Hydrangea paniculata may not be blooming yet there, but Hydrangea quercifolia is.

Hmm, so I guess it was down to Baccharis neglecta, salicifolia, salicina, or halimifolia. But, the leaves of Baccharis salicina look too wide. Baccharis pilularis (top), salicina (middle), salicifolia (bottom) So, this led most likely to Baccharis salicifolia. Just refreshing this debate because I found another similar specimen today with very narrow leaves (almost like Rosemary):

Some crab apples are very fragrant -- dolgo, for example. And don't forget the marvelous family of linden trees. Check out the rose forum for fragrant hardy shrub roses -- one called Quietness is much liked by people over there. I think it is fragrant. The rugosa roses are also very fragrant as are some of the old roses, such as stanwell perpetual. Clethra is a fragrant shrub for the month of August. I also think bayberry smells very nice, and the bayberry relative comptonia peregrina, which looks like a fern. You could also try the hayscented fern, a true fern, and some of the herbal plants, such as the mints and sweet woodruff (though they can be weedy), camomile and thyme. Then there is lily of the valley -- more of a ground cover than a shrub, but a very welcome one. Also not shrubs -- in the cooler states, lilies grow very well and some of them are wonderfully fragrant. The speciosums bloom late. A lot of the fragrant plants are early bloomers, but not phlox, which blooms in July and August. There are also some fragrant asters and chrysanthemums and one or two very fragrant hostas, such as plantaginea and Aphrodite. Dianthus, a perennial is also very fragrant. And there is the bulb, lycoris squmigera. And annual flowers such as four-o-clocks and nicotiana. A few of the daylilies are fragrant, such as the lemon lily, and some, like Hemerocallis citrina, are fragrant at night. I like the fragrance of Buddleia "Cornwall Blue" and of Caryopteris. The thing to do is look around and see what grows well and smells sweet in your own neighborhood and then try to get some of that.

The stems and leaves are the same throughout, so I don't think there has been any grafting... The stems don't die off after the first blooming; the same stems bloom a second time in yellow... I'll check out the plant names suggested to see if they look similar to the mystery plant. I've also posted the message in the plant ID forum (thanks for that wonderful suggestion.. I didn't see that forum!) I couldn't upload the pic I have to the message, so I've included the link to my personal pic page... Thanks for all the help! ~ Julia Here is a link that might be useful: Mystery Fragrant Plant