Sarcococca is the obvious choice if you don't mind all the fragrance occurring in winter. Mine tend to stay at 2 feet high and sprawl out wider over time, this in deep shade.

What part of WA?

Yeah I have Daphnes covered, have some of those around, that is about the only fragrant evergreen I've tried that I've been able to keep alive.

I live in Puyallup, WA (suburb of Tacoma and Seattle).

My Sarcococca isn't very fragrant :( I keep adding more daphnes

Some folks may not have fragrant sweet box, but when happy it will fill the bill during a part of the year that is not that fragrant...

Dan

I wanted to find a replacement for Gardenia that would flower in summer. The Daphnes do well for early spring fragrance. I have a lot of deciduous trees/shrubs around which makes things look bleak in the long winter and really need more evergreen shrubs and love fragrance.

Puyallup really isn't far enough out there to be USDA 7. If you don't get below 10 degrees F. over and over (frequently), you should be able to grow plants labeled Zone 8 at nurseries for long periods - depending on what basis was used for designating each item Zone 8. If they're calling it a Zone 8 plant because it kills back at 20 degrees F., then different story.

Gardenias in this area are for people that live closer to the water than Puyallup. A sheltered nook, on a hot wall in a mild neighborhood.

bboy: based on plants I've lost in our Puyallup winters that say hardy to zone 7, I'm not trusting that at all anymore, sorry to disagree with you. My zip code comes up as zone 7, I didn't make it up.

Frost Proof Gardenia is a prime example, Monrovia Nursery says hardy to zone 7, ha! I had all 5 of them die this winter planted under all different kinds of places on my lot.

http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/1502/frostproof-gardenia.php

So can anyone recommend fragrant evergreen shrubs that bloom in summer that are in the 2'-3' size and are hardy to zone 6?

Now that summer's in the mix, I'm out of ammo.

It totally sucks that all 5 Frost Proof Gardenia rated to zone 7 (mine) died because it satisfies all of the criteria and I LOVE the smell of Gardenia. I've tried the other suppsoedly hardy gardenias in past and all died so I'm done with gardenias, thrown away too much $$ on them to have nothing as a result.

Just want to say that I too wasn't able to get any gardenias survived in Auburn.

Hardy gardenias are very tricky plants to grow here well regardless of your location. As bboy points out, they need a pretty sheltered location and/or specific microclimate. Like some other plants - Loropetalum comes to mind - I think they need more summer heat than we typically generate to ripen growth sufficiently to be considered fully hardy in this area.

If you like daphnes, then why not try a summer blooming daphne? I find them much easier to grow than Daphne odora or cneorum and they produce a similar, very intense jasmine-like fragrance. Daphne x transatlanica 'Summer Ice' or 'Eternal Fragrance' will produce flowers intermittently throughout summer and into early fall. Other choices are D. tangutica or xburkwoodii 'Carol Mackie' or 'Somerset', but I haven't found these to offer as long a bloom season as the previous two.

Zip code zone finders always put me in Zone 7, too. I'm less that 1/4 mile from Puget Sound. Zone 7 is the hills etc. well east of here. Look at a USDA map. Learn how to understand what the USDA zones are based on. Zone 7 is

average

annual

minimum

temperatures between 0 and 10 degrees F. That means that you get down below 10 often enough to make your average between 0 and 10.

In this case your 15 year average, during a specific 15 year period.

Check this out. Even shows Puyallup.

Here is a link that might be useful: Washington Interactive USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

bboy: you're not listening to me. I wouldn't care if it said I'm in zone 10 because I've had plants such as the Frost Proof Gardenia die in my zone despite them saying they're hardy in zone 7. Therefore I'm trying to be a bit more conservative and find plants that say they're hardy to zone 6 so I can stop killing plants and wasting money. Obviously something about where I live is tough on plants (I'm at 500' elevation and much of Puyallup is much lower elevation, those maps aren't going to take that into consideration so relying completely on those maps doesn't make sense).

gardengal: I'm really glad you brought up Daphne x transatlanica 'Summer Ice' or 'Eternal Fragrance', I planted both of these last fall, they have both lost most of their leaves, not sure if I should worry about this as I've had this happen sometimes with Daphne Odora yet had them leaf out in the summer. I'll look into D. tangutica or xburkwoodii 'Carol Mackie' or 'Somerset', not familiar with those at all, thanks for the suggestion.

I didn't say to rely completely on maps.

"You're not listening to me" etc. = over and out for me, I've already spent to much time on you.

I didn't realize the D. in D. tangutica is Daphne, I looked them up they look like variations on the Daphnes I already have.

Should I be worried that my Summer Ice and Eternal Fragrance lost a lot of their leaves this winter? or are they likely to bounce back this spring/summer like my Daphne Odoras have done some winters?

Not to worry :-) These are usually considered to be "semi-evergreen" and typically lose a lot of leaves in winter.....the harder the winter, the more they lose. Mine have been pretty much bare naked a time or two and come back to leaf out fully and bloom like crazy.

I love my Daphne x transatlanica 'Summer Ice'.It blooms for an extremely long time and has that wonderful daphne fragrance though it doesn't throw it across the yard like D. odora and cneorum.

I had my hardy gardenia up against the cement stoop and wall of the house facing South, should have been an ideal microclimate for it but it died anyway.