Bontrosai' has wierd-looking scrunched-up leaves clustered in odd green bubbles, and the wide, plate-like leaves of sprawling pepperminty Pelargonium tomentosum are covered in a soft, velvety fuzz.

But it's the heavy, intensely scented oils those leaves contain which go to your head. They start to evaporate in warm weather, or whenever you brush past them (site them by a path to make sure this happens often), or of course when you pick them. You'll find yourself stock still, breathing deeply, eyes closed, in love.

Plant hunter and botanist brought the first one, said to have been the heartbreakingly delicate Pelargonium triste, to the UK from South Africa in the early 1600s. You can just imagine them sparkling daintily in an Elizabethan herb garden.

And in fact scented-leaf geraniums are technically herbs: you can use those leaves in all sorts of things. They make a generous base for pot pourri and perfumes, bath oils and body oils; or you can lace your food with them for fragrant cookies, home-made sorbets and cream.

And here's a mouthwatering idea: perfume your sugar by alternating layers of sugar and scented geranium leaves in a jar. Seal and place in sunlight for a couple of weeks turning occasionally, sift out the leaves and use your perfumed sugar in biscuits, cakes, on fruit or in teas. Nigella, eat your heart out: this is domestic goddessery of which you can only dream.

Top five scented-leaf geraniums to try:

• : probably the most popular variety, rightly so, and best for cooking: small, grey-green leaves with a rich and spicy rose scent.
• P. tomentosum: rather sprawling and lanky, but the leaves are large and velvety-soft with a delicious peppermint scent.
• P. 'Ardwick Cinnamon': clouds of small white flowers over grey-green leaves and a delicious, spicy cinnamon perfum.
• P. triste: the first and still among the best. The dainty flowers are bone-china delicate with chocolate-brown daubs on cream petals; the spicy scent is released in the evening.
• P. 'Prince of Orange': glossy leaves, relatively large flowers in purple-veined pink, and a show-stopping fragrance like a glass of iced orange juice on a hot day.

Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Gardening team.