Accessible Gardening: #21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners, 0 by Amargia

Amargia wrote:
Carrie, in my experience, white and pastels are the most common color for fragrant flowers. Well, the most strongly fragrant flowers anyway. I have never seen my opinion verified anywhere in print, but it is true in my garden and logically it seems like it should be so. Lacking the carotenoides and other pigments to create saturated color to attract pollinators, it makes evolutionary sense white flowers would invest in scent to assure reproductive success. Magnolia, jasmine, gardenia, tuberose, ligustrum, regal lily, deep sea crinum, sweet almond verbena, snakeroot, orange blossom, mock orange and honeysuckle come immediately to mind.

If my theory is valid, red should also rank high on the scent-o-meter since the vision of many pollinators is shifted toward the ultra-violet and they cannot see red.
You should check out those sites with photos of flowers taken with ultra-violet cameras. I\'m told the pix are awesome.
When it truly penetrated my thick skull that flowers were not designed to please gardeners and human passersby, the myriad of colors, scents, textures and shapes began to sort themselves out into their real pattern. Things make more sense when seen from the proper angle. Of course red tubular flowers have no scent. Why should they. They are designed to appeal to hummingbirds and there are only a few birds that have a sense of smell. Hummingbirds are not among that minority.
To save our pollinators and thus our own food supply, we do need to learn to look at flowers from their point of view.
We planned to ship plants out Monday morning. Will you be home for packages next week?
Welcome home, TTC! It is a pity your in-laws did not retire to the coast of Maine. It was not much of a relief from the heat for you and Dave, I\'m guessing? It is sometimes cooler on the Atlantic side of the state, however. I hope those Atlantic and river breezes were there for you. .The writer of the book Jim mentioned in his last post, Paul Theroux, wrote of the \"monumental stillness\" of a Delta summer. That is an apt description of our current conditions. I do prefer working the night shift, but even the nights are heavy and still at times.
Oh, BTW, Stephen Buchmann , the entomologist/author from Tucson AZ says the sequoia cactus bloom has a scent like honeydew melon. ROFL. Considering the size of sequoia cactus, who but a bat, bee or entomologist gets to experience it. sigh.
We put up the solar curtains for the summer. I don\'t want to think too much about what glistening Mylar looks like from the outside. Think of those shiny, silver party balloons in a rustic setting. I will think of the lower cooling bill and how many plants I can buy with the saved money. Blindness does have a few advantages. Out of sight, out of mind. ;-)
k*
I\'ll decorate Kay\'s post for her. This daylily is \'Franz Hals\'. (Jim)